The return of the Orangery as a place of art.

Since the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe closed its main building on Friedrichsplatz for extensive refurbishment, it has been showing in various locations how history and the present can be productively intertwined. In the ZKM | Center for Art and Media, almost 500 works from the late Middle Ages to post-war modernism come together in the large See You collection presentation on around 2,000 square meters. Old and new media, painting and sculpture, color and form enter into a lively dialogue - an invitation to see, perceive and marvel. At the same time, the Junge Kunsthalle continues to be dedicated to conveying artistic lightness and depth of content. Until March 1, 2026, the exhibition Pettersson, Findus & Co. invites children, young people and families into the imaginative world of Swedish illustrator Sven Nordqvist. Original drawings, sketches and preparatory work make the creative process visible - and in the workshop, young visitors can become storytellers and designers themselves.

Archistories. Architecture in art: Helmut Wimmer, The Last Day, 2018 © Helmut Wimmer

The Botanical Gardens are making a new start: the Orangery - the neoclassical building by Heinrich Hübsch, once designed as a greenhouse and ballroom - is reopening its doors after being closed for several years. It brings new life to a place steeped in history that has been many things since its opening in 1857: a refuge for exotic plants, a stage for social gatherings and later a place for modern art. Now it is becoming a laboratory for the future.
The opening event is the large special exhibition Archistories. Architecture in Art, which is dedicated to a theme that has inspired artists for centuries: built space. From November 29, 2025 to April 12, 2026, around one hundred works by seventy artists from five centuries will be presented. They are all united by a central theme: the exploration of built space and its social, aesthetic and utopian dimensions. Architecture is not understood here as pure building art, but as a mirror of human existence - as an expression of order, power, hope and change.
Sometimes they are quiet cityscapes, sometimes utopian constructions, sometimes poetic fragments of lines and surfaces: The exhibition unfolds a broad panorama of artistic approaches to architecture. Historical works from the collection - paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures - enter into a dialog with contemporary positions from photography, video and installation. This creates bridges between centuries, between concept and emotion, between space and image.

Archistories. Architecture in art: Robert Delaunay,The Eiffel Tower, 1909-1911, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

Archistories tells of the human longing for structure and home, but also of the desire for deconstruction and free thinking about space. Works from the 17th century are juxtaposed with visionary contemporary architecture that raises questions about sustainability, power structures and digital simulation. Again and again, the relationship between nature and culture is explored - that which is built and at the same time abandoned to decay.
The show is not intended as an art historical treatise, but as a sensual and intellectual experience. Visitors should not only see, but also think and feel how art and architecture are mutually dependent. The fact that this polyphonic reflection takes place in the Orangerie - a place that is itself a monument to the connection between nature, technology and representation - lends the exhibition additional depth.
With Archistories, the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe is opening a new chapter in its history. The Orangerie thus becomes an architectural and symbolic intermediate space - a place of transition between past and future, between architecture and imagery, between vision and reality.
November 29, 2025 to April 12, 2026
www.kunsthalle-karlsruhe.de