About
Projektraum Coswig is an initiative of Karne Kunst, a platform for contemporary Latin American art founded by migrant women, with its main base in Berlin and a second, deliberately non-metropolitan home in Coswig, in Saxony-Anhalt. Situated in the Friederikenstrasse in Coswig on the river Elbe, the space extends Karne Kunst's Berlin project space, Bardo Projektraum, into a rural and regional context, creating a bridge between urban and rural cultural life in Germany and bringing internationally networked contemporary art to a part of the country that has historically had fewer such offerings.
The choice of location is a considered and programmatic one. Coswig sits between two culturally significant towns, Dessau-Rosslau, known for its Bauhaus heritage, and Wittenberg, the town of Martin Luther and the Reformation, allowing the project space to draw visitors from across the wider region while remaining genuinely accessible to the local population of Coswig itself. Its position along the Elbe and its distinctive river landscape further shapes the institution's programming, providing the setting for its residency initiatives.
Projektraum Coswig is home to two residency programmes central to its identity. FlussLab engages with the relationships between art, ecology and community, inviting artists working with site-specific, participatory or ecologically oriented approaches to draw on the surrounding river landscapes and to collaborate with regional environmental and cultural initiatives, exploring themes such as climate change, biodiversity and the relationship between people and water. Proyecto NEST, meaning Nest of Knowledges, takes a distinctive approach to supporting artists who are also parents, understanding motherhood and caregiving not as an obstacle to artistic practice but as an integral part of it, offering residencies, childcare-compatible infrastructure and a community of artist parents engaging with themes of care work, family and feminism.
Beyond its residency programmes, Projektraum Coswig presents changing exhibitions of contemporary art with a particular focus on Latin American and migrant artists, addressing themes of migration, identity, feminism, ecology and social justice across painting, sculpture, installation, video, performance and participatory formats. The institution complements this exhibition programme with school workshops, adult education formats, community based projects and professional development offerings for regional cultural workers and educators, and it also makes its space available to external artists, curators and cultural associations from across Saxony-Anhalt for independent exhibitions, performances, readings, screenings and workshops.
The institution's core organisational pillars rest on this combination of exhibitions, residencies and educational outreach, unified by a consistent feminist, decolonial and socially engaged curatorial perspective. Projektraum Coswig is sustained through project funding, donations and community support, reflecting its grassroots and collaborative approach, and the initiative continues to seek partnerships with cultural institutions, schools, universities and environmental initiatives across the region, positioning itself as a distinctive site where international contemporary art meets rural community life in eastern Germany.
