Open Calls - Call for action

17 – 23 July 2025, Essen What is the relationship between the right to the city and art? Where do activism and artistic practice intersect? And with which artistic strategies and media do I appropriate public space to convey messages within it?

The Summer School for Political and Playful Education invites participants to hack the public realm. Seven international artists from various disciplines will teach the fundamentals of urban intervention across five, six-day workshop modules. Starting from their exploration, the public space will be examined, negotiated, and ultimately transformed into a site for artistic intervention. Using media such as the body, writing, digital tools, installation, and Dietrichs, participants will develop in-situ works that, embedded in the everyday life of city residents, provoke irritation, disruption, reflection, and questioning. For their artistic interventions, the Summer School seeks to tap into the urban pulse and immerses itself in Essen’s underground railway system. Amidst urban realities and at transit hubs, discursive and potential spaces are created. From Essen Central Station, the U11 underground line and the above-ground Rüttenscheider Straße become playgrounds for political and playful education. The Summer School is accompanied by a diverse programme including city talks, walks, lectures, film screenings, and a music programme. The dedicated summer camp takes place at a very special location in Essen’s city centre — transforming the vacant St. Gertrud Parish Church into a campus. More information about the programme, artists, and schedule can be found in the Open Call.

19 July 2025 at 12:00 PM

Join us as the City of Play cycles through the Ruhr area. With a loud and colourful procession, we will travel along the Radschnellweg from Duisburg Innenhafen to Essen. The parade will be accompanied by mobile sound systems and various colour interventions. Together, we will take over the streets and raise awareness for the mobility transition in the Ruhr region. The historically significant route, symbolising structural change in the Ruhrgebiet, passes industrial architecture, skirts city centres, and showcases the green landscapes of the Potts. We are riding for climate action, diversity, and art — burning fat instead of oil! To make it even more vibrant, you can customise your bikes beforehand. Graffiti artists Obisk and Bobbi-Bianchi-230 invite you to participate in the “Tag your Flag” workshop as part of the Duisburg City of Play programme. Together, you will create colourful flags that will be mounted on your bikes and turn the Bike Parade into a splash of colour.

A shared meal brings people together! The City of Play invites you to a Public Dinner. We take a piece of public space and gather around a long table. Everyone is encouraged to bring along some homemade dishes. Together, we will eat, discuss, and play. No registration is required.

Have you ever sat in a paper car, launched a giant paper plane from a bridge, or floated a paper boat on the Ruhr

The City of Play and artist Frank Bölter invite you to an origami adventure playground. As part of a three-part series, you will learn folding techniques and become part of an artistic performance. Using paper and a bit of spit, a community-folded, oversized origami car will be created - the first, only, and probably last car to travel along the Radschnellweg. Before the authorities intervene and issue a fine, the car will be swiftly transformed into a giant paper plane and thrown from the Ruhr Bridge. Since someone is likely to report noise from the flight, the plane will land and be turned into a house inhabited by all. When the tax office sends out the property tax notice, the house will be folded into a ship by its residents and set on the Ruhr Canal. It will seek its fortune elsewhere - probably in Duisburg. No registration is required.

Fancy playing table tennis a bit differently?

The artist Markus Zimmermann invites you to DIY Ping Pong. Together, you will build a table tennis table and numerous paddles. Resource-efficient and creative — because the materials needed come from the local community itself, collected through a public call for material donations.

Once the table tennis table is complete, endless rounds of play can take place. The special thing about DIY Ping Pong is its materiality. While standardised materials usually ensure fair competition, the idiosyncrasy of the DIY paddles and table creates an unexpected dynamism. The usual rules no longer apply — and that’s part of the appeal. It’s less about physical prowess and more about the ability to adapt spontaneously to new conditions. This results in a unique, playful form of equal opportunity: not competition, but shared exploration, experimentation, and enjoyment of the game.

No registration is required.

Can you determine the room temperature to the decimal place with just your little finger extended?

Can you feel fluctuations in humidity on your left earlobe?

Do you notice immediately when the CO₂ level in the air rises above 500 ppm?

Then come to the Climate Casino and get rich! The mobile off-road game table of the Climate Casino brings an interactive roulette setup to various public spaces. Everyone can play for free and bet on environmental data such as CO₂, temperature, and humidity, which are measured live on site. Players who predict the measurements correctly win.

Through the Climate Casino, you'll gain an exciting insight into the microclimate in your local area — right in your city. It invites you to explore your personal connection to the climate crisis in a playful and sensory way and to exchange ideas with others. Additionally, you can discuss the impacts of climate change in urban environments with local experts. No registration is required.

NO EXPECTATION – NO JUDGEMENT – NO INTENTION

NO PLAN – NO GOAL – NO PRESSURE

NO POWER – NO SIGNIFICANCE

NO PAST – NO FUTURE – NO WEIGHT

ONLY THE GAME "katze und krieg" want to play with you in public space. Using what they find on site - discarded paper cups, newspapers lying on the pavement, or the fountain they pass by - the two adult women explore the possibilities and limits of playing right in the midst of our performance- and crisis-ridden everyday life. Barefoot and open to the moment, they invite you to join a playful city walk through Mülheim an der Ruhr with walkie-talkies and headphones. The city walk is conducted in German and is accessible for all.

Is the urban space a playground for you? Have you always wanted to develop your own game? Sebastian Quack and Maria Saridaki invite you to a two-day workshop titled “Offside Traps”. Together, you will create site-specific games and playful interventions in public spaces. Site-specific games are physical, social, bodily, and poetic games that take place beyond the fixed boundaries of screens, game boards, and playgrounds. Instead, they utilise the unique features of the urban environment as a starting point for a collaborative and practical design process: the cityscape, how people use it, their stories, discussions, hopes, and fears. The games developed collaboratively during the workshop will become part of the Playground and can subsequently be played in all project cities within the City of Play.

Cycling and graffiti - how do they fit together? As part of the workshop “Tag Your Flag”, the cycling graffiti artists Obisk and Bobbi-Bianchi-230 will show you where their worlds meet.

To make the City of Play’s Bike Parade even more colourful, participants will work together to cut, sew, and tag. Handmade, vibrant flags with textual elements will be created during the workshop. These flags will then be mounted on your bicycle and held in the wind during the parade.

No prior experience is necessary. Following the workshop, the flag sewing station will remain open for a week, from 31st June to 5th July, for ongoing flag-making under supervision.

No registration is required.