Stadtgalerie: Open House

On Saturday, 29 August, the Stadtgalerie will open its doors wide for an OPEN HOUSE featuring workshops, a guided tour, and a one-of-a-kind piano concert.

Programme overview:

Here's a preview of what's to come—more details will be announced soon. Stay tuned!

12.00              Performance workshop with Yeji Cho (30 minutes)
14.00              Guided tour & breathing workshop with Hojin Kang (60 minutes)
16.00              AI-workshop with Mert Akbal (90 minutes)
18:00              Short guided tour with Hojin Kang and concert by Roman Reznic

• Performance workshop with Yeji Cho

Ultimately: What do we want to express, with or without AI? In this workshop, we step in front of the camera and playfully explore our bodies and gestures. Who shapes the image: the AI, or us?

Yeji Cho was born in South Korea and studied Performing Arts at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Media Art & Design at HBKsaar, where she works with sound and image to explore the themes of gaze, microaggressions, and exclusion.

• Guided tour and breathing workshop with Hojin Kang

#Im Workshop MIND–MEDIA–MATTER werden wir anhand von praktischen Bewegungs- und Atemübungen, inspiriert von asiatischen Kampfkünsten und buddhistischen Philosophien, das Bewusstsein für unsere eigene Körperlichkeit und unsere Präsenz im Raum schärfen. Wir werden gemeinsam unsere Smartphones weglegen, gemeinsam stretchen, gemeinsam bewegen, gemeinsam atmen. Wir werden gemeinsam reflektieren, wie Technologien unsere Wahrnehmung von Körper, Geist und Raum beeinflussen. Ziel des Workshops ist der Zugang zur eigenen Resilienz in Zeiten von Krieg, Krisen & KI.

Hojin Kang (*1986 in Köln als Sohn koreanischer Migranten) lebt und arbeitet in Berlin. Kangs künstlerische Praxis umfasst Installationen, Video und Skulptur. In seinen Arbeiten verbindet er neue Medien mit traditionell konfuzianisch-buddhistischen Ritualen und untersucht wie Technologien vom Instrument der Kontrolle und der Entmenschlichung zu Werkzeugen von Nähe und Verbundenheit werden können. 

Ausgewählte Ausstellungen: Kulturabteilung der Koreanischen Botschaft, Berlin (2026); Galerie Adlershof, Berlin (2026); Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena (2026); Galerie Judith Andreae, Bonn (2025); Dokfest Lounge, Kassel (2023); Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken (2022)

• AI-workshop with Mert Akbal

Surreal Intelligence

Generative AI is not only a technological revolution — it is deeply rooted in the ideas of modern art. Surrealism in particular developed principles through techniques such as automatism, collage, and distributed authorship that are now echoed at the heart of machine learning. Anyone who truly wants to understand AI and its impact on human creativity cannot overlook this genealogy. The fact that this connection remains so little acknowledged and explored — artistically, scientifically, and technologically — is one of the most striking blind spots in the AI hype. In this offline workshop, we will explore together what connects Surrealism and generative AI — not as an abstract theory, but through hands-on practice. We will experiment analogously: with collage, automatism, chance, and AI. Both approaches will merge, opening up new questions about creativity, authorship, and collaboration between humans and machines. We will experiment with pencil frottage, collage using scissors, and text-to-image and image-to-image processes via ComfyUI, an open-source environment for generative AI that anyone can use free of charge. No prior knowledge of AI or art is required. Only curiosity.

Mert Akbal is a digital media artist and academic working at the intersection of generative art, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. Through experimental approaches and speculative fiction, he explores questions surrounding our changing world. Inspired by cognitive science — particularly dreams and altered states of consciousness — he creates animated paintings for stage productions and virtual spaces. His works have been presented on numerous international platforms, including the International Symposium on Electronic Arts, the ZKM Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe, 2018), the Mirage Digital Art Festival (Lyon, 2018), the Musée-École de la Perrine (Laval, 2021), re:publica (Berlin, 2021), the LASER Garden at Ars Electronica (Linz, 2021), the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Berlin, 2023), the Rotterdam Opera Festival (2023), the Historisches Museum Saar (Saarbrücken, 2023), and the Deutsches Zeitungsmuseum (Wadgassen, 2024). 

Some of his works are also held in private and museum collections, including the Stiftung Saarländischer Kulturbesitz.

• Concert by Roman Reznic

Roman Reznic is a pianist, composer, arranger, and piano educator. Following his classical training in Dresden and his studies in jazz at the Hochschule für Musik Saar, he has performed as a soloist and with various ensembles on stages both in Germany and abroad.

His music combines classical, jazz, and electronic influences, with ample space for improvisation. Alongside his artistic work, Roman has been teaching piano for more than ten years and accompanies numerous music projects as a pianist and répétiteur — with a particular passion for creative arrangements and music education.