A groundbreaking exhibition in Hamburg, Germany, is bringing together historical and contemporary artworks to explore humanity's enduring fascination with the cosmos. "From the Cosmos to the Commons" centers around the recently reconstructed work of art historian Aby Warburg, whose influential Image Collection on the History of Astrology and Astronomy was thought lost for decades before being discovered in a trash heap in 1987.
The exhibition's cornerstone is Warburg's remarkable collection, now displayed in the Hamburg Planetarium where it was originally shown in 1930. Hamburg-born Warburg, working in the 1920s, assembled this vast compendium alongside his famous Mnemosyne Atlas. His Image Collection consists of uncaptioned images arranged on panels that illustrate how humans have consistently looked to the heavens for both scientific and spiritual understanding. Art historian Uwe Fleckner, who discovered the discarded collection, has carefully reconstructed and curated this presentation.
Visitors to the planetarium use flashlights to navigate Warburg's densely decorated panels, which are arranged in a compact elliptical path in the normally inaccessible, dimly lit space at the top of the building. The reproductions include drawings and diagrams of the sky and related legends, tracing the evolution of planetary thinking from ancient times through Kepler's heliocentric ideas, Dante's worldview, and both Eastern and Western astrological symbolism.
The exhibition expands beyond Warburg's historical work to include four contemporary pieces that explore space, time, and non-Western perspectives on the heavens. Raqs Media Collective's "Blood Moon" (2025) invites viewers to consider lunar aspects of time, while Oglala Lakota artist KITE's intricate mandala-like floor installation "Iktómiwiŋ (A Vision of Standing Cloud)" (2023/25), crafted from local stones, records both temporal and dream experiences.
The outdoor component in Hamburg's adjacent Stadtpark features twelve sculptural works scattered throughout the lawns, trees, and clearings for discovery by art enthusiasts and casual park visitors alike. Agnes Denes' "Sunflower Fields" (2025) connects earth and sky through planted sun-loving blooms, while Heidi Voet's "Hydra – the Orange Giant" (2025) brings celestial themes down to earth with pastel concrete sports balls arranged in the park's old natural amphitheater to reflect the Hydra constellation.
Several works delve into divination and cosmological legends, including Xul Solar's oversized "Tarot Deck" (1954) displayed on the park lawn and Hoda Tawakol's "Cosmic Womb," an installation depicting Nut, the Egyptian goddess who was believed to swallow the sun each night and rebirth it each morning.
Across town at Kunsthaus Hamburg, a second component titled "Between Stars and Signals" examines how contemporary technology has transformed our relationship with the skies. This portion highlights how the heavens now survey humanity through record-keeping, precise data-gathering, and algorithmic surveillance, dramatically shifting what humans use for orientation. Featured works include pieces from Trevor Paglen's "Clouds" series, specifically numbers 211 and 248, which turn an algorithmic perspective toward the sky.
Nolan Oswald Dennis contributes "recurse 4 a late planet (lush)" (2025), a complex diagram exploring connections between asteroids and rocks thrown in protest, raising questions about contemporary cosmologies. The exhibition acknowledges that wars, climate chaos, and digital intelligence contribute to what many see as a moment of great communal disorientation, fragmented perception, and temporal confusion in human history.
Rather than allowing viewers to ignore these contemporary challenges, "From the Cosmos to the Commons" serves as a reminder that humanity has struggled to explain and orient itself under the same skies since time immemorial. The ambitious project, initiated by Hamburg city curator Joanna Warsza, suggests a return to more intuitive ways of existing and thriving within creation's vastness.
The constellation of exhibitions, public artworks, and discursive events continues through August 24 at multiple Hamburg locations. The exhibition is the result of collaborative curation, with Warsza organizing the overall project and curating the Stadtpark portion, Fleckner curating the Planetarium component, and Anna Nowak overseeing the Kunsthaus Hamburg presentation. This comprehensive exploration ultimately encourages visitors to reconsider humanity's relationship with the cosmos in both historical and contemporary contexts.
