Donation Call

Dear friends of the arts,
dear artists, patrons, and members of our supporting association,

For nearly 20 years, the driving force behind OSTRALE has been to make contemporary art
accessible to as many people as possible and to open up diverse perspectives. We aim to
stimulate critical thinking through engagement with contemporary art, enable new viewpoints,
strengthen the capacity to reflect on societal issues, and foster empathy—all to make the world a little better..  >>>CONTINUE

Out of Ostrale - Litomysl

The Municipal Gallery Litomyšl presents the exhibition OUT OF OSTRALE, which brings a selection of works from the Dresden Biennial of Contemporary Art OSTRALE to the Red Tower. The collection of works by international artists opens up the themes of time, childhood, human memory, motherhood, identity, the feeling of alienation and ecological illusions. The works on display reflect personal experience and broader social themes through painting, video, installation, photography and performative approaches. >>>CONTINUE

OPEN CALL – OSTRALE Biennale 2027

from 15.4., 00:00 CET until 31.5.2026, 24:00 CET

O27 – 16. International Exhibition of Contemporary Arts

5.6. – 3.10.2027 | Dresden (Germany)

For the 16th time, OSTRALE will host its international exhibition of contemporary art, the OSTRALE Biennale. O27 will take place from June 4 to October 3, 2027, at various venues in Dresden as well as in public spaces.

>>> CONTINUE TO OPEN CALL O27

Invitation to a walking tour of the OSTRALE Biennale NEVER GREY exhibition

We cordially invite you to a sensual artistic experience involving dance.

In an age where our everyday lives are characterized by sensory overload, acceleration, and alienation, we often lose touch with our bodies. They become mere shells, functional tools, or even waste containers for our consumption. But what if we began to understand our bodies as living organisms? As vessels that not only reflect our relationship to the world, but also embody it?

The interactive and movement-oriented tour by art historian and dance educator Vivien Foller combines art education with physical and social experience.

The focus is on a sensory exploration of color, form, and diversity.

Information for school classes > > >

Information for adults > > >

OSTRALE Biennale O25

O25 – 15. International Exhibition of Contemporary Art

7th of June – 5th of October 2025 | Dresden, robotron-Kantine (Germany)

For the 15th time the OSTRALE will host its international exhibition of contemporary art in 2025 which runs from 7th of June to 5th of October at the robotron-Kantine in the heart of Dresden and at other locations.

>>> Continue to OSTRALE Biennale O25

NEVER GREY: Dance & Music Event

September 4, 2025, 6:00 p.m. – NEVER GREY & BACH
Bautzner Straße Memorial Dresden
Performance and guided tour – An interaction between the Bautzner Straße Memorial Dresden, the OSTRALE Biennale, and tristan Production

September 11, 2025, 6:00 p.m. – ExSilentio Chamber Choir – Chorwärts
robotron canteen
Impressive choral music, physical movement, and an encounter with contemporary art.

13 March to 18 August 2024

With the project Erlebnisraum Natur, we want to make our parkour accessible for and with people with special needs, especially in the areas of hearing and sight. As a result, nature can be experienced with all the senses.

>>> CONTINUE TO Erlebnisraum Natur

Children's movie program

36th Filmfest Dresden as a guest at the OSTRALE for the first time

21 April 2024 at 2 pm

The Senioren.Salon invites you to the film afternoon 'HAND IN HAND' at the OSTRALE.Basis (Rethelstraße 45, 01139 Dresden).

>>> CONTINUE TO the children's movie program

Opening: December 1 | 6 p.m. with cookies and mulled wine

Just in time for the Christmas season, we invite you once again to the OSTRALE.basis.

On December 1st from 6 pm to 9 pm the exhibition "StadtLANDschaf(f)ten", which concludes the year 2023, will open.

>>> CONTINUE TO StadtLANDschaf(f)ten

REAL FRIENDS vol. 2

Opening: July 8 | 6 p.m. followed by a garden party
While the OSTRALE Biennale is already running in the robotron-Kantine, the Ostrale.Basis at Rethelstraße 45 is still being set up. From July 8, the two artists Theresa Rothe and Josefine Schulz from Leipzig can be seen here with their exhibition REAL FRIENDS vol. 2, which had its debut in Hamburg in February.

