As part of the exhibition program, students from the Environmental Interventions class at the HfbK Hamburg, led by Prof. Duk Hee Jordan, were invited to present their work at the St. Nikolai Memorial. Accompanied by a workshop with Katja Lonzeck, the workshop director for sustainability, and under the artistic mentorship of Mariechen Danz, the students explore the exhibition’s themes from both an environmental perspective and through queer practice. Using site-specific installations and performances, heat and energy are explored as fundamental forces with destructive potential, yet also understood as the basis of life and as elements deeply rooted in rituals and spirituality. The intervention examines how heat and the transformative power of fire can also be utilized, valued, and shared as a collective source of energy. As part of a five-hour intervention, the memorial site surrounding the main exhibition will be brought to life through performances and temporary installations.
With works by Nele Borchert, Elena Bulycheva, Milo Dillenschneider, Bahar Ensafi, Emmylou Fertschai, Elisa Gonschior, Marlene Kargl, Nadiia Mykhailiuk, Julia Quitmann, Xen Roscher, Merle Richter, Bente Steffens, Cathrin Zumhasch
FIRE. From the Cosmos to the Commons at the St. Nikolai Memorial
Curated by Joanna Warsza, City Curator Hamburg
Exhibition: 21.6. – 21.9.2026
FIRE is the second exhibition in the City Curator series From the Cosmos to the Commons: Five Years – Five Elements. The series focuses on the elemental forces of Cosmos (2025), Fire (2026), Air (2027), Earth (2028), and Water(2029), dedicating one year to each. Together, they invite us to look toward the horizon of a planetary public sphere, guided by a sense of the "not-yet", a felt awareness of what might emerge. The project takes place at the St. Nikolai Memorial, a former church in the heart of Hamburg that was twice destroyed by fire during its history. Never rebuilt after World War II, it is now a site of remembrance and encounter, linking the memory of destruction and irreparable loss with hope and a collective will to repair. In this context, the contemporary artworks function as “unrehearsed encounters,” reflecting on how to break the cycle of destruction and renewal and move toward forms of planetary coexistence grounded in care, justice, and nonviolence.
