In an interactive walk through the exhibition FIRE. From the Cosmos to the Commons at the St. Nikolai Memorial, Natalya Stupka will provide insights into and discuss the works on view.
Followed by the artist talk by Mark Morris about his artwork The Chain Reaction, a site-specific sculpture connecting to Alfred Nobel's presence in Germany and to his laboratory in Geesthacht, near Hamburg, where the invention and distribution of dynamite took place from 1867. Symbolically, it brings forth the duality of materials that can both create and reshape our world.
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.
