The exhibition, curated by Ellen Möckel and Kyra Tabea Balderer, brought together eight internationally active artists from Ukraine, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Switzerland. Working across the field of lens-based media, the participants presented recent works spanning photography, video installation, printmaking, and sculpture.

At the a&o Kunsthalle, the exhibition created a visually democratic microcosm that explored questions of global coexistence. At its core was a site-specific cubic installation whose contents gradually expanded into the surrounding exhibition space over the course of three months. This performative concept generated a dynamic model environment in which nature and culture could be experienced as intertwined realities.

While the works of Balderer and Möckel reflected on the structures of contemporary society, the six invited artistic positions examined different ways of navigating shifting boundaries. Together, the works opened spaces for symbiosis, hybridity, and new narratives. Central to the exhibition was the growing tension between society, culture, and production, as well as the frictions emerging from their entanglements.

The exhibition title refers to the lobster, which must shed its protective shell in order to grow—a process that is both necessary and vulnerable. »The Lobster Needs to Get Rid of Its Shell« understands this moment of exposure as a prerequisite for new forms of thinking, acting, and living together, inviting viewers to question familiar structures and embrace transformation as a productive force.