The “Lost & Found” art project will be on display at Bismarckstraße 55 through the end of August.
From August 20–22, 2026, from 3 to 7 p.m. each day, the artist duo “Illig & Illig” invites you to the Social Innovation Lab for the event “Cocoon—A Personal Space for Loss.” On Saturday, August 29, 2026, from 3 to 7 p.m., a grand closing celebration featuring many hands-on activities will also take place at Bismarckstr. 55.
An article by Prof. Dr. Andrea Lutz-Kluge
Right in the heart of Ludwigshafen’s bustling pedestrian zone, there is a place that many downtown residents visit time and again and where passersby stop to take a curious look: the “Lost & Found” office. Since June 1, the Montag Foundation’s “Art and Society” art project—in cooperation with the Social Innovation Lab at the Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society—has been a popular destination in downtown Ludwigshafen. A shipping container converted into a lost-and-found office stands directly across from the Social Innovation Lab’s premises at Bismarckstraße 55—which have been set up as an open studio and offer a refreshingly cool retreat. You can always count on finding an apple spritzer and a chance to chat here, but above all, the opportunity to artistically process past losses through various forms of creative expression and, perhaps, gain a new perspective on them.
Every week, a different team of artists—supported by the Montag Foundation’s project team, which also includes students from the Social Work program at HWG LU—offers a free workshop here. This gives participants the opportunity to explore a wide variety of artistic strategies and, in doing so, to experiment with creatively processing personal experiences of loss, searching, and finding.
The audience consists of passersby who happen to stop by as well as regular attendees from the neighborhood; however, quite a few participants also come from other districts of Ludwigshafen or from Mannheim specifically for selected workshops or to attend the regularly scheduled “Freitagsfunde” (Friday Finds) series: Every other Friday evening, the artists currently offering a workshop introduce themselves and their work at the Social Innovation Lab and discuss their work with the audience. For most visitors, the greatest benefit lies above all in the exchange of ideas, the opportunity to gain a new perspective, and the personal encounters. And so the Social Innovation Lab is well on its way to becoming what is known as a “third place” in downtown Ludwigshafen. A non-commercialspace that continually offers a place and an occasion to stop by, take a look inside, and engage with the familiar—or even unfamiliar—experiences of others.
The “Lost & Found” project runs through August 29. Anyone who doesn’t want to miss this opportunity and would still like to participate in an artistic activity can do so through the program offered by the artist duo “Illig & Illig.”
In conversation with Constanze and Norbert Illig (Worms), a personal loss can be expressed through a sketch or a sentence. This is then documented and subsequently sealed inside a prepared cocoon made of fired clay. Just as a caterpillar inside a cocoon transforms into something new—a butterfly—the ceramic cocoon here serves as a personal space for remembrance and transformation. The event takes place on the following dates:
Thursday, August 20
Friday, August 21, and
Saturday, August 22
3:00–7:00 p.m. each day
Closing celebration on August 29, 2026
To mark the conclusion of the artistic project “Lost & Found—Lost and Found Offices” by the Montag Foundation for Art and Society in cooperation with HWG LU, a closing celebration will take place on Saturday, August 29 from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in front of the Lost and Found Office container and the Social Innovation Lab at Bismarckstraße 55 in Ludwigshafen’s pedestrian zone. There will be interactive art activities centered around the theme of rediscovering lost items and prints. The celebration is open to everyone!
Venue:
HWG LU Social Innovation Lab
Bismarckstr. 55
67059 Ludwigshafen
Project Organizers
- for the Montag Foundation “Art and Society”/Bonn
Ruth Gilberger, Executive Director r.gilberger@montag-stiftungen.de and
Theresa Herzog, Project Manager t.herzog@montag-stiftungen.de
- for the Social Innovation Lab at HWG LU
Prof. Dr. Andrea Lutz-Kluge, Andrea.Lutz-Kluge@hwg-lu.de
