Exhibition as part of the Return Festival

As part of this year's "Civilisation: Did You Read the Terms & Conditions?" festival, seven selected artists from various countries will present their work in the fields of photography, illustration, graphics, drawing, and painting.

The exhibition opens on October 23rd in the lobby of the Kino mon ami Weimar and accompanies the opening of the film festival.

The street festival begins at 5:00 PM with live music and drinks. At 7:00 PM, we invite you to the vernissage with a champagne reception and snacks in the cinema. Afterwards, at 8:00 PM, everyone will go to the cinema for the festival opening and the first films.

Learn more about the participating artists and their works here.

Jens Vogelgesang

Macro Photographer

Jens Vogelgesang is passionately dedicated to macro photography. In his work, he explores the often-overlooked worlds of fungi and insects, capturing nature's fine structures and colors with patience and precision. He particularly values the silent atmosphere of forests and moors, where his detailed images are created. With technical skill and a sensitive eye for the right moment, he makes the invisible visible, inviting us to rediscover nature's small wonders.

Mojtaba Chenari

Photographer

Mojtaba Chenari is an experienced photographer with over 25 years of professional practice. With a background in architecture and history, his focus is on the interplay between people, space, and cultural heritage. His work addresses the transition between tradition and modernity, combining documentary depth with artistic abstraction. In addition to his freelance work, he leads photography workshops and is internationally known for his expressive series of images.

Pia Höhfeld

Digital & Print Media Designer

Pia Höhfeld (b. 1996, Frankfurt a.M.) is a media designer and artist, and has been a student at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin since 2024. After studying Art History and English Philology at Freie Universität Berlin, she worked in print and media design. Her work moves between graphic art, sculpture, and political art and has been shown in numerous exhibitions, including the Reeperbahn Festival, the Transformale Potsdam, and Papier Global 6 in Deggendorf. She has received several grants, including from the Akademie für Suffizienz and the Verein für schwarze Kunst.

Ashkan Goodarzi

Illustrator

Ashkan Goodarzi is an Iranian illustrator based in Germany, currently completing his MFA in Animation Direction at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. In his work, he explores quiet, emotional moments where space, atmosphere, and figure exist in poetic balance. With powerful compositions, luminous colors, and a fine sense of mood, he creates images that invite reflection and introspection, like memories suspended between dream and reality.

In July 2025, UNICEF reported that an average of 28 children are killed every day in Gaza, equivalent to an entire classroom lost each day.

This work is for them.

For the children holding lifeless fish from broken aquariums.

For the empty plates and the stories no one hears.

In a collapsing world, community is an act of survival.

It is also resistance, against isolation, against the ego.

Bahram Nematipour

Painter / Lecturer at the Bauhaus University Weimar

I am an interdisciplinary artist, working primarily with large-format drawings and paintings. I understand my exhibitions as installations, where the material itself plays a central role. For instance, canvas or paper in my works take on different meanings and layers of interpretation.

Title: The Lost Souls

Alongside my artistic practice, I teach at various universities and institutes, including the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

Simon Surjasentana

Painter

Simon Surjasentana is an artist and intensive care nurse in Weimar. After receiving his diploma from the Bauhaus-Universität, he connects both worlds in his artistic work: art and the reality of nursing. In his realistic oil paintings, he portrays people who work in clinics, making their stories visible beyond their professional duties. His works address empathy, humanity, and social responsibility. For the exhibition "S.O.S. Grünes Herz" at the Herzogliches Museum Gotha, he also engaged with the effects of climate change in Thuringia.

Yann Slama

Photographer

Born in 1987, I am a self-taught French photographer and filmmaker.

After training in acting and working as an actor and co-creator of the show Amor Fati (winner of the Paris Jeunes Talents Award), I co-founded the Champ Libre Festival in 2016.

As a photographer, I focus primarily on live performances and work with the Millennium Images gallery and the SIPA Press agency.

In 2023, I completed my first short feature film, L'Évangile selon l'instant présent (The Gospel of the Present Moment), which is currently being screened.