Program
of lectures
Art & Place Conference
Saarbrücken 2025
Lectures take place at the auditorium of Historical Museum Saar, right above the exhibition “ILLEGAL”. You can use the breaks to visit the show.
The closing panel is hosted by Kino Achteinhalb on the Saturday evening, in connection to the screening of the documentary “Here and Not Elsewhere”.
In addition to the lectures, four contributions from Australia, India and Europe will be presented in poster format at the lobby of HBKsaar State Academy of Arts.
Highlight talks
The program features 20 speakers from Europe, America and Australia including keynote Joey Skaggs*, one of the founders of culture jamming, as well as Barrett Zinn Gross aka Vandal, legendary 1970s New York subway sprayer, and nine presenters from our well-received Call for Papers.
Other highlight guest speakers include Berlin-based curator and cultural scientist Lutz Henke, who will delve into his first-person experience around the mural infamously self-censored by Blu in response to the gentrification of Kreuzberg.
We are happy to extend our conversation into the field of outsider art, both in our film program —with the screening of “Written in Chalk”— and in a panel with German psychologist and art historian Thomas Röske, director of the unique collection of Art Brut housed by the Heidelberg University Hospital, and Art & Place’s own KP Flügel, who will talk about outsider public art icons Oz and Eiffe.
A special closing panel
Our closing panel on Saturday evening gathers a world-class roster of curators and culture managers from the field overlapping street art, public art and museum work. Joining us from Australia is Lachlan MacDowall, who curated the unprecedently-scaled public art project Flash Forward for the City of Melbourne.
Frank Krämer will present his experience as curator of the long-running Urban Art Biennale at the Völklinger Hütte UNESCO World Heritage Site, just ten kilometres from Saarbrücken. Also close to the city is Nancy, where the exhibition “Aerosol: Une Historie du Graffiti” will be on show during the conference. Curators Patrice Poch and Nicolas Gzeley will present the travelling project.
The specialised French presence in the panel is completed with David Demougeot, founder of the acclaimed festival Bien Urbain, and with independent curator and director of Le Grand Jeu Christian Omodeo.
(*) Due to special circumstances, Joey Skaggs will be joining us remotely for his presentation.
Friday May 2nd
HISTORICAL MUSEUM SAAR
SCHLOSSPLATZ 15
10AM—4PM
10am
Welcome coffee
10:20am | Opening talk
With KP Flügel, Javier Abarca and Ulrich Blanché
10:30am | Panel
✦ Abstract paintings on trains
Chair: Susan Hansen (UK)
➔ Nicolas Ciarlone (DE): Tracing (on) linear spaces: Dialogues with the railway infrastructure
➔ Luca Giacosa (IT): Forget me
11:15am | Discussion
➔ Mariia Korneeva (RU): Female (street) gaze: How women shape the cityscapes in Russia
Chair: Ilaria Hoppe (AT)
12pm
Lunch break
1pm | Launch
✦ Art & Place Magazine
With editor Javier Abarca (ES) and author Mathieu Tremblin (FR)
1:15pm | Keynote
➔ Joey Skaggs (US): Ephemeral interventions: Public space as a canvas for art and activism
Chair: Susan Hansen (UK)
2pm
Coffee break
2:30pm | Talk
➔ Voica Pușcașiu (RO): The perverse institutional use of street art against the Roma population in Romania
3pm | Panel
✦ Street art and gentrification
Chair: KP Flügel (DE)
➔ Lutz Henke (DE): The case of the self-censored Blu mural in Kreuzberg
➔ Anna Mirjam Liley (DE): Gentrification in Hamburg Sternschanze
Exhibition opening
AUTOMAT
MARTIN-LUTHER-STR. 7–9
7pm till late
✦ OX (FR): Interlocks
Saturday May 3rd
HISTORICAL MUSEUM SAAR
SCHLOSSPLATZ 15
10AM—4PM
10am
Welcome coffee
10:15am | Talk
➔ Konstantinos Avramidis (GR):
Point of view: Site-specificity and perspectival (hyper)reality in WD’s trompe l’œil
10:45am | Panel
✦ Outsider artists in public space
Chair: Susan Hansen (UK)
➔ Thomas Röske (Director of the Museum Prinzhorn Collection, DE): Where do graffiti and Outsider Art meet?
