Kunst, Natur und Ökologie (Art, Nature, and Ecology)

Face-to-Face Talk 
with Thomas Wrede and Robert Fleck
Image Lecture and Book Presentation

Wednesday, 29 October 2025, 7 p.m.
Bilker Str. 4–6

On the occasion of this talk, Thomas Wrede presents an accompanying interim exhibition featuring new works from his glacier project alongside his early series Samsø and Die Vögel stehen in der Luft und schreien (The Birds Stand in the Air and Scream) from the 1990s. The presentation will be on view until 22 November 2025.

Please note the date change:
The event will now take place on 29 October 2025, 7 p.m.

As space is limited, we kindly ask you to register by 27 October by phone at 0211 4915890 or by email at andrea.knop@beck-eggeling.de.


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For decades, Thomas Wrede has explored themes of transience, memory, and the staging of nature. In his illustrated talk, he takes us to the Danish island of Samsø. The eponymous series from the 1990s depicts a landfill of plastic films once used in agriculture—some buried, some unearthed over time by wind and rain. In Wrede’s photographs, this lifeless material acquires an almost bodily presence, as if it had itself become part of nature.

Created in parallel, the series The Birds Stand in the Air and Scream captures moments of sudden confrontation between humans and nature. Here, Wrede makes visible what is known as “bird strike” — the instant when birds, often fatally, collide with glass surfaces and leave faint traces behind. Through a meticulous photographic process, he enlarges these barely perceptible residues of fat, feathers, or dust, lending them a powerful sense of presence. These photographs later inspired composer Isabel Mundry to create her symphony Flugsand, premiered in Munich in 1998.

These early bodies of work enter into dialogue with new pieces from Wrede’s since 2017 ongoing Glacier Project, shown here for the first time. They document the transformation of glacier landscapes and human efforts to protect them from the effects of climate change through artificial coverings. Wrede’s gaze extends beyond these wrapped surfaces into the interior of glacier caves, revealing light, layers, and air bubbles exposed by the melting ice.

Further glacier photographs by Thomas Wrede are currently on view at the Leica Galerie Düsseldorf in the exhibition White Was the Snow – Thomas Wrede (2 October 2025 – 10 January 2026).

Robert Fleck will comment on the image lecture and present his recent publication Kunst & Ökologie (Art & Ecology), which traces how art has depicted and reflected nature and the environment since the Renaissance—from landscape painting, Romanticism, and Impressionism to Land Art and contemporary practices. About fifty key works from past and present are reinterpreted through the lens of nature, environment, and climate. At its core, the book asks: How has art visualized nature and the environment through the centuries, and what role can it play today in times of climate change and ecological crisis?

Robert Fleck
Kunst & Ökologie
Edition Konturen, Vienna/Hamburg 2023
184 pages, 48 color illustrations
€ 34

About Robert Fleck
Robert Fleck is a renowned art historian, exhibition curator, and former professor for “Art and the Public” at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he also directed the Academy Gallery. From 2004 to 2008 he was Director of the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, and from 2008 to 2012 Director General of the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn. His publications and exhibitions focus on the relationship between art, society, and pressing ecological questions.

About Thomas Wrede
Thomas Wrede is an internationally active photographer and media artist. Since 2015 he has been Professor of Photography and Media Art at the University of Fine Arts Essen. His Glacier Project, initiated in 2017, has been exhibited multiple times, most recently as part of Glaciers in Focus (Outdoor Panel Exhibition) at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, followed by a touring exhibition through various world cities in 2025. Works from the project are held in major collections, including the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) Vienna, Kunsthalle Emden, Kunstmuseum Bonn, and Vontobel Bank Zurich.