Bloom up! The Language of Flowers

Grand Special Exhibition by the State of Baden-Württemberg

13.06.2026–10.01.2027
A person observes an intricate tapestry featuring a blue-robed figure among detailed floral designs.

Artists

  • Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili
  • Allora & Calzadilla
  • Belia Zanna Geetha Brückner
  • Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano
  • Jonas Mekas
  • Willem de Rooij
  • Taryn Simon
  • Sissel Tolaas

Curators

  • Christina Lehnert
  • Christiaan Veldman

Curatorial assistance

  • Emely Steiner

The exhibition is a collaboration between the Badisches Landesmuseum and the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden.

Supported by 

With Bloom up! The Language of Flowers, the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden and the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe invite visitors to a unique floral experience. The exhibition takes you on a sensuous and intellectually stimulating journey through 2,500 years of the cultural history of flowers. 

Flowers are a constant presence in our lives – in everyday moments as well as on special occasions. They shape rituals, mark transitions and hold memories. In art, they become symbols of resistance, love, hope and protest. In times of crisis, they can offer comfort and give voice to a longing for beauty. Delicate and powerful, personal and political, conciliatory and defiant – their meaning is constantly shifting, depending on time, place and context.

Bloom up! is the first joint exhibition by the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden and the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe. It explores flowers in art as a means of communication and highlights the use of floral motifs from antiquity to the present day. Dialogues between contemporary artistic positions and objects from art and cultural history demonstrate how floral motifs have carried, shifted or recharged their meaning over the centuries. Here, flowers appear as bearers of history, emotions, and social and political debates – and open up space for projection, memory and reflection.

Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, Tulip Season for Henri, 2024, Analog C-print, 32 × 41.4 cm, AP II/II of an edition of 2 + II AP © Courtesy of the artist and LC Queisser Tbilisi, Cologne, Foto: George Kolbaia 

Belia Brückner, Hard to say I’m sorry, fortlaufende Serie, Ausstellungsansicht © Dorothea Dittrich, VG Bild-Kunst 2024

© ARTIS/ Uli Deck/ Badisches Landesmuseum

Programs for Kindergartens, Schools, and After-School Groups

Interactive Tours

Guided tours through the exhibition invite visitors to experience and discover the “language of flowers” from Antiquity to Art Nouveau around 1900 and contemporary art with all their senses. The age-appropriate educational formats connect with the everyday experiences of children and young people and thus contribute to a better understanding of the artworks. Creative workshops can also be booked as an additional option.

  • Exhibition tours for children aged 5 and up, depending on age between 45–60 minutes
  • Kindergarten and school class groups grades 1–2: €30, free admission
  • Cost from grade 3: €65 plus €4 admission / student
  • Tours with workshop
  • Program for kindergartens and primary schools grades 1 and 2

Magic of the Flower Meadow

After a sensory discovery tour through the world of flowers and blossoms lasting 45 minutes, we create a colorful flower meadow using paper and colored pencils.

  • 90 min., €30 tour fee, free admission
  • Group size: kindergarten groups up to max. 15 children
  • School classes are divided from a size of 17 children.
  • Programs for primary schools grades 3 and 4 and secondary schools up to grade 6

Colorful, Floral, Sustainable: From Paper to Flower

After a 60-minute multisensory tour, participants create their own floral artwork from a colorful mix of materials.

  • 120 min., €65 tour fee, €4 admission (from age 9)
  • School classes are divided from a size of 17 children.
  • Special program for art classes and art courses

Insight Art – The Language of Flowers

This tour focuses on artworks by contemporary artists. In a dialog-based guided tour, possible interpretations, contexts, and effects of the works are explored together.

  • 60 min., with registration
  • Cost: €65 tour fee plus €4 admission per person, max. 33 people

All programs are also suitable for after-school groups, youth groups, and groups with special needs. Please contact the booking service — we will be happy to advise you.

Would you like to visit the exhibition with your group and book a program? We would be happy to advise you and look forward to your inquiry!

Booking service: service@landesmuseum.de
0721 /926 – 6520, Mon–Fri 9 am – 12 pm, Mon and Wed 2 – 3:30 pm, Tue and Thu 2 – 5 pm

Please note our new admission prices starting with Bloom up!

Single visitor 10 Euro
Reduced entry 7 Euro
School children 4 Euro
Families 18 Euro
Combined Ticket with Museum Frieder Burda
Single visitor 23 Euro
Reduced 17 Euro
Families 49 Euro