Featured Events in Berlin in April, 2024 (February Updated)

Discover Chapter 2 - Between Earth and Sky, a profound event unfolding in Berlin at Marienstraße 10. Immerse yourself in a morning dedicated to the art of meditation, solar rituals, and the delicate balance between sound and silence. Alanna Lawley's captivating solo exhibition, Seepage From My Primal Fountain, delves deep into the realm of female bodily experiences and ethereal exploration. Enriching this connection, performance artist and embodiment facilitator Storm Hartley collaborates to present a trilogy of events during Berlin Gallery Weekend. Responding to Lawley's ongoing drawing series, Let Me Tell You How You Feel, this unique experience invites you to a journey of self-discovery and mindfulness. The event will be held on April 27, 2024, offering a serene space adorned with communal yoga matting and cozy blankets. Embrace the essence of nature's wisdom as you explore the delicate dance between earth and sky, guided by the intrinsic communication of the body and the environment. Join us in this transformative experience that honors the cyclical nature of rebirth and the eternal connection between all living beings. Tickets range from €22 to €55, ensuring accessibility for all seekers of inner peace and spiritual enlightenment.

Welcome to the Musical Connection & Improvisation Workshop taking place in Berlin at Artistania on April 27, 2024. This event promises to be a unique opportunity for artists and music enthusiasts to come together and explore the art of musical improvisation. Located at Neckarstraße 19, 12053 Berlin, Alemania, Artistania provides the perfect setting for participants to connect creatively and learn from experienced musicians. With a ticket price of 33,14 €, attendees will have the chance to engage in interactive sessions, discover new techniques, and enhance their improvisational skills. Whether you are a seasoned musician or just starting your musical journey, this workshop offers a platform to expand your musical horizons and foster meaningful connections within the music community. Don't miss out on this enriching experience that will surely leave a lasting impact on your musical growth.

Le QG Café Français à Berlin accueille le Baguette Comedy Club pour une après-midi de rires francophones le samedi 27 avril. Assistez à un spectacle exceptionnel présenté par Baguette Comedy Prod. à partir de 17h. Dans une ambiance simple et élégante, découvrez les meilleurs humoristes francophones de Berlin et profitez de délicieuses pâtisseries. Les portes ouvriront à 16h30 et fermeront à 18h30. La réservation est recommandée, car seulement 25 places sont disponibles pour cet événement gratuit. Une petite donation de 5€ à 15€ est suggérée pour soutenir le premier Comedy Club francophone de la ville. Rejoignez la communauté du Baguette Comedy Club pour une soirée divertissante au QG - Café Français, situé au Pettenkoferstraße 6, 10247 Berlin.

The upcoming event, "Terribly Human," presented by the manmaRo group, explores the concept of 'the other' through a thought-provoking narrative. Witness a group of young individuals observing two couples in their daily lives, causing a disruption that unravels deep-seated fears and animosities. With masterful direction by Ofira Henig and insightful dramaturgy by Khalifa Natour, the production delves into the consequences of silence and the escalation of violence. The talented cast, including Atallah Tannous, Adan Rabos, and Omaya Maya Kish, delivers a powerful performance in three languages - Arabic, English, and Hebrew - with English and German subtitles provided. Supported by the Rosa Luxemburg foundation and Goethe-Institut, this event will take place on April 27, 2024, at the tak Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg in Berlin. Don't miss this opportunity to reflect on the complexities of human interaction. Tickets are available for €17.02 to €22.31.

Experience the transformative power of dance at ECSTATIC DANCE, a workshop led by Andrea Medina at DNA. Art Club in Berlin. Andrea, a passionate dancer and experienced instructor, offers a safe and inclusive space for individuals of all backgrounds to express themselves through movement. With a diverse background in various dance styles and a deep understanding of emotional expression, Andrea's workshops focus on themes such as reconnecting with your inner child and fostering connections without words. Each session provides a judgment-free environment where participants can release emotions and find relief. The workshop is open to all levels, aged 16 and above, and lasts for 2 hours. Participants are encouraged to bring a yoga mat or towel for meditation at the end. In addition to the dance class, the ticket price of €17.17 includes access to the DNA. Art Show on Saturday, April 27, 2024, at DNA. Art Club in Alte Münze. Secure your spot now for this unique opportunity to explore the art of ecstatic dance.

