Das KloHäuschen

Who or what is KloHäuschen?

When KloHäuschen is asked to introduce itself, it usually begins by explaining what it is not: it is neither an exhibition space, nor a gallery, nor the smallest museum in Munich.

So what is it?

KloHäuschen is the small room at the front corner of the toilet building at the west entrance of Munich’s Großmarkthalle, the former men’s urinal. The walls are tiled in vanilla yellow. Six curved urinals. A privacy screen made of translucent glass bricks, two yellow and one blue. Six holes in the floor, and constantly running water. It had been locked since the 1990s until Anja Uhlig discovered it, marking the beginning of what could be described as a love story.

Since 2009, Anja Uhlig has rented the roughly eight square meter space from the City of Munich. With her “Measures to Animate the KloHäuschen at the Großmarkthalle,” organized through her realitaetsbüro, she invites guests to encounter KloHäuschen in its natural beauty, to enter into dialogue with the space, and to create their own artistic works, works that are possible only through this singular collaboration between guest and KloHäuschen.

More than 150 individual guests from various artistic fields, as of 2025, have accepted the invitation. Through their interaction with the space, they have made aspects of themselves and their practice visible, while continually opening up new ways of seeing KloHäuschen.

Since 2012, exactly once every two years, KloHäuschen truly becomes an “exhibition space” through the KloHäuschen Biennale. As it likes to say, “If you have your own biennale, you are someone like Venice or Istanbul.”

“… a biennale of superlatives …” reported BR24 Rundschau on 14 July 2024 about the 7th KloHäuschen Biennale titled “DIE RÄUME.”

So back to the question of the “exhibition space”: at KloHäuschen, it is not about the functional use of space, nor about exhibiting, selling, or archiving objects. It is about dialogue and collaboration. KloHäuschen is free, a free space, ready to give itself over and to play with its guests. Publicly.

VISIBILITY + EVENTS + NEWSLETTER

When KloHäuschen hosts a guest, their collaborative work is visible at all times through the glass door from outside, day and night. There is usually also a public event for each guest. Everyone is welcome to stop by.

KloHäuschen sends out a newsletter. You can sign up via the KloHäuschen website.

AWARDS, selected

2018 Tassilo Culture Prize of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, main prize

2020 Prize for Galleries and Offspaces of the City of Munich

2022 and 2024 KUSSArt Grant of the Cultural Foundation of Stadtsparkasse Munich

KloHäuschen is currently funded by the Cultural Department of the City of Munich.

What kind of place, then, is KloHäuschen?

For me, the most beautiful, most charming, most self assured restroom in Munich.

Bob Pfaffenzeller, curt Stadtmagazin #77, 2014