Image: Sitterwerk, Berlin
Stiftung Sitterwerk in St. Gallen is preparing a four-day anniversary edition of its Sitter-Ciné, the open-air cinema event held at the Sittertal site with bar and bathing area. Running from 25 to 28 August 2026, ‘Sitter-Ciné 2026 & Jubiläumsprogramm’ combines film screenings with guided tours, talks and a concert, while the foundation frames the programme as part of its 20th anniversary year.
According to the foundation, the Sitterwerk was founded in 2006 and has developed into a place where art, knowledge and sustainable production meet. Its anniversary programme also includes exhibitions and interventions in the Kunstbibliothek and Werkstoffarchiv, two core elements of the institution’s work. The organisation describes the birthday year as a chance to highlight the people, collections and working practices that have shaped the site over two decades.
The cinema programme itself is spread across the evenings of 25, 26, 27 and 28 August. Each day begins at 18:00 with a free guided tour, followed by the film programme at 20:30. The cinema ticket costs CHF 10, while Gönner:innen and Donator:innen of the foundation are admitted free of charge. If the weather turns, the screenings will move indoors. Bar and Badi service with food begins at 18:00 throughout the run.
The first evening focuses on the history of the Sittertal site. A guided tour is followed by a conversation at 19:00 between architect, site owner and Sitterwerk co-founder Hans Jörg Schmid and Felix Lehner, head of Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen and co-founder of the foundation. The discussion, moderated by architecture historian, filmmaker and Hochparterre editor Marcel Bächtiger, accompanies a programme curated by Bächtiger that includes ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ by Robert Enrico, ‘One Week’ by Buster Keaton and Maya Deren’s ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’.
On 26 August, the foundation turns to ‘Offene Ateliers’ and a tour with guest artists. That evening’s programme is curated by Katalin Deér, artist and co-founder of the Sitterwerk’s Atelierhaus, and includes ‘Angertal’ by Aglaia Konrad and Willem Oorebeek as well as Michel Auder’s ‘Sittertal mon amour’. The same evening’s listing also names Mayana Redin and Asi Föcker in connection with the programme.
The 27 August event pairs a tour titled ‘Verborgenes & Unbekanntes’ with a concert and film programme by composer and musician Xol Meissner. Works listed for the evening are Brittany Nelson’s ‘Rebecca’ and Salomé Chatriot’s ‘First Month of Anger’, and the schedule also references Camille Henrot. The final night, 28 August, is devoted to ‘Architektur im Sittertal-Areal’ and screens Jürg Hassler’s ‘Josephsohn – Stein des Anstosses’ from 1977, a 74-minute film in German.
The anniversary newsletter linked to the event also points to other summer activities at Sitterwerk: the Kunstbibliothek presentation ‘A Library is a Growing Organism’, the Atelierhaus project by Mayana Redin, the exhibition ‘SCHWARZ ≠ SCHWARZ. Schwarzfärben im Wandel’, the guest artist Percy Nii Nortey, and ‘Vanessa Billy, Bücher und Muster’ in the Kunstbibliothek. Separate from the cinema itself, the foundation notes that the Sitter-Ciné also offers advertising and sponsorship opportunities for companies interested in supporting the event.
