Kolumba is a triad of place, architecture and collection. We make no distinction between permanent collection and temporary exhibition. Each year, on September 15, we address a new topic and our museum presents a selection of objects from the collection in a new context. Artistic interventions, cabinet exhibitions and events alter the respective context and probe the potential of juxtapositions. Since the museum opened in 2007, we have strived to achieve sustainability by avoiding loans and dispensing with temporary exhibition architecture by reusing exhibition design features instead. The museum is a place of slowness, of contemplation, of engaging playfully and creatively; a cornucopia of new and old viewpoints for understanding the world and its societies. As a landscape of memories, it provides an insight into two thousand years of the city’s history. The museum houses the ruins of St. Kolumba Church that was destroyed in World War II as well as the Chapel of the »Madonna in the Ruins«, which functions independently. With respect to size, proportion and the routes through them, each of the rooms offers distinct qualities. What these spaces have in common is that they furnish a sensual material backdrop for the exhibits. As a museum of light and shadows, Kolumba responds to the atmosphere of the changing times of the day and the cycles of the seasons.

Art museum of the
Archdiocese of Cologne