Take A Seat is back!

This talk series explores the discourses, processes, and concerns of photographers and artists who work with the medium of photography. It aims to create a “safe space” that is brought to life by questions from the audience, with the goal of highlighting interdisciplinary and intersectional perspectives from the scene and its surrounding communities.

This spring, Take A Seat explores the concept of space: Where can artists work? For whom is space being made? These pressing questions are complemented by the Studio Visits, which introduce five artists who work and create in Cologne.

Save the Dates!

• April 18, 2026: eye got space, Herwarthstraße 3, 50672 Cologne
• May 30–31, 2026: Q18, Quartier am Hafen, Poller Kirchweg 78–90, 51105 Cologne
• June 21, 2026: CO³ e.V. – cologne contemporary concept, Thürmchenswall 66, 50668 Cologne

Räume für Fotografie - be the place?

Sonntag, 21. Juni, CO³ e.V.

​​📆Sonntag, 21. Juni 2026
🕔17:00 – 18:00 Uhr (Einlass ab 16:30 Uhr)
📍CO³ e.V., Thürmchenswall 66, 50668 Köln

anschließend

🥪🍴🧃Gemeinsamer Potluck und Cyanotypie Experimente auf Textilien
🕢18:00 – 20:30 Uhr (offen ab 17:30 Uhr)
📍Lunch Cube, Ebertplatz, 50668 Köln

Eintritt frei.

Im Juni schließen wir die Veranstaltungsreihe Take A Seat für dieses Frühjahr ab und einladen euch ein zusammen zu kommen. Das Gesprächsformat von Take A Seat wird danach in einen kulinarischen Austausch fließen: Zusammen mit Lunch Cube vom Ebertplatz.

Zuerst sind wir zu Gast im CO³ e.V., und sprechen mit Heidi Pfohl (sie/ihr), Willi Andrick (er/ihn) und Heide Häusler (sie/ihr) über Räume für Fotografie - in Köln!

Welche Vorteile bringen temporäre Räume und Interventionen in der Stadt mit?
Wie wird Fotografie sichtbar im Stadtraum - bedingt durch Architektur und Zeitlichkeit?
Was brauchen langfristige freie Raumprojekte für Arbeitskulturen, Teilhabe und Nachwuchs?
Welche Werte entwickeln freie Räume für Fotografie?

Fotograf:innen, Neugierige, Kulturschaffende, Kurator:innen und alle, die sich mit diesem Thema auseinandersetzen (möchten), sind herzlich eingeladen.

Moderation: G. Kühnhardt Alvarez (dey/deren)

Im Anschluss spazieren wir zum gemeinsamen Blue Potluck-Dinner am Ebertplatz, um den längsten Tag des Jahres ausklingen zu lassen. Potluck bedeutet, dass jede Person, ein selbstgemachtes Gericht oder eine Zutat mit an den Tisch bringt. Der Lunch Cube, backt für alle Focaccia und für den Potluck sind sowohl passende Beilagen und Aufstriche willkommen als auch andere Gerichte und Leckereien die sich bequem mitbringen lassen.

Parallel aktivieren Corinne Riepert (sie/ihr), Lilli Weinstein (sie/ihr) und G. Kühnhardt Alvarez das “Blue”- mit kollektiven Cyanotypien mitzuwirken und den Abend auf diese Weise künstlerisch festzuhalten. Die Cyanotypien werden Grundmaterial einer Picknick-Decke für ein weiteres Beisammensein im Rahmen von AIC ON 11 (Ende August).

Während der Veranstaltung werden Foto- und Videoaufnahmen für die Öffentlichkeitsarbeit gemacht.

Informationen zur Zugänglichkeit im CO³ e.V: Kein stufenloser Zugang, es wird eine Rampe zur Verfügung gestellt. Die Toilette ist nicht barrierefrei. Für Rückfragen und/oder individuelle Bedarfe sprecht uns gerne via DM oder E-Mail (awareness@photoszene.de) an.

Heide Häusler

Heide Häusler is an art historian specializing in photography and contemporary art and lives and works (mostly) in Cologne. During and after studying art history, philosophy, and film and television studies at Ruhr-Universität-Bochum, she worked at various museums in the field of exhibition conception and organization; from 2006-2008 she was an editor at Photography Now in Berlin. As a curator and exhibition manager she has worked for the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Cologne, the Stadtmuseum in Düsseldorf or the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, among others. From 2009-2016 she was exhibition manager of the Fotofestival Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg (now Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie). Since 2013, she has been responsible for the management of Photoszene Köln and defines the basic direction and activities together with the team. For her, every look at photography is a look at the world - a fascinating, astonishing, insightful and sometimes frightening tableau of history, possibilities and versions.