➔ KP Flügel (DE): On the work of German artists Oz and Eiffe
➔ Richard Attieh (AU): Arthur Stace, Mr. Eternity: a Sydney legend
12pm
Lunch break
1pm | Panel
✦ Artists and places
Chair: Hanna Büdenbender
(Saarland University, DE)
➔ OX (FR): Resident artist
➔ Lorenza Carannante (IT): Resilience shouted from the walls: Ernest Pignon-Ernest in Naples
➔ Isabel Carrasco (ES): Beyond labels: Lorenzo Pezzatini projects for public space 1977–today
2pm
Coffee break
2:30pm | Discussion
➔ Sven Niemann (DE): Anarcho-Power gegen Betonsargbauer: Graffiti and music as a political practice in the urban landscape of 1980s Germany
With KP Flügel (DE)
3:15pm | Discussion
➔ Barrett Zinn Gross aka Vandal (US):
I was a teenage Vandal
With KP Flügel (DE)
Saturday evening
closing panel
KINO ACHTEINHALB
NAUWIESERSTRASSE 19
8—9:15pm | Panel
✦ Street art and the institution
Chair: Ulrich Blanché (DE)
➔ Lachlan MacDowall (AU): Curator of Flash Forward, City of Melbourne
➔ Frank Krämer (DE): Curator of Urban Art Biennale, Völklinger Hütte
➔ Christian Omodeo (FR/IT): Curator and director of Le Grand Jeu
➔ Patrice Poch and Nicolas Gzeley (FR): Curators of the museum show “Aerosol: Une Historie du Graffiti”
➔ David Demougeot (FR): Director of Bien Urbain festival
Posters
HBKSAAR
KEPLERSTRASSE 3-5
Friday May 2nd, 4—6pm
Saturday May 3rd, 4—6pm
➔ Richard Keville (AU): Constructivist work on passenger trains
➔ Devyani Bhosale (IN): Capturing flows of anti-caste iconographies in the spacial context of Mumbai
➔ Bojan Krištofić (HR): Artistic happenings in the public space of New Zagreb (1956–1991)
➔ Deja Bečaj (SI): Sculptures, water and the city: Ljubljana 1993–2000
Lecture program
Art & Place Conference
Saarbrücken 2025
Lectures take place at the auditorium of Historical Museum Saar, right above the exhibition “ILLEGAL”. You can use the breaks to visit the show.
The closing panel is hosted by Kino Achteinhalb on the Saturday evening, in connection to the screening of the documentary “Here and Not Elsewhere”.
In addition to the lectures, four contributions from Australia, India and Europe will be presented in poster format at the lobby of HBKsaar State Academy of Arts.
Friday
May 2nd
HISTORICAL MUSEUM SAAR
SCHLOSSPLATZ 15
10AM—4PM
10am
Welcome coffee
10:20am | Opening talk
With KP Flügel, Javier Abarca and Ulrich Blanché
10:30am | Panel
✦ Abstract paintings on trains
Chair: Susan Hansen (UK)
➔ Nicolas Ciarlone (DE): Tracing (on) linear spaces: Dialogues with the railway infrastructure
➔ Luca Giacosa (IT): Forget me
11:15am | Discussion
➔ Mariia Korneeva (RU): Female (street) gaze: How women shape the cityscapes in Russia
Chair: Ilaria Hoppe (AT)
12pm
Lunch break
1pm | Launch
✦ Art & Place Magazine
With editor Javier Abarca (ES) and author Mathieu Tremblin (FR)
1:15pm | Keynote
➔ Joey Skaggs (US): Ephemeral interventions: Public space as a canvas for art and activism
Chair: Susan Hansen (UK)
2pm
Coffee break
2:30pm | Talk
➔ Voica Pușcașiu (RO): The perverse institutional use of street art against the Roma population in Romania
3pm | Panel
✦ Street art and gentrification
Chair: KP Flügel (DE)
➔ Lutz Henke (DE): The case of the self-censored Blu mural in Kreuzberg
➔ Anna Mirjam Liley (DE):
Gentrification in Hamburg Sternschanze
Exhibition opening
AUTOMAT
MARTIN-LUTHER-STR. 7–9
7pm till late
✦ OX (FR): Interlocks
Saturday
May 3rd
HISTORICAL MUSEUM SAAR
SCHLOSSPLATZ 15
10AM—4PM
10am
Welcome coffee
10:15am | Talk
➔ Konstantinos Avramidis (GR): Point of view: Site-specificity and perspectival (hyper)reality in WD’s trompe l’œil
10:45am | Panel
✦ Outsider artists in public space
Chair: Susan Hansen (UK)
➔ Thomas Röske (Director of the Museum Prinzhorn Collection, DE): Where do graffiti and Outsider Art meet?
➔ KP Flügel (DE): On the work of German artists Oz and Eiffe
➔ Richard Attieh (AU): Arthur Stace, Mr. Eternity: a Sydney legend
12pm
Lunch break
1pm | Panel
✦ Artists and places
Chair: Hanna Büdenbender (Saarland University, DE)
➔ OX (FR): Resident artist
➔ Lorenza Carannante (IT):
Resilience shouted from the walls: Ernest Pignon-Ernest in Naples.
