Pressemappe

ZKM | Karlsruhe

A view of the ZKM from the outside during the day.

More than a museum

The ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe is recognised worldwide for its open conception of art in the digital age. Founded in 1989 with the aim of carrying the classical arts into the digital age, ZKM has since accompanied the transformation of modern media technologies like no other art institution. Its mission is to investigate and better understand the impact of the media and digital world on people’s lives.

As an innovative centre at the interface between art and technology, ZKM combines scientific and artistic research: alongside the preservation and presentation of its significant (media art) collection, comprising some 15,000 works, the focus is above all on the production and further development of media art.

Housed within a restored industrial monument are not only the spacious exhibition galleries, but also the archive, the laboratory for obsolete video systems, the media art restoration department, the transdisciplinary research and development platform ZKM | Hertzlab, as well as the library and the publicly accessible, free-to-use co-working space, the Medialounge.

Through its exhibitions, symposia, publications, concert programmes and digital formats, ZKM sees itself as a platform for discourse on art and technology in dialogue with society, science, business and politics. ZKM is not a traditional museum, but a ‘Useum’: a place that everyone can use to create a culture in which life is worth living. In this public space, people from all walks of life and cultures can come together with artists, scientists and engineers to experiment, experience new things and learn together through action. The focus here is not only on displaying and preserving art, but also, in particular, on the development of new works and constructive, creative collaboration between people.

In 2025, over 230,000 people visited the ZKM | Karlsruhe.

Image - Gallery

Nam June Paik, »Canopus«, from the series »Planetarium«, 1990, single-channel video sculpture ; 6 monitors, 1 laserdisc, 1 laserdisc player, ca. 86 cm in diameter, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe

© Nam June Paik; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: Steffen Harms
The ZKM | Shop

@ ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Photo: Felix Grünschloß
View into the exhibition »The Story That Never Ends«

© ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Photo: Felix Grünschloß