Summer fête at Cadoro Review – Potpourri
27 August 2026
Summer fête 2026 at Cadoro
Our annual summer festival, which took place this year on August 15, 2026, at Cadoro – Center for Art and Science in Mainz-Hechtsheim, was once again a great success. Art lovers from near and far flocked to Mainz to celebrate art with us in a summery atmosphere.
Spanning three floors, we opened new exhibitions that have a lot to offer, ranging from established leading international artists to innovative young talents.
On the ground floor, Sebastian Dannenberg – The Great Escape and Carolin Liebl & Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler – Forever Fading share the exhibition space. Both artists first made a splash in 2015 at Cadoro – Center for Art and Science as part of the Experiments · 4+8 project series and have been sharing their artistic development with the gallery’s friends ever since.
The opening speech was given by renowned cultural journalist Alexander Wasner from SWR.
On the first floor, Philipp Neßler & Julia Seifried present their new exhibition, Ordinary Things. This highly creative duo explores the theme of playing with perception. They playfully challenge our visual habits regarding everyday objects.
The exhibition features both photographs and sculptural works, though not all of them have been realized. Some exist »only« as ideas.
In general, a key focus of Neßler and Seifried’s work is on triggering processes in our minds rather than physically moving things in reality.
We are very pleased to have been able to welcome cultural anthropologist and expert on the artist duo Antonio Quint Vila, who delivered a very insightful opening address at the exhibition’s opening reception.
Last but not least, Lore Bert presents a selection of new and classic works on paper on the 2nd floor. The world-famous artist from Mainz, who has held over 350 exhibitions in 28 countries throughout her prolific artistic career and drew massive crowds this summer with her groundbreaking Biennale presentation titled Towards the Light at the Church of San Fantin in Venice, was honored in June 2026 by Minister of State for Culture Dr. Wolfram Weimer with the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon for her artistic life’s work and her services to the Federal Republic of Germany.
Ata Delbasteh, the City of Mainz’s Deputy Mayor for Culture and Schools, honored us with his presence at our summer festival and delivered an inspiring opening speech.
Following the three exhibition openings and inspiring speeches, artists, art lovers, and the Cadoro team rounded out the evening outdoors on the terrace of the spacious exhibition hall, enjoying a relaxed atmosphere, stimulating conversations about art, and all sorts of culinary delights served throughout the evening.
For all art lovers who unfortunately couldn’t spend this beautiful and inspiring day with us, we recorded the opening events and are presenting a compilation of the highlights in our Video of the Week to give you at least a small glimpse of our summer celebration. We hope this will make you want to join us next year. We hope you enjoy watching it.
On the evening of August 23, 2026, Venice and the art world lost one of their greatest figures.
Fabrizio Plessi, who combined water, fire, light, and electronic images into his own distinctive language, died on August 23 at the age of 86 in a hospital in Dolo, near Venice. With his passing, contemporary art loses one of its great pioneers – and Venice loses an artist who viewed the lagoon city not as a museum-like backdrop, but as a living blueprint for the future.
Following the death of her close friend and longtime collaborator Fabrizio Plessi, Dr. Dorothea van der Koelen has decided to make a detailed film about the extensive joint projects she undertook with the video artist. However, due to the sheer volume of material and the effort required to edit it, we will not be able to present this retrospective until next week.
Fabrizio Plessi at Cadoro