Our summer 2026 Public Art exhibition FIRE. From the Cosmos to the Commons in collaboration with the St. Nikolai Memorial is dedicated to the element of Fire, the apocalypse and the repair. FIRE presents a series of public art commissions of both Hamburg-based as well as the international artists, dealing with the political, ecological, and spiritual reading of fire in the times of political urgency. It addresses the current pervasive feeling of impending catastrophe, asking, how to turn poison into medicine, confusion into strength, loss into renewal and resilience.

The exhibition takes place at the St. Nikolai Memorial; a former church located in the heart of Hamburg and destroyed by flames two times in its history. Never rebuilt after the World War II, it is now a place of remembrance and encounter, offering a space to learn about what causes wars. Each day, it welcomes thousands of visitors, linking the memory of destruction and the irreparable damage with hope and the collective will to mend. In that context the contemporary works of Public Art, presented in the most democratic, accessible and complex manner, ask how to find a way out from the vicious cycle of destruction and renewal towards a non-violent planetary co-existence.

Curated by Joanna Warsza, City Curator Hamburg