From Thursday, August 14, to Sunday, September 14, 2025, Karlsruhe will once again become a platform for contemporary media art: The UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts Karlsruhe presents the exhibition Media art is here and brings ten artistic works directly into public spaces. Visitors will encounter works by international and regional artists on streets, squares, and in green areas. The goal of the free-to-access exhibition is to make media art immediately experienceable for a broad public and to promote exchange between art, the city, and society.
Low-Threshold Accessibility
“With Media art is here, we create cultural participation in the best sense: The exhibition brings media art free of charge into public spaces and gives all residents of Karlsruhe as well as our guests the opportunity to experience it directly and without barriers. This low-threshold accessibility is a central building block of civic participation in our UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts,” says Karlsruhe’s Mayor Dr. Frank Mentrup.
In addition to the exhibition, free guided bike tours will again be offered, providing deeper insights into the backgrounds as well as the technical and artistic approaches of the works. The tours will take place on Thursdays, August 28 at 7 p.m., September 4 at 7 p.m., and September 11 at 5 p.m., each lasting approximately 1.5 hours.
Works by Javier Argota Sánchez-Vaquerizo, Manfred Juretzko, Arturo Romero Carnicero, ato (Hannah Cooke, Jannik Lang, and Norina Quinte), Jihye Jang, Benjamin Jantzen, Chiharu Koda, JeongHo Park, Sierk Schmalzriedt, Lehel Lajos, Daniela Vargas, Alessandro Lupi, Maxin10sity, Dennis Siering, and Julijonas Urbonas will be exhibited.
A Joint Statement for Media Art
The exhibition is organized by the Karlsruhe’s Department of Cultural Affairs in cooperation with the ZKM | Center for Art and Media and the Karlsruhe Marketing and Event Company (KME). It is part of the Kunst | Sommer | Technik event series by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Media art is here complements the Schlosslichtspiele Light Festival, together making a shared statement for media art in Karlsruhe.
Further information about the exhibited works, locations, guided tours, and participating artists is available online at www.cityofmediaarts.de.
Creative City of Media Arts
In 2019, Karlsruhe was designated by UNESCO as the first and so far only city in Germany to receive the title “Creative City of Media Arts.” Within the international UNESCO Creative Cities Network, Karlsruhe collaborates with over 40 partner institutions to promote sustainable urban development with a focus on creativity and culture.