Nele Kaczmarek, the director of the Nürnberger Kunstverein, speaks about the institution’s history and the exhibition High Noon by Sofia Defino Leiby
"In our current program, we are experimenting with different ways to respond to the city, its protagonists, and its communities."
Kemmler Foundation: Nele, you have been appointed Director of the Nürnberger Kunstverein in 2024. Could you tell us more about the history of the institution?
Nele Kaczmarek: It was founded in 1792 as a society for artists and art enthusiasts, Kunstverein Nürnberg is Germany’s oldest Kunstverein. Its program is dedicated to contemporary art, fostering critical engagement and dialogue. Each year, the Kunstverein presents four to five exhibitions by international artists, complemented by music, performance, mediation programs, and catalogues. These projects explore new artistic perspectives and formats while engaging with the local community. Since 2003, the Kunstverein has been housed in the former Milchhof administrative building, an early Modernist landmark.
In an earlier conversation you mentioned that an important part of the program at the Kunstverein is to integrate the city into the activities of the Kunstverein. Could you share more about these plans and how you intend to realize them?
In our current program, we are experimenting with different ways to respond to the city, its protagonists, and its communities. For instance, artists such as Antonia Beeskow and Lilli Lake accompanied my process of familiarizing myself with Nürnberg through a beautiful “getting-to-know-you” composition. Subsequent projects, such as Maximiliane Baumgartner’s Das Lokale ist nicht lokal and Black Quantum Futurism’s solo exhibition, involved local institutions, schools, clinics, and even neighbors lending personal objects as artworks. With these diverse formats and artistic approaches, we seek to connect with a variety of local communities, hoping that these encounters will grow into lasting relationships.
Last year Sofia Defino Leiby had her first institutional exhibition High Noon, how would you describe her work and the concept of the exhibition?
Sofia Defino Leiby’s High Noon brings together painting, watercolor, and digital imagery to explore how we navigate emotional and virtual worlds. Drawing on her five-month Marianne-Defet-Malerei-Stipendium residency, she reflects on contemporary states of overload, withdrawal, and the desire to escape into other realities. Her works shift between the physical and the digital—from plein air seascapes marked by rain to “virtual photographs” created in 3-D worlds. A striking further layer of Sofia’s show is how she traces key milestones in the artistic observation of our surroundings—from Impressionist studies of nature and the iconic Blue Marble image of Earth to today’s immersive gaming realities.
Looking ahead, what are the upcoming exhibitions at the Nürnberger Kunstverein you’re excited about?
In our upcoming program, we’re thrilled to present the first european solo exhibition of the legendary musician, performer, and video artist Julia Heyward, which is opening with a live concert performance. We’re collaborating with Ruine München, Mira Mann, and S*an D. Henry-Smith on a three-part music and performance series unfolding across various public spaces in Nürnberg. The project offers a contemporary interpretation of Romanticism’s key sites and themes, forging new connections between historical sensibilities and the present political moment.
In 2023, we inaugurated a project called the "Utopian Library" with a bookshelf sculpture by the artist Charlotte Duale. A utopian library, in our understanding, should serve both as a library of utopias, but also as a utopian library, a library under utopian auspices. What book would you like to see added to this library?
I would love to see Animal Joy by the psychoanalyst and writer Nuar Alsadir added to the Utopian Library. The book’s exploration of moments when something that might be called our “self” emerges—unshaped by the anticipation of others’ expectations—is deeply compelling. I was particularly struck by how subtle, paralinguistic gestures—that is, a cough, a sigh, or an uncontrollable laugh—take center stage in revealing these fleeting, authentic moments.
The exhibition "High Noon" by Sofia Defino Leiby at Nürnberger Kunstverein, which ran throughout 06. September until 23. November 2025, was supported by Kemmler Foundation.