Kunsthalle unterwegs: Urban Encounters
Open-air cinema
14.8. – 16.8.2026

Program

Brochure

Kunsthalle unterwegs
Urban Encounter
Photo: Katja Illner

As a guest at the city beach, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf presents Urban Encounters, a curated open-air cinema on the Golzheim riverside near the Theodor-Heuss-Brücke.

The programme brings together films and video works that reflect on urban ways of life and concepts, architecture and atmospheres. In this way, the cinema becomes a resonance chamber for the city: a place where moving images meet the real urban space and the perception of public space is renegotiated.

The focus is on ways of life, movements and perspectives that shed light on the tension between intimacy and anonymity, community and isolation, and public and private space.

The open-air setting facilitates a low-threshold, collective experience. Urban Encounters thus becomes an encounter in itself: between art and audience, between local urban society and global visual worlds.

The Urban Encounters programme is developed in collaboration with the author and media culture scholar Lisa Tracy Michalik

A project as part of the Kunsthalle unterwegs series.

Program

Urban Encounters invites you to an exciting open-air cinema programme.
- Progam
- from 9 pm
  METROPOLISES – SPACE FOR EVERYONE?
  
  CCTV cameras and security services are supposed to ensure safety in metropolises. But for whom is this supposed safety intended, and for whom, conversely, does it represent a threat and a source of insecurity?
  
  Emily Richardson
  Block, UK, 2005
  12’
  
  At the heart of this cinematic portrait stands a 1960s high-rise in south-east London. What is happening inside and outside? The film captures a subtle sense of architectural unease. A creeping feeling that this building may no longer exist for the people who inhabit it. Through whose eyes are we looking: those of the film camera or those of the CCTV camera?
  
  Kleber Mendonça Filho
  Neighboring Sounds, Brazil, 2012
  131’
  
  Barking dogs, children at play, a sleeping caretaker. In a block of flats in Recife, Brazil, a subtle sense of unease begins to spread with the arrival of a private security firm. Against the backdrop of everyday life in the neighbourhood, deep social divisions and the legacy of colonial history, the film weaves a delicate tapestry of sounds, glances and mistrust.
- Progam
- from 9 pm
  METROPOLISES – SUBCULTURE AND COMMUNITY
  
  Many major cities around the world share a common thread: the loneliness of their residents. The films in this programme show how communities in metropolises come together to tackle problems collectively.
  
  Amélia Umuhire
  Polyglot Episode 3: My Own, Germany, 2015
  14’
  
  The third episode of the Berlin-based web series Polyglot leaves Kreuzberg and follows Roger, the brother of the protagonist Amanda, as he makes his way through London in search of his place in the world. In the process, the unifying power of music becomes clear. Amélia Umuhire’s award-winning web series tells a fragmented story of young Black creatives navigating languages, cities and a sense of belonging.
  
  Levan Akin
  Crossing, Sweden / Denmark / France / Turkey / Georgia, 2024
  105’
  
  Lia, a retired teacher, sets off from the Georgian city of Batumi in search of her missing niece, Tekla. Together with her companion Achi, she follows the trail to Istanbul. There, they meet Evrim, a lawyer who campaigns for the rights of transgender people. A film about family, solidarity and belonging across borders.
- Progam
- from 9 pm
  ARCHITECTURE, GLOBALISATION, TEMPORALITY IN URBAN SPACE
  
  Many major cities are known for their distinctive architecture. In the films in this programme, architecture itself appears to take centre stage.
  
  Klara Lidén
  Grounding, USA, 2018
  6’
  
  In a single shot, Klara Lidén appears to be striding purposefully through New York’s financial district – from Wall Street towards Zuccotti Park. As she does so, she repeatedly stumbles and falls. Yet each time she falls, she gets back up just as quickly and continues on as if nothing had happened. Grounding challenges the unwritten rules of behaviour in privatised urban spaces, transforming the body into an instrument of resistance against their seamless choreography of efficiency and control.
  
  Matias Mariani
  Cidade Pássaro, Brazil / France, 2020
  102’
  
  The musician Amadi travels from Nigeria to São Paulo to find his long-lost brother Ikenna, a supposedly successful professor of mathematics. In the process, Amadi gradually discovers that none of Ikenna’s stories seem to be true. As Amadi’s search unfolds, the city of São Paulo itself takes centre stage.