Name: Strangers and Freedom. Pückler - Dialogue about a Cosmopolitan. Mona Höke and Kathrin Karras
Start: 2026-06-20T13:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-08-23T21:00:00+02:00
Location: Brandenburgisches Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst - Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus

Strangers and Freedom in the Diesel Power Plant: An Art Experience about Pückler, Identity and Image Spaces

With Strangers and Freedom, the Brandenburg State Museum of Modern Art opens an exhibition horizon in the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus that intricately weaves together painting, photography, and cultural reflection. Mona Höke and Kathrin Karras encounter Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau not as a monument figure, but as an inspiration for a contemporary examination of cosmopolitanism, strangeness, and aesthetic experience.

A Dialogue between Painting and Photographic Art

The three-part exhibition cycle develops from a rare artistic collaboration: Höke and Karras not only work side by side but also engage together in the image-making process. Photography, digital image production, and unique painting interpenetrate each other, creating that productive tension that makes contemporary exhibition culture so vibrant. From the raw text of memory, a visual narrative emerges, and from the historical figure of Pückler, a mirror of present questions.

Hermann von Pückler-Muskau as a European Projection Figure

Pückler represents far more in this context than garden art and travel literature. He embodies mobility, curiosity, and thinking beyond borders. The relevance of the exhibition lies exactly here: Strangeness does not appear as distance, but as a space of possibility for perception, exchange, and cultural education. The curation thus relies on a dialogue that elegantly combines art historical reflection with contemporary relevance.

Mona Höke: Painting as a Search for Form and Resonance

Mona Höke, born in 1971 in Guben, began a self-taught study of painting in 1995 and has been working freelance in Cottbus and Berlin since 1998. Her works are often inspired by literary texts; word and image, form and color enter into a dense relationship. Awards such as the Young Art Promotion Prize, the Art Promotion Prize of the Spree-Neiße Savings Bank, and the Brandenburg Art Prize underline her visibility in the regional art scene. In this exhibition, her painting language condenses into a sensitive counterpart to photography. ([galeriebrandenburg.de](https://galeriebrandenburg.de/mona-hoeke3/?utm_source=openai))

Kathrin Karras: Photography as a Quest for Traces Inside and Outside

Kathrin Karras, born in 1967 in Guben, lives and works in Löwenberger Land. Her artistic self-understanding revolves around the human as portrait, landscape, and state of being. She understands photography as a quest for traces, experimenting with the medium, and liberating it from mere recognizability. Curator Carmen Schliebe describes her work as unmistakable in contemporary photography; Gundula Schulze Eldowy highlights the energetic visual language that borders on painting and poetry. This authority from the art-internal reception adds special weight to the exhibition. ([karrasfotografie.de](https://www.karrasfotografie.de/vita/))

The Venue: Diesel Power Plant Cottbus as a Museum Experience

The Diesel Power Plant is one of the most prominent places for modern art in Brandenburg. The BLMK preserves with its locations one of the most significant collections of East German art after 1945 and opens it for the present, mediation, and audience dialogue. In Cottbus, the museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; the exhibition spaces are accessible via elevators. The location is Am Amtsteich 15 in 03046 Cottbus. ([blmk.de](https://www.blmk.de/?utm_source=openai))

Why Visiting is Worthwhile

Strangers and Freedom connects historical reflection with a sensually strong contemporary language. Those interested in painting, photography, modern art, exhibition culture, and cultural education will experience a multi-layered display with intellectual depth and atmospheric intensity. The audience encounters not only images but a cleverly composed invitation to reread Pückler, Europe, and their own perception.

Conclusion: This exhibition promises a multi-faceted art experience between image, history, and present. Those looking for art as a space for thought and sensual experience should definitely visit Strangers and Freedom live at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus. ([cottbus.de](https://cottbus.de/cb-events-test/fremde-und-freiheit-pueckler-dialog-ueber-einen-kosmopolit-mona-hoeke-und-kathrin-karras-9/))