ÜBER BRÜCKEN – BRIDGING #1

Über Brücken – Bridging is a performance and exhibition project in the public space around and on the bridges of Cologne. Between September 2022 and September 2023, the program will take place in various public places in Cologne that are connected to the bridges and form the setting for the artistic works.

Cologne’s bridges are (historical) symbols of its urban transformation and provide space for discussion in relation to the expansion and preservation of their existence as structure-giving elements of the city. They connect districts that are undergoing different processes of social development, bridge the legendary Rhine, and connect the inner-city west with the east of Cologne at seven points. The bridges also embody the (geographical) junctions between the art scene on the left and right bank of the Rhine, which the project traces and illuminates through collaborations with existing Cologne initiatives and institutions in the different neighborhoods near the bridges.
Within the framework of Über Brücken – Bridging seven days of events will feature local and international artistic positions. The invited artists will deal with the respective places, districts, and their inhabitants, as well as with the histories of the individual bridges. Each event day is devoted to one of the seven bridges. The events will take place over twelve months, starting in September 2022 with the Mülheimer Brücke. Over the following months, the venues will move from north to south across the Zoobrücke, the Hohenzollernbrücke, the Deutzer Brücke, the Severinsbrücke, the Südbrücke, and the Rodenkirchener Brücke, and will each include a guided walk across one of the bridges from bank to bank, from east to west and back again.