Immersive, Iconic, Unforgettable: Thank You 🔴🟡🔵Two last late night with the polka dots, then Turtle Island calls 03.09.2026, 10:30 Uhr
and 03.09.2026, 18:30 Uhr
Museum Ludwig
and 03.09.2026, 18:30 Uhr
Museum Ludwig
ArtTalk Sign Up
| Date & Times | 03.09.2026, 10:30 Uhr 03.09.2026, 18:30 Uhr |
|---|---|
| Venue | Museum Ludwig, Heinrich-Böll-Platz, 50667 Köln |
| Price ArtTalk | 28,00 €/participant for adults; 8,00 €/participant for students, artists and kids |
| Language ArtTalk | American English |
| Meeting Point | Central foyer, at the bench, by the column with the BLUE dot. |
| Info | KölnTag: free museum entry with Kölner Ausweis. Register one week before. Min. 5, max. 15 participants. Please transfer the ArtTalk fee promptly to fix your ArtTalk place. If you pay and can’t come, let me know before the AT to get your payment back. |
🔴 Immersive. Hypnotic. Unforgettable.
Dear ArtTalkers,
Thank you. That is really the whole message this week.
The Yayoi Kusama ArtTalks brought out something special in this community.
Fascinating is a word that kept coming up. So did deep.
Several of you told me the connection between the artwork and Kusama’s own life story was genuinely moving, not just interesting.
Immersive. Dizzying. Obsessive. Those are more or less Kusama’s own words for her work. They also describe what happened during the ArtTalks!
One regular ArtTalker went to see the Kusama show four times. Wow! That is not a museum visit anymore. That is a relationship. 😍
🌙 One last chance: the museum stays open until 2am
Missed it, or want to go back? The Kusama exhibition closes on August 2, moves on to Amsterdam next, and Museum Ludwig is marking it with two very late nights.
On Saturday, August 1 and Sunday, August 2, the museum stays open until 2am. From 8pm it is first come, first served: tickets are sold only at the museum’s own ticket office that evening, no online booking. Waiting in line is part of the Kusamania experience ;)
🌎 Next up! Turtle Island, September 3
After Kusama’s polka dots, we land somewhere completely different.
On September 3, ArtTalk walks into HERE AND NOW: Collecting Memories from Turtle Island, and the space offers something unexpected right away: thirteen tin cones hang from the ceiling and ring softly when you brush past them. That’s Marie Watt’s Thirteen Moons, built around a healing ceremony that was once outlawed in the United States of America.
From there we meet Wendy Red Star, whose staged self-portraits turn the camera back on a century of clichés about Native identity, sharp and funny at once.
One question drives the whole ArtTalk and this special show; who gets collected, who gets remembered, and who decides?
🫶 Welcome to newcomers
A lot of you found ArtTalks through the Kusama Insta/FB reels this spring, so here’s a proper hello 👋 ArtTalks run in my native US English, and you do not need any art background to join - only a certain curiosity. We reflect together in front of the artwork. I still do most of the talking and story telling 😉
And one more tradition: after the ArtTalks, the group often meets afterwards in a café nearby. Half the conversation happens there.
Looking forward to seeing you after my summer break! 🏖️
Artfully yours 🖼️
Karla
Karla Schlaepfer
www.art-talks.de — more news, videos and blog posts
👉 Follow @arttalks.cologne on Instagram for more behind-the-scenes and amazing reels by Kata!
Coming up next!
🌎 HERE AND NOW: Collecting Memories from Turtle Island
3 September 2026 | 10:30 + 18:30 | Museum Ludwig
Indigenous perspectives on who museums collect, and who gets left out of the frame.
🎨 Further Reading on Turtle Island
e-flux De/Collecting Memories from Turtle Island
The museum’s own account of the show: how Thirteen Moons pairs with century-old postcard photographs to question whose version of America gets remembered.