Ursula #14 - Autumn 2025

Ursula #14 - Autumn 2025

“Places and Spaces” is the broad consideration guiding the fall issue of Ursula, from public gardens and ancient cities to environments shaped by sound. The cover story offers a first look at Calder Gardens, the new cultural landmark opening in Philadelphia in September 2025. Conceived as a permanent public home for the work of Alexander Calder, the project merges art, architecture and landscape, with a design by Jacques Herzog of the Pritzker Prize–winning firm Herzog & de Meuron and plantings by renowned garden designer Piet Oudolf. In a conversation with Herzog, Oudolf, Juana Berrío, senior director of programs at Calder Gardens, and Alexander S.C. Rower, Calder’s grandson and president of the Calder Foundation, Ursula takes readers through the creation of this singular site. 

The issue also travels to Weimar-era Berlin, where Aria Dean, for the Performa Biennial 2025, reimagines a pivotal 1923 meeting between Alain Locke and Claude McKay; to the Roman Empire, where photographer Don McCullin finds repose in ancient marbles; to the existential holding patterns of Brian Eno’s Music for Airports; and to Seoul’s intersecting creative and culinary scenes. Also in this issue: a long-distance birthday letter from Niki de Saint Phalle to Jean Tinguely, new fiction by Isabelle Graw, a look back at the legacy of Harald Szeemann and much more.