NordArt 2026 at the Kunstwerk Carlshütte, Büdelsdorf

A foundry full of art

The way to NordArt begins surprisingly unspectacularly, with an access road, a few bicycle racks and a building with a green glass facade. Only a few steps further does the park open up, and between old trees, a pond and wide lawns the first sculptures appear. I was there on October 1, with my camera, and stayed well into the afternoon.

From iron foundry to exhibition

The Carlshütte was founded in 1827, as an iron foundry and as the first industrial settlement in what were then the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Casting went on until 1997, and since 1999 NordArt has taken place in the old halls every summer. Steel girders, rough walls and old pits in the floor are still there, and some works look different against this background than they would in a white museum gallery.

NordArt in brief

NordArt has taken place every year since 1999, in 2026 for the 27th time, from June 6 to October 4, Tuesday to Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. Around 200 artists were selected from about 3,000 applications; in 1999 there were 50 from six countries. The halls add up to 22,000 square metres, the sculpture park to 80,000. The exhibition is curated as a whole by Wolfgang Gramm, Inga Aru and Taso Gramm, this year with a focus on the Baltic states. Since 2000 artists have worked on the site beforehand at the symposium, and some of what is made there stays in the park.

Art did not replace the foundry. It moved in with it.

How the exhibition is structured, what there was to see in the park and in the halls, and who receives the NordArt Prize, I have written up in detail in the magazine, with 55 photos.