Kunsthalle unterwegs: Urban Encounters Open Air Kino

As part of the Stadtstrand festival, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf presents “Urban Encounters,” a curated open-air cinema on the banks of the Rhine in Golzheim, near the Theodor-Heuss Bridge.

The program brings together films and video works that reflect on urban ways of life and concepts, architecture, and atmospheres. In this way, the cinema becomes a space that resonates with the city: a place where moving images meet the real urban landscape and where the perception of public space is redefined.

The focus is on ways of life, movements, and perspectives that shed light on the tension between intimacy and anonymity, community and isolation, and public and private space.

The open-air setting facilitates an accessible, collective experience.Urban Encountersthus becomes an encounter in itself: between art and audience, between local urban society and global visual worlds.

TheUrban Encountersprogram is developed in collaboration with author and media culture scholar Lisa Tracy Michalik

A project as part of the“Kunsthalle unterwegs” series.

PROGRAM

Friday, August 14, 2026

Starting at 9 p.m.
METROPOLISES – SPACE FOR EVERYONE?

Surveillance cameras and security services are supposed to ensure safety in major cities. But for whom is this supposed safety intended, and for whom, conversely, does it mean threat and insecurity?

Emily Richardson
Block, UK, 2005
12’

At the center of this cinematic portrait is a 1960s high-rise in southeast London. What is happening inside and outside? The film captures a subtle sense of architectural unease. A creeping sense that this building may no longer exist for people. Through whose perspective are we looking: that of the film camera or that of the surveillance camera?

Kleber Mendonça Filho
Neighboring Sounds, Brazil, 2012
131’

Barking dogs, children playing, a sleeping doorman. In an apartment building in Recife, Brazil, a subtle sense of unease spreads with the arrival of a private security firm. Amid the neighborhood’s daily life, stark class differences, and colonial past, the film weaves a delicate tapestry of sounds, glances, and mistrust.

Saturday, August 15, 2026

starting at 9 p.m.
METROPOLIS – SUBCULTURE AND COMMUNITY

Many major cities around the world are united by the loneliness of their residents. The films in this program show how communities in metropolitan areas come together to solve problems collectively.

Amélia Umuhire
Polyglot Episode 3: My Own, Germany, 2015
14’

The third episode of the Berlin-based web series *Polyglot* leaves Kreuzberg and follows Roger, the brother of the protagonist Amanda, as he navigates London in search of his place in the world. In the process, the unifying power of music becomes clear. Amélia Umuhire’s award-winning web series tells a fragmented story of young Black creatives navigating languages, cities, and identities.

Levan Akin
Crossing, Sweden / Denmark / France / Turkey / Georgia, 2024
105’

Retired teacher Lia sets out from the Georgian city of Batumi in search of her missing niece, Tekla. Together with her companion Achi, she follows the trail to Istanbul. There they meet Evrim, a lawyer who advocates for the rights of transgender people. A film about family, solidarity, and belonging beyond borders.

Sunday, August 16, 2026

at 9:00 p.m.
ARCHITECTURE, GLOBALIZATION, TEMPORALITY IN URBAN SPACE

Many major cities are known for their distinctive architecture. In the films of this program, architecture itself seems to take center stage.

Klara Lidén
Grounding, USA, 2018
6’

In a single shot, Klara Lidén walks—seemingly with purpose—through New York’s financial district, from Wall Street toward Zuccotti Park. Along the way, she stumbles and falls repeatedly. But as quickly as she falls, she gets back up and keeps walking as if nothing had happened.*Grounding*questions the unwritten rules of conduct in privatized urban spaces and transforms the body into an instrument of resistance against their seamless choreography of efficiency and control.

Matias Mariani
Cidade Pássaro, Brazil / France, 2020
102’

The musician Amadi travels from Nigeria to São Paulo to find his long-lost brother Ikenna, a supposedly successful mathematics professor. Along the way, Amadi gradually discovers that none of Ikenna’s stories seem to be true. As Amadi’s search unfolds, the city of São Paulo itself becomes the protagonist.