47m Contemporary

About 47m Contemporary

Founded in 2023, the Kunstverein 47m Contemporary is an exhibition platform for both established and emerging international voices in contemporary art. The association is dedicated to presenting critical artistic perspectives that engage with urgent questions of our time. In doing so, it sees itself as a platform for intergenerational and interdisciplinary dialogue.

With three annual solo or group exhibitions, the artistic focus lies on time-based media such as video, sound, installation, and performance, as well as the development of site-specific new productions. These formats are accompanied by a diverse range of collaborations and events.

47m is located in the listed Wünschmann-Haus in Leipzig’s Südvorstadt district. The building was constructed between 1914 and 1917 based on the design by Leipzig architect Georg Wünschmann. The exhibition spaces extend across the top two floors, reaching up to the domed hall situated 47 meters above street level.

History of the Building

The building was constructed between 1913 and 1917 as an association and administrative headquarters for the Association of German Commercial Employees. According to contemporary opinion, architect Georg Wünschmann created the “canon of the modern commercial palace,” crowned by a monumental dome (47 meters) housing a domed hall. This dome is visible from many parts of Leipzig and is a defining feature of the city’s skyline. The monument map of Saxony notes that the sculpted heads on the façade are intended to allegorically represent trade and commerce. The 92-metre-wide representative shell limestone façade, with its calm articulation and six fluted columns in colossal order, also bears the building inscription. Due to wartime delays, the exterior was completed in 1916. At that time, the building also housed the administration of the Great Leipzig Tramway, later the Leipzig Transport Authority. From 1917/1919 onwards, it additionally accommodated a war economy museum and later a national economy museum. Directly behind it, in the courtyard, is the associated printing house of the association, built at the same time.
During the National Socialist era, the building served as the foreign exchange office (Devisenstelle), which monitored and initiated the confiscation of Jewish property, operating at the intersection of administration and the practical enforcement of expropriation. This was documented in the project and guided tour “Exclusion, Persecution, Expropriation – Involvement of Leipzig Institutions under National Socialism” by the Leipzig City History Museum. Other sites, such as the New Town Hall as the seat of municipal authorities and administration, and the auction house Hans Klemm (Große Fleischergasse 19), were also involved in the expropriation and auctioning of Jewish property.

In 1946, the building was taken over by the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB), which developed into the largest mass organisation in the GDR with around nine million members by 1990. Despite its name, the FDGB was not independent; it was subordinate to the Socialist Unity Party (SED) and served primarily to secure its political control.

Until 1993, a post office was located in the central section behind the entrance hall. After 1990, the building was acquired by a company from Baden-Württemberg and extensively renovated in the mid-1990s. As with many buildings in Leipzig, it is also privately owned by West German investors. Since then, 25 high-quality residential units have been created in the building. In 2013, the Leipzig public transport authority moved to a new administrative building, followed by another change of ownership two years later.

After several years of vacancy, 47m Contemporary has been permanently located in the dome of the Wünschmann-Haus since June 2024.

Regular membership benefits at a glance:

Free admission to all exhibitions and accompanying events
Personal invitations to exhibition openings and exclusive related events
Regular updates on developments and news from the art association
Discounts on selected editions and merchandise items
Participation and voting rights at the annual general members’ meetings

Fördersumme

Ich möchte Mitglied im Kunstverein 47m e.V. werden

Ich möchte eine Jahresmitgliedschaft im Kunstverein 47m e.V. verschenken

After joining, the membership fee will be collected by direct debit within 14 days. Membership renews automatically from year to year, and the annual fee is collected on January 15. Membership may be cancelled in writing until March 31 of the respective year.

Note: If membership begins in September or later, only half of the annual membership fee will be charged for the current calendar year.

For information and questions, please contact:
membership@47m.info

Ermäßigte Mitgliedschaft (Schüler*innen, Studierende, Auszubildende, Rentner*innen, Erwerbslose) 30 €

Reguläre Mitgliedschaft 50 €

Fördermitgliedschaft Unterstützer*in 100 €

Fördermitgliedschaft Förder*in 1000 €

Within the framework of a supporting membership (Supporter), you will receive the following benefits in addition to the regular membership advantages:

Complimentary exclusive curator-led tours of the exhibition
Complimentary private tours for friends upon request

Within the framework of a supporting membership (Patron), you will receive the following benefits in addition to the regular membership advantages:

Complimentary exclusive curator-led tours of the exhibition
Complimentary private tours for friends upon request
In addition, free admission for one additional person to ongoing exhibitions and events
1 complimentary item from new merchandise collections
Generous discount on editions

As a non-profit association, we are happy to issue a donation receipt upon request, which can be claimed for tax purposes. For amounts up to €300, a bank statement is sufficient as proof.

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I hereby authorize Kunstverein 47m e.V. to collect the above-mentioned annual membership fee from my account by SEPA direct debit. At the same time, I instruct my bank to honor this direct debit.

Support us!

In addition to becoming a member, there is also the option to support our association’s work with a donation. In doing so, you help fund future projects and events and support us in maintaining 47m as a vibrant place for encounters and exchange.

Donations are tax-deductible. We are happy to issue a donation receipt for this purpose. Please contact buchhaltung@47m.info for this option.

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Ausstellungs Foto — © Falk Messerschmidt

Leyla Yenirce
27. June 2026 – 12. September 2026
Curated by Janika Jähnisch

With Serê Çîya, the Kunstverein 47m Contemporary presents a solo exhibition by artist Leyla Yenirce (*1992 in Qubînê, Kurdistan; lives and works in Berlin), which interweaves memory, resistance, political history, landscape, and geographic spaces. Across works in video, sound, performance, and painting and including a site specific newly comissioned work, she creates connections between the Kurdish mountains, Leipzig’s Fockeberg, and Paris’s Montmartre: sites that become symbolic carriers of origin, loss, and resistance.

At the center of the exhibition are the video works Being Strong Is Hard (2021) and Selbstportrait in Leipzig (2026). While Being Strong Is Hard explores questions of resistance and media image production through a dense audiovisual flow, the newly created work Selbstportrait in Leipzig shows the artist’s appropriation of Leipzig’s Fockeberg through bodily movement. The hill, formed from the rubble of the Second World War, becomes at once playground, stage, and site of memory, which the artist traverses in continuous motion.

At the architectural high point of the institution—the dome located 47 meters above street level – an acoustic experiential space is installed: Yenirce’s album Souvenirs (2024) enters into a visual and spatial confrontation with the panoramic view over Leipzig. Created during a stay in Paris, where the artist composed the album overlooking the Sacré-Cœur Basilica on Montmartre, the work combines voices, field recordings, and atmospheric soundscapes into an archival narrative of personal and collective memory, addressing themes of origin and displacement.

Serê Çîya (Kurdish for “on the top of the mountain”) unfolds a multi-layered topography in which past and present, individual experience, and collective memory intersect. The exhibition reveals how historical violence, political struggle, and personal memories become inscribed in landscapes.

Curatorial assistance: Arto Schudy & Hannah Lüken
Graphic design: Yun Kuo

Exhibition flyer
Press kit