IMAGINE OUR COMMON FUTURE!

DIALOG CITY EXHIBITION AND FUTURE FESTIVAL IN ASCHAFFENBURG

From June 13 to September 14, 2025 a DIALOG CITY exhibition will be on display at Schönborner Hof in Aschaffenburg. The various phases of the project DIALOG CITY will be presented there and important questions about “possible futures” of the cities will be addressed. The topic of personal digital archiving for example will be a particular focus.

In addition, several events, including a Game Jam, Workshops and a Coffee Lecture on various digital topics will be offered as part of the FUTURE FESTIVAL, which will take place at different locations in Aschaffenburg from July 3 to 5, 2025. The motto of the FUTURE FESTIVAL is: Design your city!

You are kindly invited to visit the exhibition and take part in the FUTURE FESTIVAL.

For more information about the exhibition please see here.

You can find the programme of the FUTURE FESTIVAL here.

DIALOG CITY RESIDENCIES

Lisa Maria Baier and Alexandre Benetas-Ottobrini are selected for DIALOG CITY RESIDENCY in Aschaffenburg and in Montpellier 2025

The residency in Montpellier will start April 21, 2025, and the final presentation will be showcased at the FUTURE FESTIVAL MONTPELLIER in partnership with the Festival Des Architectures Vives, from 10 to 15 June 2025. The residency in Aschaffenburg will commence May 2, 2025, and the results will be exhibited during at the FUTURE FESTIVAL ASCHAFFENBURG in close cooperation with the Cultural Days of Aschaffenburg, from July 3-5, 2025.

For Montpellier, the jury selected Alexandre Benetas-Ottobrini, a Paris-based food artist with a master’s degree in design and culinary arts from the École Supérieure d’Art et de Design in Reims (FR).

For Aschaffenburg, the jury selected Lisa Maria Baier, a contemporary visual artist. Lisa completed her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden and the University of Fine Arts Budapest and lives and works in Dresden. During her residency, Lisa works partly in public in a FUTURE PAVILION in the centre of Aschaffenburg. She will also be presenting parts of her work there. Visitors will have the chance to talk to Lisa about her art.

Unlock the Power of Imagination –

Join the FUTURES LITERACY WORKSHOPS!

Are you curious about how we can shape the present by imagining multiple futures? As part of the DIALOG CITY project, we invite you to participate in a unique series of FUTURES LITERACY WORKSHOPS in Greece that explore how thinking about the future can transform the way we understand and act in the world today. These interactive sessions have been designed by artists for active citizens, educators, and anyone who is called to make decisions and wants to explore new tools for creativity, collaboration, and social change.

Space is limited, so register now to secure your spot in this dynamic, exploratory experience. Let’s imagine – and build – possible futures together!

To register, fill out the form here.

For more information please see here.

The Citizen Archive Platform (CAP)

The Citizen Archive Platform (CAP), an important component of the Dialog City project, was presented at the second Hybrid Festival in Graz (June 6-8, 2024). This new tool offers citizens, artists and civil society organizations the opportunity to upload, archive and permanently save their digital data. In this way, CAP helps to preserve digital treasures of memory for future generations.

For further information please click here.

You can also visit the CAP-Website here.

Second Art for Public Residency

LONGINGS is the title of the second art residency project for the public by DIALOG CITY featuring visual artist Lenka Holíková. It bridges research and artistic production, focusing on migrant narratives closely tied to Graz City.

Developed in collaboration between the Graz Museum and individuals who have migrated to Graz due to forced displacement, the project centres around the personal stories of those who sought safety and peace in Graz after leaving their homes.

Among various significant aspects discussed by the participants are the reasons for leaving their homelands, emphasizing that “no one leaves home unless it is necessary,” moments of frustration and fear experienced, and the challenges of being far from familiar surroundings.

Through empathy and artistic interpretation, the artist internalizes these shared experiences, transforming them into visual and auditory expressions and metaphors.

Special thanks are extended to the individuals who generously shared their time and intimate stories.

Visitors are invited to witness this reflective artistic process at the Graz Museum until 1 September 2024.

For more information see here.

First Art for Public Residency

News From Home is an ongoing project by the artist duo Anne Fehres and Luke Conroy, capturing overlooked stories from communities. The 10th edition of this project took place during a 4 week artist-residency in Mondovì, Italy.

The outcome of this research and image collection was the creation of a large-scale 6×2 metre photographic composition. This work was presented on a wall in public space during the Hybrid Festival in Mondovì from July 20 — July 22. The final composition consists of almost one thousand individual elements, inspired by the multi-layered identity of Mondovì. 

These layers present a diversity of perspectives on Mondovì and include such elements as children’s drawings, historical images, photography of daily life submitted by the community, graffiti scratched into walls around the city and spontaneous staged portraits in the streets. Through this collision of diverse layers, the work celebrates Mondovì as a place where elements of the past, modern reality and future dreams constantly overlap, inviting the audience to consider diverse narratives from both a local and global perspective.

About DIALOG CITY

DIALOG CITY aims to increase accessibility to culture through a dialogical approach by developing new practices on how to connect digital innovation to citizens’ physical participation. In doing so DIALOG CITY creates a socially inclusive, environmentally friendly, and economically sustainable urban digital environment.

Co-creation is at the core of the project encompassing a CITIZEN ARCHIVE PLATFORM for the cultural heritage sector and an innovative design thinking toolkit on FUTURE LITERACY.

Highlights

Who We Are

DIALOG CITY consists of 7 project partners that are based in small and medium-size cities in 5 European countries. It comprises city archivesmuseums and city museumsarchives, urban activists and social architects, cultural organisations and a contemporary circus art institute as well as vocational training facilities.