>>> CONTINUE TO REAL FRIENDS vol. 2

OSTRALE Biennale O23

10. June – 01. October 2023 | Dresden (Germany)

For the 14th time the OSTRALE – Centre for Contemporary Art organizes its international exhibition of contemporary arts in Dresden, in 2023 from June 10th to October 1st, at the unique robotron-Kantine building in the heart of Dresden.

>>> Continue to OSTRALE Biennale O23

The „robotron-Kantine" must become a space for new art! - Dresden, the city of art and museums, the cultural and scientific metropolis that is the Saxon capital has a very good infrastructure of institutions. What Dresden still lacks, however, is a place for the new in art: a Kunsthalle. A house in which all those initiatives and institutions that are dedicated to the promotion, presentation and mediation of contemporary art can make an appearance. >>>CONTINUE

FLOWING CONNECTIONS IN SPLIT: Between October 24-27, 2022, the final part of the Flowing Connections project will be held in the city of Split and its surroundings. It is the last stop of a three-year international collaborative project that dealt with issues of creative reuse of modernist and post-industrial spaces in post-socialist Europe. After the OSTRALE Biennale O21 in Dresden and exhibitions in Budapest and Kaunas, we are organizing a series of public events in Split. >>>CONTINUE

OUT of OSTRALE O22 in the European Capital of Culture Kaunas, Lithuania – "Streams upstream" is the final OUT of OSTRALE event, completing the series of European cultural cooperation project "Flowing connections". The themes of constant movement, migration of animals and humans, their encounter with challenges and each other are interpreted by the exhibition artists. Each artist's perspective depends on the political and economic reality one comes from. This is an exhibition about globality and all the nowness, unfulfillments and subtexts of this multi-layered phenomenon. >>>CONTINUE

For the 14th time the OSTRALE Center for Contemporary Art organizes its international exhibition of contemporary arts in Dresden, in 2023 from June 10 to October 1, at the unique Robotron Kantine building in the heart of Dresden. The Open Call for the OSTRALE Biennale O23 has ended; the internal jury and curatorial meetings will take place until the end of August 2022. From September 2022 on, we are looking forward to announcing the results of the selection process. >>>CONTINUE

A fresh selection from the material of the OSTRALE Biennale O21 contemporary art exhibition in Dresden will be presented from 19th of March till 22th of May in the exhibition spaces of art quarter budapest, 'inhabiting' the entire building complex of aqb: in addition to the larger and the smaller gallery space (aqb Project Space and aqb AiR Room), the large-scale spatial sound studio on the premises will be used as an occasional venue for screenings and installations, and the exhibition will also include two artist containers (works by Anna Fabricius and the Kolxoz collective), which took shape following last summer's artist-in-residence programme in Dresden. >>>CONTINUE

After the OSTRALE had to move out of its long-standing premises in the former Erlwein slaughterhouse complex in the Ostragehege in 2018, it finally found its new base, with a few detours, in the district of Übigau. The building at Rethelstraße 45, once the cultural center of the local transformer and X-ray factory (1954-1990) and later converted into an artist's studio (2000-2019), is now the new home of the OSTRALE – Center for Contemporary Art with its workshops, studios, the offices for the Biennale, an exhibition and event space, Artist in Residence facilities and a garden offering a generous view of the Elbe River. >>>CONTINUE

The OSTRALE Biennale O21 Breathturn international exhibition of contemporary arts has closed its doors on the 3rd of October 2021. The 384-page exhibition catalogue is now available at the OSTRALE.Basis (Rethelstraße 45), which is open to the public free of charge, at a price of 25 euros. It can also be ordered online through the email address post@ostrale.de. It documents the 557 works of 138 artists from 34 nations, including descriptions of the works and all photographs taken in the exhibition. >>>CONTINUE

FLOWING CONNECTIONS: An European cultural cooperation project of international contemporary art exhibitions in Germany, Croatia, Hungary and Lithuania, complimented by an Artist in Residence program and a series of internal workshops about digital cultural management, postindustrial cultural spaces, art education and the inclusion of people with disabilities. >>>CONTINUE

OSTRALE exceeds mere geographic or political and historical destiny, it is much rather a magical space, shaped by worldfantasy and – reality. The ideology of OSTRALE defends art as a medium of communication which can always be lacking words as mode of exchange. It is a sensual, empirical, as well as a revolting rendering and reflection on our addiction to words, at the same time it is a stimulus to act within different ideas and systems of logic. >>>CONTINUE