AIR (2025–2027)
Conceived as a three-year project, international artists come together to explore the invisible resource of air and its social, ecological, and cultural meanings. At its core is the question of how air, as a shared good, connects and shapes the city and its inhabitants—physically, politically, materially, and poetically. The project takes place in Stuttgart and is aimed at young people aged 15 to 29 who are particularly affected by the impacts of the climate crisis and want to actively shape their future.
Air is the most elusive yet most essential resource of our lives: invisible, omnipresent, and constantly in motion. It is a political space, a carrier of information, and a measure of global justice. In Stuttgart’s basin topography, issues of air quality and urban climate intensify into a matter of local urgency, while the climate crisis is turning the atmosphere worldwide into a site of distributional conflict.
Through artistic works, workshops, and actions, artists collaborate with young people to investigate how air flows through Stuttgart and what social, ecological, and health-related questions are tied to it.
An exhibition in 2027 will make the processes and outcomes of the various artistic projects visible.
Conceived by CURRENT in cooperation with Dreaming in Women*, as well as the artists Anna Gohmert; Eloïse Bonneviot & Anne de Boer; Sylvia Winkler & Stephan Köperl; Mizi Lee & Seonha Park; Love Ssega; and Raul Walch.
Weitere Themen
Driving, Dreaming, Drifting explores the impact of the automobile on the environment, mobility, and urban space, as well as on social power structures. The project questions prevailing notions of public space, which are often shaped by control, exclusion, and hierarchy. In this context, the car functions as a symbol of ownership, individualization, and dominance. From queer-feminist perspectives, the participating artists develop alternative imaginaries of mobility and possibilities for more just and inclusive forms of coexistence.
A central aim of the project is to temporarily activate spaces heavily shaped by automobiles as sites for cultural discourse, opening up new perspectives on the use of urban space.
Following the main program in Stuttgart, the project continued through a series of “echo” events. The first took place in September 2025 in cooperation with the sociocultural center Recyclart in Brussels. From February 13 to March 25, 2026, works by Natalia Domínguez and Paco Ladrón de Guevara were presented in Barcelona in collaboration with Sant Andreu Contemporani. A publication accompanying the project has also been released.
The project is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, and the City of Stuttgart through the Stuttgart-Mitte district.
Commissioned by the Stuttgart Department of Culture, CURRENT designed and delivered the kickoff event for a participatory process to develop a new program for art in public space.
The event brought together artists, cultural practitioners, curators, and city officials. Through keynote talks, workshops, and facilitated working sessions, participants exchanged ideas and explored experiences, expectations, and perspectives for a contemporary approach to public art.
The insights and discussions documented during the event provided a key foundation for shaping Stuttgart’s new art in public space program. Implemented since 2023, the program strengthens collaboration with artists and supports projects across the city’s public spaces.