Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation presents the exhibitions “Worlds within Worlds” and “Human Topographies. Art Collection Deutsche Börse”

The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation will open two new exhibitions at The Cube on 19 February 2026: “Worlds within Worlds” with works by students from the University of Art and Design (HfG) in Offenbach, and “Human Topographies. Art Collection Deutsche Börse” featuring works from its own collection.

“Worlds within Worlds”

The exhibition “Worlds within Worlds” is the second collaborative project between the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, the photography department at the University of Art and Design (HfG) Offenbach and the Master’s programme Curatorial Studies, run jointly by Goethe University and Städelschule Frankfurt. It brings together 14 artists whose works explore the in-between worlds of our respective realities. In their examination of political, historical and social themes, the boundaries of the medium of photography are probed, altered and expanded. Nelly Habelt’s video shows bodies floating in seemingly eternal stillness. In Lena Bils’ work, cotton-like clouds hang blurred over bodies of water, and Tatiana Vdovenko reveals a view of a destroyed landscape through a narrow gap.

The works reflect biographical experiences, subjective patterns of perception and personal interests. Individual starting points are interwoven with collective realities and overarching themes, depicting the everyday as well as supernatural, hopeful and catastrophic moments, that explore transitions, thresholds or boundaries. Contemporary microcosms are juxtaposed with spaces of memory – of East Germany, colonial continuities or migrant resilience. E. Elif Gönüllü processes her experience of gruelling bureaucratic hurdles into prayer beads, while Charlotte Burkhardt documents the nostalgic vacation resorts of a vanished state. Urban infrastructures and human order meet the vulnerability of nature and lay bare a fragile balance. Social tensions, past and present, are processed visually.

The selected works reject simple narratives by contrasting populist black-and-white thinking with a wide array of grey areas. Familiar perspectives and certainties are destabilised to reflect the complexity of realities. The exhibition invites viewers to understand visual spaces not as closed narratives, but as open systems expanded through dialogue. “Worlds within Worlds” opens up perspectives on fiction and myth, challenging the promise of there being a single truth.

The artists featured in the exhibition are: Lena Bils, Charlotte Burkhardt, Simon Gilmer, E. Elif Gönüllü, Nelly Habelt, Philomena Hummel, Elinor Zoë Karl, Lea Kulens, Len David Oswald, Marie Schwarze, Markus Seibel, Madlen Strebel, Tatiana Vdovenko and Kerstin Weiser.

The exhibition was curated by Polina Arzhenovskova, Leonie Cecco, Franziska Dommers, Issata Drieling, Charlotte Häger, Antonia Janke, Egor Miroshnichenko, Alexandra Ruecker, Mattis Thomsen, Max Zimmermann and Carla Veit. The collaboration is supervised by Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Stefanie Heraeus, Head of the Curatorial Studies programme at Goethe University in Frankfurt and Martin Liebscher, Professor at the University of Art and Design in Offenbach.

“Human Topographies”

The exhibition presents 70 works from the Art Collection Deutsche Börse, illustrating the diverse facets of environments shaped by humankind. It ranges from dense Asian megacities to North American metropolises and small towns on the German and French periphery to the vast, sparsely populated areas in the Midwestern US – and the many variations in between.

The exhibited works depict the multifaceted interplay of landscape, architecture and humans, highlighting the challenges posed by nature and climatic conditions across different regions as well as the ways in which architects and urban planners tackle them. The spectrum ranges from the harmonious integration of architecture to a bizarre understanding of urban design, including the near-complete suppression of the original landscape. The photographic series, some of which took many years to create, illustrate the progressive and creative, albeit ruthless, creation of urban environments as well as the adaptability of the people who inhabit them. “Human Topographies” combines works from the 1950s to the present, thus creating a dialogue between images by well-known artists and younger positions.

The exhibition was conceived by Cornelia Siebert, Junior Curator, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation. It presents photographs by the following artists: Verdiana Albano, Nobuyoshi Araki, Sibylle Bergemann, Peter Bialobrzeski, Mohamed Bourouissa, Alejandro Cartagena, Bruce Davidson, Mitch Epstein, Lucas Foglia, Thomas Hoepker, Evelyn Hofer, Matthias Klose, Ute and Werner Mahler, Vivian Maier, Mike Mandel, Richard Mosse, Jürgen Nefzger, Mimi Plumb, Anastasia Samoylova, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, Wilhelm Schürmann, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, Beat Streuli, Mikhael Subotzky & Patrick Waterhouse, Henry Wessel and Ulrich Wüst.

Information for visitors and exhibition programme

Both exhibitions will open on Thursday, 19 February, at 6.30 p.m. and run until 16 August 2026 at the Deutsche Börse Group headquarters in Eschborn. Admission is free. Visits are possible as part of regular guided tours with prior registration, during the “Open Saturdays” on 13 June and 15 August 2026 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. without prior registration as well as at the Night of the Museums on 25 April 2026.

To register for the opening or a guided tour, please visit the Photography Foundation website:
www.deutscheboersephotographyfoundation.org

We are happy to arrange special tours for individual groups (up to 25 participants) via e-mail: foundation@deutsche-boerse.com

Address: The Cube, Mergenthalerallee 61, 65760 Eschborn

Note to editors:

A press preview for the exhibition will be held on Thursday, 19 February 2026 at 11 a.m. in The Cube, Mergenthalerallee 61, in Eschborn. A separate invitation will follow. Please register in advance via e-mail: media.foundation@deutsche-boerse.com

An overview of the press images for the exhibition “Worlds within Worlds” is available here. Press images for the exhibition “Human Topographies. Art Collection Deutsche Börse” are available here. We are happy to send you the press images in print quality upon request.

Media contact:
media.foundation@deutsche-boerse.com
Tel. Tel. +49 69 211 1 40 60

About the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation

The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, dedicated to collecting, exhibiting and promoting contemporary photography. The Foundation is responsible for the development and presentation of the Art Collection Deutsche Börse. It shows several public exhibitions per year in its exhibition space in Eschborn near Frankfurt am Main. The Foundation supports young artists through awards, scholarships or the annual talent programme of the Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam Foam. Together with the Photographers’ Gallery in London, it awards the renowned Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize every year. The Foundation also works on exhibitions with international museums and institutions, as well as creating platforms for academic dialogue and research on photography.
www.deutscheboersephotographyfoundation.org

About the Art Collection Deutsche Börse

The Art Collection Deutsche Börse is among the most important collections of international contemporary photography. Established in 1999, the collection now comprises more than 2,400 works by around 170 artists from 40 countries. The Art Collection is dedicated to the central themes of photography since the mid-20th century. The visual languages and photographic approaches represented in the collection are as diverse as the background, age, or artistic method of the photographers, ranging from documentary to conceptual approaches. Each position offers its own perspective on the collection’s central theme, the “conditio humana”, the exploration of the conditions of human existence and its position in the world.