Do you work artistically with light, movement, projections and interactions, and are you interested in workshops and participatory creative processes? Then you’re exactly who we’re looking for!
During the residency in Halle (Saale), you will develop and test light projections, installations and other formats together with children and young people from the neighbourhood. The residency lasts two months and can take place flexibly between June and August 2026. We will provide you with a large studio in a former sports hall in Neustadt. The works created by you and the local community will subsequently be presented and staged at the Light Festival.
On 2 and 3 October 2026, a Light Festival will take place in the Neustädter Passages in Halle-Neustadt. Under the motto “Making Structures Visible”, the festival focuses on social dynamics and forms of urban coexistence.
Apply by 31 January 2026 (inclusive)!
As you will be working closely with people from the neighbourhood, knowlegde of Arabic or Ukrainian is an advantage. Communication with us is best in German or English.
We provide accommodation and offer funding of €1,500 per month.
Our neighbourhood: Halle-Neustadt
Halle-Neustadt is a district of Halle (Saale) that was built from the 1960s onwards as an independent planned city of the GDR. Conceived as a place to live for employees of the chemical industries in Buna and Leuna, “HaNeu” was an ambitious project: generously planned, with plenty of green space, a clear structure and eight residential complexes. At its peak, more than 90,000 people lived here; today the number is just over half of that.
From the very beginning, art in public space played a central role. Sculptures, murals, mosaics and façade designs were firmly integrated into urban planning and conveyed socialist values such as solidarity and progress. Despite demolition and decay, many of these works are still visible and continue to shape the cityscape today – for many residents, they are an important source of local identity.
After German reunification, Halle-Neustadt came under severe pressure. The collapse of industry led to unemployment, out-migration and vacancy. Entire housing blocks disappeared, leaving unused spaces behind. The district increasingly acquired a negative reputation and has become emblematic of territorial stigmatisation: an image shaped less by everyday experience than by prejudice, media narratives and political attributions – with tangible consequences for the people who live here.
At the same time, Halle-Neustadt is a diverse and vibrant place. Alongside the older generation, young families and many people with migration histories live here, including people from Syria and Ukraine. Social tensions and economic disadvantage are real, as is political polarisation. Yet there are also strong potentials: affordable and available spaces, a rich history and a long tradition of art in public space. Halle-Neustadt offers fertile ground for artistic practices that engage with place, society and new narratives – open, critical and developed together with local communities.
Your Workspace: Sports Hall, Begonienstraße 30
The surrounding area is predominantly residential, largely consisting of Halle-Neustadt’s original prefabricated housing stock. The sports hall is located at the junction of Zur Saaleaue and Begonienstraße, set slightly back and clearly visible from almost all sides. Thanks to its position between Peißnitz Island and the centre of Halle-Neustadt, it is easily accessible both from the old town and from within Neustadt.
An exception to the surrounding older buildings is the new development directly north of the sports hall. In the immediate vicinity are the Islamic Cultural Centre and the Pusteblume Multigenerational Centre, both of which regularly host events.
The sports hall is well known within the city due to previous temporary uses, such as the “Fliparena” skate hall and the community garden NEUtopia, which shaped the site over several years. Our exhibition Beyond Plattenbau, which took place in the sports hall, also demonstrated the wide range of possible uses for the space.
Like most GDR sports halls, the building in Begonienstraße is a standardised type structure and therefore part of the architectural and cultural heritage of the former GDR. It serves as a testament to the construction methods and design of that period.
The main working space covers 280 m². Additional side rooms and storage areas are available. There is currently no water connection in the sports hall; a composting toilet is located on the site, and electricity is available. Our office, equipped with all amenities, is a five-minute walk away and can be used during the residency.
Our Aim: A Light Festival
On 2 and 3 October 2026, the Neustädter Passage in the centre of Halle-Neustadt will be re-imagined through a large-scale Light Festival. The passage, with its five striking slab-tower high-rises, was planned as the urban heart of the district and remains a unique ensemble to this day. Since 1990, however, it has been characterised by vacancy, transformation and a lack of lighting. Through light, façade projections, art and encounters, we aim to reveal its potential and renegotiate its original significance.
The 2026 Light Festival in Halle-Neustadt invites audiences to make the invisible visible. Our starting point is the idea that urban coexistence is shaped by a wide range of structures, many of which remain hidden or overlooked in everyday life. Using light as a medium, we seek to stage, question and experience these structures together.
We understand “structures” across several dimensions:
Visual / aesthetic: We highlight Halle-Neustadt’s architectural and urban heritage. Features such as art in public space, structural façades, HP shell constructions and other buildings appear in new forms, opening up unfamiliar perspectives on well-known places.
Urban-spatial: The festival uses light to address themes of urban space, such as the idea of the “city of short distances”, spaces associated with fear, and questions of demographic change.
Social: We focus on power relations and social structures that shape everyday life – from stigmatisation to networks of solidarity.
Across all these dimensions, light becomes a tool for making fundamental structures visible.
A collaborative approach is central to the festival. It is created in cooperation with people and initiatives from Halle-Neustadt, the city of Halle and beyond. The aim is an open event that enables exchange, strengthens identity and resonates beyond the district itself.
Our Work: Freiraumgalerie and Wall & Space e.V.
The project is carried by Wall & Space e.V. and the Freiraumgalerie. Both organisations are rooted in Halle-Neustadt and work at the intersection of art in public space, educational practice and cooperative urban development. Through participatory formats, festivals and projects, they combine artistic quality with close engagement with local communities. With around 200 murals, the Freiraumgalerie is one of the most renowned muralism collectives in the German-speaking world, while Wall & Space e.V. links artistic interventions with educational and participatory work.
For the past two years, we have been working on the development of a Community Art Center. In Halle-Neustadt, a permanent place for art is gradually taking shape within the neighborhood. It is intended not only as an exhibition space, but also as a meeting point, workshop, and stage—open to people from the district and beyond. A place where artistic ideas can grow, exchange can emerge, and art becomes a visible part of everyday life in Halle-Neustadt. The sportshall serves as the first temporary art space, where a creative working and presentation environment will be established during the summer of 2026.
Apply for the residency for Light Festival 2026 now
