The city of Nürnberg has presented German and international contemporary art on a continual basis since the Kunsthalle opened and the Institute of Modern Art was established. Nürnberg is also home to the oldest German art academy and the Albrecht Dürer Society – the first German art association.

Four central institutions of contemporary art in Nürnberg teamed up to host a new exhibition titled 30 Artists – 30 Rooms: the Institute of Modern Art, the Kunsthalle, the Albrecht Dürer Society and the Neues Museum – Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design. Thirty artists were invited to present or create artworks in rooms at these institutions or at public venues. The title of the exhibition referred to an idea by the founding director of the Kunsthalle in Nürnberg, Dr. Dietrich Mahlow, who envisioned a dynamic and versatile museum where every artist would have one room at his or her disposal. He planned some 30 artist rooms for the museum of contemporary art.
The curators consciously interpreted the word “room” in a broad sense, for example, as an architectural, physically tangible space, a media environment, or a place of political or social topography. In this way, they created an exhibition which featured various concepts of rooms and examined the “room” as an existential motif.