The museum's permanent exhibition shows works by twelve internationally renowned light artists: James Turrell, Keith Sonnier, Mario Merz, Joseph Kosuth, Mischa Kuball, Rebecca Horn, Christina Kubisch, Jan van Munster, François Morellet, Christian Boltanski, Brigitte Kowanz and Olafur Eliasson.

In the lower, cubic room (Camera Obscura Space), the visitor sees an image of the sky which is being reflected through a lens on the ground.

+ Dark II (two, too) in 2015/2016 showed works by Anthony McCall, Diana Ramaekers, Regine Schumann, Vera Röhm, and Lucinda Devlin.

Within a distance of only a few miles around the CILA, works by Rosemarie Trockel, Kazuo Katase, Michael Batz, Claudia Wissmann, and Jan Philip Scheibe are shown.

The CILA is located at the heart of the city of Unna, in the former Linden brewery, a red brick industrial building complex dating from the 19th century.