Public – urban spaces for everyone

Fifty Something Gasoline Stations – Die Inventur eines verschwindenden Stadtbausteins

Petrol stations are more than just infrastructure for cars. They act as local convenience hubs, places to chat, mini-temples of nostalgia and glowing landmarks – but they also symbolise a vast fossil-fuel industry. For decades they have shaped our streetscape. Yet they are gradually disappearing: the shift to greener mobility and electric vehicles is making the traditional filling station obsolete, and in a few decades it will stand as a relic of the fossil age.

This exhibition maps every petrol station still operating – and every one that has closed since 2020 – within the city of Frankfurt am Main, accompanied by explanatory infographics.

Curator
Sabine Tastel (TH Cologne)

Co-curators
Anahid Tayebi, Annalena Geier, Clara Schulte, Elena Wübbeling, Fangdan Liu, Fatima Alzadeh, Karina Rudolph, Leander Feiertag, Leo Staab, Maike Rohleder, Nele Lesemann, Qianyuan Zhang, Thi Thuy Tien Nguyen, Tim Michelis (University of Kassel)

Opening
11 June 2025, 19:00
with Martin Hunscher, Head of Frankfurt City Planning Department and curator Sabine Tastel