Since Friday they have been hanging: most of the works selected by the jury in August can now be seen as large-format banners on the scaffolding of the Rathsmühle. The façade exhibition officially opens on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, at 12:30 pm. And it will stay longer than planned: the banners will hang for as long as the building work lasts.
Anyone walking along Mühlenstraße into the town centre these days will see oil paintings, watercolours, photographs and digital works at the Rathsmühle, where until recently there were only steel tubes and planks. The remaining banners due to hang for the opening will follow over the next few days. The view is not quite finished yet: next, a white sheet will be drawn across the entire façade behind the banners. The works will then stand against a calm, light background, and the Rathsmühle will look different once again.
They brought the first banners to the Rathsmühle, from left to right: Roman Thomas, Simon Schwab, Zandra Gröschner, Alwin Gröschner and Daniel Wunn. Photo: private
Five on the scaffolding
The banners were hung by Zandra and Alwin Gröschner, Roman Thomas and Simon Schwab. They had hands-on help from Daniel Wunn, who sat on the jury in August and was now up on the scaffolding with them.
Hanging on 9 October 2026: secured by a climbing harness, each banner is fixed to the scaffolding one by one. Photo: Roman Thomas
Some works follow after the turn of the year
How much space a scaffold really offers only becomes clear once it is standing. That could not be foreseen precisely during planning, and during the set-up it turned out that some of the works cannot hang on the current scaffolding for structural reasons. Most of the exhibition will therefore be on view at the opening. The remaining works will join after the turn of the year, once a second scaffold has been put up on the left-hand side of the building.
That this does not stay a drawback is down to news that came the same day: the scaffolding will stay up longer than originally planned, for as long as the building work lasts. So the exhibition stays longer than expected too, and the works that only go up after New Year will then be on view together with all the others for a long time.
“We would have loved to show all 55 at the opening, and I know the artists who are still waiting were looking forward to it,” says Roman Thomas, deputy chair of Denk.Mal e.V. “But every selected work is coming onto the façade, and the exhibition will now stay at the Rathsmühle longer than we first thought.”
Funded by the town of Celle, Stadtwerke Celle and Soroptimist International Club Celle: the funders’ banner hangs on the scaffolding too, while work on the art banners continues below. Photo: Roman Thomas
Opening on 4 November
130 artists from Celle and the region applied for the exhibition with 347 works. In August the jury selected 55 of them, exactly one per person. The banners will hang while the listed building is being renovated: public, free of charge and in a place that many people pass every day on their way into the town centre.
Denk.Mal e.V. invites you to the official opening on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, at 12:30 pm at the Rathsmühle on Mühlenstraße. Lord Mayor Dr. Nigge has been invited. Everyone is warmly welcome, do come along.
More pictures of the set-up can be found in the online gallery.
Header image: view across the Aller to the Rathsmühle. Photo: Roman Thomas
About the project