Meeting Point: Sexy Angel, Hans-Albers-Platz / Reeperbahn
(Admission: 18+)
As daylight fades, neon signs illuminate St. Pauli, transforming the district into a vibrant hub of encounters and possibilities. For the third edition of Night Shifts, we invite you to discover the night’s unique blend of subcultures, sex work, tourism, bars, clubs, culture, and trash. Here, diverse desires intersect, sparking both connections and inevitable friction.
Within the establishments of the Reeperbahn, artistic interventions by Jemima Rose Dean, Simone Karl, Jil Lahr, and Janis von Rohden come to life across three locations. Their works delve into the neighborhood’s contrasts, weaving narratives of pleasure, power, sensuality, and intoxication.
At 9:30 p.m., we’ll gather at Hans-Albers-Platz, beside the entrance to Sexy Angel. Here, the three Nachtwächterinnen (night watchwomen) will launch the evening and reveal three locations around Reeperbahn, inviting the audience to explore the artistic interventions in their own order and at their own pace.
Night Shifts
Hamburg, February–December 2026
A project by Rosanna Graf, Lisa Klosterkötter, and Gesa Troch
Night Shifts is a year-long artistic program unfolding across Hamburg’s public spaces, structured into eight chapters dedicated to the theme of darkness. From dusk until dawn, exhibitions, performances, sound installations, and readings animate the city, probing the tensions between light and shadow, visibility and concealment. Throughout the year, diverse locations, such as the harbor, Harburg, City Nord, and St. Pauli, are transformed into stages for artistic exploration. These interventions examine Hamburg’s nocturnal darkness as an ambivalent condition. While the night may foster uncertainty and restrict movement, it also creates spaces for protection and play, enabling self-expression, vision, and exuberance. The artistic contributions illuminate the social, scientific, and pop-cultural facets of darkness from multiple perspectives. At each event, three Nachtwächterinnen (night watchwomen) accompany and guide audiences through the night.
The Night Shifts program is kindly supported by the Elbkulturfonds of the Hamburg Authority for Culture and Media, the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, and the Claussen-Simon-Stiftung.