Heidi Pfohl

Heidi Pfohl is a photographer, media artist, and editor. After completing an apprenticeship as a photographer, she studied at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, where—following stints at the universities of Hildesheim and Bonn—she now works in the Department of Art and Media Studies. In parallel, she works as a freelance photographer, media artist, and editor for organizations such as Videonale Bonn and Art Initiatives Cologne, and leads workshops on photography. In her artistic practice, she explores the configurations of institutional spaces and their processes of transformation, with an interest in both the history of photographic theory and the upheavals in analog and digital media.

Willi Andrick

Willi Andrick (he/him) Filmmaker, author, photographer, curator. Earned a master’s degree in philosophy and literary studies in Leipzig, Potsdam, and Berlin; completed a collaborative master’s program in film (with a focus on directing) in Cologne. Ph.D. from the Free University of Berlin (Form – Reaction – Emotion: Lev Vygotsky’s Aesthetics of Effect). Text and image are interwoven as storytelling in fiction and documentary film, in essays and photo series. The themes of his photographs are work, consumption, advertising, and AI. He is interested in whether humans are becoming like machines, rather than whether machines are becoming like humans. What does the mechanical do to affect and perception? And what can an art space be other than a place beyond formatting?

Räume für Fotografie - Better together

Samstag, 30. Mai, Q18 - Quartier am Hafen

📆Saturday, May 30, 2026

🕢6:00 – 7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 5:30 p.m.)

📍Q18 Quartier am Hafen, Poller Kirchweg 78-90, 51105 Cologne

Free admission

In May, we invite you to take a seat at the table with Havîn Al-Sîndy (she/her), Samson Grzybek (none), and Han Vogel (they/them) to talk about collectivity.

This time, Take A Seat is embedded in a presentation that blends exhibition and studio—“Call for local artists.” This temporary collective emerged from the Studio Visits Open Call in March and April 2026, which Photoszene Köln announced in cooperation with eye got space.

Are there differences between planned and lived collectivity?

Are sustainable constellations and responsibilities possible?

Which spaces make sense for collective processes?

What if they fail?

Photographers, curious visitors, cultural practitioners, curators, and anyone who (wishes to) engage with this topic are warmly invited.

Moderator: G. Kühnhardt Alvarez (dey/deren)

Photographs and video recordings will be taken during the event for public relations purposes.

Accessibility information for Quartier am Hafen: step-free access to Q18 and a step-free restroom are available. The venue is largely accessible for wheelchair users. The restroom is not wheelchair-accessible. For questions and/or individual needs, please feel free to contact us via DM or email (awareness@photoszene.de).

Samson Grzybek

Samson Grzybek (without pronouns) works at the intersection of activism, writing, and organizational development. After studying history and archaeology, they transitioned into digital marketing—and eventually took the leap to start their own venture: Queermed Germany.

Queermed helps patients find respectful medical providers and collaborates with clinics, universities, NGOs, and many others. Samson consults on awareness, gender medicine, and inclusive communication, and gives lectures and workshops.

As an author, Samson writes about health realities, background and class, trauma, and empathy. A book on grief is currently in the works.

In the podcast “Trauerschatten,” Samson speaks with guests about grief and different kinds of loss.

Han Vogel

Han Vogel (they/them) is an artist and curator based in Berlin. Han sees their work as an extension of the self—shaped by the collective, by their own experiences, and those of others. In doing so, Han explores queer visibility, identities, bodies, power structures, and multi-perspectivity. Han is part of the team at Gaze—the queer photo award, where they support the project particularly in the curatorial field.

Räume für Fotografie - analoge und digitale Medien

Saturday, April 18, eye got space

In April, we invite you to join us for a discussion on digital and analog media as spaces for photography. We’ll be sitting down with Aslı Özçelik and Joshua Kern from Eigensinn Verlag and D. M. Terblanche.

📆 Saturday, April 18, 2026

🕢 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 5:30 p.m.)

📍eye got space, Herwarthstraße 3, 50672 Cologne

What happens along the path of self-publishing? How can print and digital media support photographers in their work without taking up too much of their time? What stories of collaboration can be shared? What role does timing play in the publication of photographs? Photographers, curators, cultural professionals, and anyone interested in this topic are warmly invited. Afterward, the eye got space team invites you to wind down at their bar.

Moderator: G. Kühnhardt Alvarez

Photographs and video recordings will be taken during the event for public relations purposes.