For its final exhibition stop, the 1st openart Lausitz Biennale 2026 will be held at a location that is itself a symbol of change, movement, and transformation: the historic Großenhainer Bahnhof in Cottbus. The imposing station building was constructed as early as 1877–78. After the new Cottbus State Station was built, the Großenhainer Bahnhof lost its original function as a passenger station and was converted into an administrative facility in 1885 and later into a freight station. The building served administrative purposes until the end of the GDR era; after reunification, it was renovated and converted into an office building. Later, the Kunsthalle Cottbus moved in. Today, this historic building is once again a hub of cultural activity and opens its spaces to contemporary art.

On display are works from the fields of urban art, street art, graffiti, and comics, presented in the media of sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, video art, installation, and performance.

In the Gray Vestibule, the artist collective URBAN ART—Anne Peschken and Marek Pisarsky—explores the global shift of textile production from Europe to Asia. The starting point for their work is the once-thriving textile industry in Cottbus. To this end, they have erected a large loom on which painted and discarded canvases are woven together to form new pictorial surfaces. An accompanying monitor documents the creative process in the studio. In addition, the Green Hall features a monumental woven work nearly 3.50 meters wide depicting seamstresses from Asia.

The artist Jess Zamora-Turner responds directly to the architecture of the vestibule with a patchwork installation made of used textiles that extends far into the space. Her work alludes to the transience of consumerism and the hidden stories of discarded garments. Once-functional fabrics give rise to a new architectural context that preserves memory and meaning.

On the opposite side of the vestibule, Caroline Böttcher presents a multimedia installation consisting of textile objects, photographs, and narrative fragments exploring the history of the Lusatian textile industry. Her work highlights the ambivalence between beauty, sensuality, and industrial production, focusing in particular on the role of women in the textile industry as well as on structural change in East Germany.

With her work Verwoben, Annette Hecht-Bauer addresses the themes of environmental pollution and loss. The dress, woven from plastic waste, highlights the possibilities of an experimental approach to used materials and everyday objects.

The Cottbus-born artist Felix Matschke exhibits a series of digitally drawn illustrations. Now living in Switzerland, his works depict the changing architecture of Lusatia and other locations, against which shadowy figures appear. Through red-and-green overlays and shifting LED light installations, dynamic spaces of perception emerge, hovering between memory and dissolution.

Valentina Tröndle presents her photographic Lusatia series Sediment along the path through the building. Her works approach the Lusatia as a poetic in-between space, a landscape in transition between the past and the future. The photographs quietly tell stories of places, people, and atmospheres, allowing visitors to experience the region as a living, breathing space.

With humor and graphic precision, Lioba von den Driesch addresses universal human conflicts such as community, conflict, betrayal, and discord in her animated film Last Supper. The figures, drawn in chalk on school blackboards, straddle the line between comics and animation.

In the adjacent room, visitors can view the Sorbian Mangas by the artist Siggiko (Emily Barthold). She combines Sorbian legends, traditions, and Lower Sorbian culture with the visual language of Japanese manga, thereby creating a contemporary visual form of expression for a young generation of Sorbian identity.

The Green Hall is dedicated to contemporary social issues. In her four-meter-long painting How to Dress for Jogging, inspired by street art, Katharina Arndt humorously questions the superficiality of modern consumer and lifestyle culture.

Opposite this is the sculpture Tenement Rising by the American artist Tracey Snelling. Featuring integrated video sequences about cramped living conditions, it addresses rising housing costs and social displacement. In light of global developments, the work raises the pressing question: Where are we headed?

Between these two works stands Dredder, a sculpture by Martin Böttger. The brightly colored metal fragments are reminiscent of futuristic mechanical creatures and serve as a connecting element between street art, urbanity, and social exaggeration.

With his painting Social Silence, Casey McKee depicts a surreal beach scene set against the backdrop of an oil rig. With a touch of humor yet a critical eye, the work reflects on social power structures, environmental issues, and the consequences of human intervention in landscapes—including the transformation of former lignite mining regions in Lusatia.

Finally, at the center of the Green Hall stands the monumental sculpture Fragile Wucht by Miriam Lenk. The Baroque-inspired figure of a female archetype navigates the tension between strength and vulnerability, order and chaos, decay and new beginnings. Through this work, the artist creates a powerful image of female self-empowerment and social transformation.
The closing exhibition of the openart Lausitz Biennale 2026 connects history and the present, regional memory and global developments. The historic Großenhain train station itself becomes a resonant space for art that transforms spaces and makes social processes visible.

During the exhibition period, a graffiti session featuring local and international female and male graffiti artists will take place on the platforms and tracks in the outdoor area of the former Großenhainer Bahnhof.

Accompanying this, workshops for children and teenagers will be offered, providing direct insight into the techniques, history, and forms of expression of graffiti art. The grounds of the former freight station have been an established venue for graffiti and urban art events for several years now. Building on the site’s long-standing and successful graffiti culture, the openart Lausitz Biennale 2026 specifically integrates the themes of urban art, street art, and graffiti into the exhibition held within the iconic train station building—now the Kunsthalle Cottbus. In doing so, the Biennale connects contemporary urban culture with the site’s historic architecture and fosters a vibrant exchange between art, urban history, and public space.