Culture|Nature invited six artists or artistic collectives, respectively, to initiate new projects or to further develop existing projects in Hamburg's city district of Wilhelmsburg. The various positions dealt with the city in times of climate change, with the relationship between culture and nature, with the antagonism between ecology and industry, or with the interaction of urbanity and quality of life. The specific situation of the "Elbe Island," characterized by many layers of problems, was at the center of the artistic activities and interventions in the public sphere.

Art processes that are conceived of as urban life practices go beyond the concept of participation and reach out for allies in the local and international urban society. The goal is not a public participation limited to merely commenting the particular process, but rather to provoke social problem areas by intervention or to find access to solutions and to generate new social connections or power balances by entering into cooperative efforts. The goal is art in the public interest.

Quite purposely, Culture|Nature invited local as well as international artists and groups in order to place Wilhelmsburg in the global context and to reflect the specific local constellations. As a pattern, for or example, of contemporary urban development, "Wilhelmsburg" is not only a phenomenon in the Hamburg city district by that name, but of quite a number of different places all over the world.

The social and ecological problem fields and dynamics of city development that are present here can be placed in a global context. In the ideal case, there will be a transfer of artistic strategies, political action, and critical reflection in the course of the onsite work on art projects or research exercises. What is generated then is an art of urban development.