➔ Isabel Carrasco (ES): Beyond labels: Lorenzo Pezzatini projects for public space 1977–today.
2pm
Coffee break
2:30pm | Discussion
➔ Sven Niemann (DE): Anarcho-Power gegen Betonsargbauer: Graffiti and music as a political practice in the urban landscape of 1980s Germany
With KP Flügel (DE)
3:15pm | Discussion
➔ Barrett Zinn Gross aka Vandal (US): I was a teenage Vandal
With KP Flügel (DE)
Saturday evening
closing panel
KINO ACHTEINHALB
NAUWIESERSTRASSE 19
20—21:15pm | Panel
✦ Street art and the institution
Chair: Ulrich Blanché (DE)
➔ Lachlan MacDowall (AU):
Curator of Flash Forward, City of Melbourne
➔ Frank Krämer (DE):
Curator of Urban Art Biennale, Völklinger Hütte
➔ Christian Omodeo (FR/IT):
Curator, director of Le Grand Jeu
➔ Patrice Poch and Nicolas Gzeley (FR):
Curators of the museum show “Aerosol: Une Historie du Graffiti”
➔ David Demougeot (FR):
Director of Bien Urbain festival
Posters
HBKSAAR
KEPLERSTRASSE 3-5
Friday May 2nd, 4—6pm
Saturday May 3rd, 4—6pm
➔ Richard Keville (AU): Constructivist work on passenger trains
➔ Devyani Bhosale (IN): Capturing flows of anti-caste iconographies in the spacial context of Mumbai
➔ Bojan Krištofić (HR): Artistic happenings in the public space of New Zagreb (1956–1991)
➔ Deja Bečaj (SI): Sculptures, water and the city: Ljubljana 1993–2000
Highlight talks
The program features 20 speakers from Europe, America and Australia including keynote Joey Skaggs*, one of the founders of culture jamming, as well as Barrett Zinn Gross aka Vandal, legendary 1970s New York subway sprayer, and nine presenters from our well-received Call for Papers.
Other highlight guest speakers include Berlin-based curator and cultural scientist Lutz Henke, who will delve into his first-person experience around the mural infamously self-censored by Blu in response to the gentrification of Kreuzberg.
We are happy to extend our conversation into the field of outsider art, both in our film program —with the screening of “Written in Chalk”— and in a panel with German psychologist and art historian Thomas Röske, director of the unique collection of Art Brut housed by the Heidelberg University Hospital, and Art & Place’s own KP Flügel, who will talk about outsider public art icons Oz and Eiffe.
A special
closing panel
Our closing panel on Saturday evening gathers a world-class roster of curators and culture managers from the field overlapping street art, public art and museum work. Joining us from Australia is Lachlan MacDowall, who curated the unprecedently-scaled public art project Flash Forward for the City of Melbourne.
Frank Krämer will present his experience as curator of the long-running Urban Art Biennale at the Völklinger Hütte UNESCO World Heritage Site, just ten kilometres from Saarbrücken. Also close to the city is Nancy, where the exhibition “Aerosol: Une Historie du Graffiti” will be on show during the conference. Curators Patrice Poch and Nicolas Gzeley will present the travelling project.
The specialised French presence in the panel is completed with David Demougeot, founder of the acclaimed festival Bien Urbain, and with independent curator and director of Le Grand Jeu Christian Omodeo.
(*) Due to special circumstances, Joey Skaggs will be joining us remotely for his presentation.
© Unlock Bureau 2025
Art & Place Conference 2025 is produced by Unlock Bureau and wissensART Foundation
Support: Historical Museum Saar, HBKsaar State Academy of Arts, Kino Achteinhalb, Filmhaus Saarbrücken, Saarland University, Völklinger Hütte UNESCO World Heritage Site, Unlock Book Fair, Automat, Le Grand Jeu, Le Lieu Documentaire
What is Art & Place?
Lecture program
Film program
Unlock Book Showcase
Museum tours
Völklinger Hütte tours
Resident artist
Guest curator
Art & Place Magazine
Call for Papers (closed)
© Unlock Bureau 2025
Art & Place Conference 2025 is produced by Unlock Bureau and wissensART Foundation
Support: Historical Museum Saar, HBKsaar State Academy of Arts, Kino Achteinhalb, Filmhaus Saarbrücken, Saarland University, Völklinger Hütte UNESCO World Heritage Site, Unlock Book Fair, Automat, Le Grand Jeu, Le Lieu Documentaire
