Things That Were Are Things

Franciska Zólyom, Julia Eckert

Do art museums need to radically transform the way they work? Perspectives on how to approach art in times of climate change, on the example of the collection of the GfZK – Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig

What do art museums have to do with climate change? Do they need to radically transform the way they work? The publication Things That Were Are Things Again accompanies the collection exhibition of the same name at the GfZK – Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig. This was the museum’s first attempt to produce a climate-neutral exhibition. The curators and designers of the exhibition reflect on the two-year working process, during which they tried out resource-saving and climate-friendly strategies and dealt with climate change from various perspectives. 24 artistic positions, mainly works from the museum’s collection, but also several new productions, examined technological, political, economic and cultural aspects of climate change. How sustainable can plastic be? Have the ‘tropics’ always been the future? Can the principles of permaculture be applied to artistic endeavours?

With works by Lara Almarcegui, Lars Bergmann, Kent Chan, Céline Condorelli, Katarína Dubovská, Ólafur Elíasson, Till Exit, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Andrea Garcia Vasquez, Elizabeth Gerdeman, Interspecies Society, Christine Hill, Johanna Kandl, Inga Kerber, Imi Knoebel, Hanne Lippard, Muntean/Rosenblum, Olaf Nicolai, Dan Peterman, Maren Roloff, Christoph Schäfer, Sean Snyder, Sarah Sze, Auke de Vries

Franciska Zólyom

Franciska Zólyom is a curator and director of the GfZK – Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig. With her team, she works on the realization and communication of artistic ideas and aims to contribute to transforming museums into places of participation and co-determination, where people with different interests and expertise come together.

Julia Eckert

Julia Eckert is a collection curator, administration manager and sustainability officer at the GfZK – Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig. She co-curated Things That Were Are Things Again, the museum’s first attempt at a climate-neutral exhibition.

Editors: Julia Eckert, Franciska Zólyom
Authors: Kent Chan, Katarína Dubovská, Julia Eckert, Gesellschaft für artübergreifende Freundschaft (Interspecies Society), Inga Kerber, Katharina Köhler, Eleni Michaelidi, Olaf Nicolai, Studio Baustein (Jonas Fleckenstein / Maria Bauhofer), The New Raw (Foteini Setaki), Franciska Zólyom
Design: Katharina Köhler
Editorial management: Julia Eckert, Sabine Weier, Franciska Zólyom
Copy editing: Tanja Milewsky, Sabine Weier (DE), Louise Bromby (EN)
Proofreading: Julia Eckert, Bettina Reichmuth, Sabine Weier
Translation: Sabine Weier (EN → DE), Louise Bromby (DE → EN)
Photo credits: Alexandra Ivanciu Except: Katharina Köhler, Studio Baustein, Kent Chan, Inga Kerber,  Céline Condorelli, Sebastian Schröder, Stefan Fischer, Humme, Leipzig, Tobias Wootton, Andreas Enrico Grunert,  Mehrweglabor
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026: Stefan Fischer, Christine Hill, Inga Kerber, Imi Knoebel, Olaf Nicolai
Typefaces: Besley (indestructible type); Gus Mono, Rosart, (Camelot Typefaces) New Rail (A2 Type); TychosRecipe (Pia Frauss)