Experience the debut book launch of stand-up comedian and poetry-slam favorite Aidin Halimi at his event "Aidin Halimi: Hinundherkunft (Buchpremiere)" in Berlin on April 28, 2024, at Lovelite. Delve into the humorous self-discovery journey of this dual citizen navigating German society through witty storytelling in "Hinundherkunft." Halimi's sophisticated and dry humor explores stereotypes, prejudices, and even the unconventional symbol of masculinity, the hot water bottle. Known for his sharp wit and engaging narratives, Halimi challenges linguistic boundaries by blending German with Persian idioms and unraveling the complexities of language elements. With a background in literature and history, Halimi's diverse work has captivated audiences across German-speaking regions, earning him accolades in poetry slams and literary performances. Don't miss this opportunity to witness Halimi's literary and comedic prowess firsthand. Secure your tickets for €10.09 and embrace the world of Aidin Halimi's compelling storytelling at Lovelite in Berlin.

Experience a memorable evening filled with Persian stand-up comedy at Standup Comedy (Persian) - Berlin. Join fellow comedy enthusiasts at Karakas, located at Kurfürstenstraße 9, 10785 Berlin, on April 28, 2024, starting at 5:00 PM. This event is exclusively for individuals aged 18 and above. Purchase your ticket for €22.49 to secure your spot at this unique comedy show. Please note that attendees may be recorded during the event, with footage potentially utilized for promotional or archival purposes on various social media platforms and beyond. By attending Standup Comedy (Persian) - Berlin, you consent to the possibility of being included in such recordings. Get ready to laugh and enjoy a night of cultural comedy in the heart of Berlin.

Join the Anno Rock Band and a lively mix of dance music to kick off the month of May in style at Tanz at Restaurant Helmut by Salt'n'Sugar in Berlin. Enjoy a night filled with great music, dancing, and a vibrant atmosphere. The newly renovated green salon will be unveiled just in time for Tanz, where the Anno Rock Band will treat guests to classic hits from the Rock 'n' Roll and Country music genres. Make new friends, mingle with neighbors, and create unforgettable memories on this special evening. Doors open at 7:00 pm, with the band starting at 8:00 pm. Indulge in delicious snacks and well-crafted drinks throughout the event. Don't miss this opportunity to get your groove on and shake off the winter blues. Tickets are priced at 11,83 € for an evening of music and fun at Tanz in Kladow.

URBAN NATION presents TALKING… & OTHER BANANA SKINS, curated by Michelle Houston. The colorful and vibrant exhibition provokes dialogue through urban and contemporary art. The exhibition will function as a catalyst and serve as a host for discourse about the most pressing issues of our times. It presents a new facade commissioned by the internationally renowned collective BROKEN FINGAZ CREW from Israel (Haifa). The exhibition shows paintings, installations, sculptures and video works across the breadth of urban and contemporary art. Highlighted artists include ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (Berlin), ICY AND SOT (Tabriz/NY), VARIOUS AND GOULD (Berlin), JOSÉPHINE SAGNA (Hamburg) and LOW BROS (Hamburg). PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: 1UP, AEC INTERESNI KAZKI, AMARTEY GOLDING, ANA BARRIGA, ANDREAS ENGLUND, ANNA LUKASHEVSY, BILL POSTERS, BJÖRN HEYN, BROKEN FINGAZ CREW, DAVE THE CHIMP, DENIS CHERIM, DISNOVATION, EL MAC, FAISAL HUSSAIN, FAUST, FRANCO FASOLI AKA JAZ, HIJACK, HIN, HOT TEA, HUGO BAUDOUIN, HUH?, ICY AND SOT, IDA LAWRENCE, ISAAC CORDAL, JAN VAN ESCH, JEFF HONG, JIMMY TURRELL, JOSÉPHINE SAGNA, KNOW HOPE, LE FOU, LOOK THE WEIRD, LOW BROS, NOEMI CONAN, OLEK, RICH THORNE, ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, SEPE, SIMON MENNER, SPLASH AND BURN, SPY, TEZZ KAMOEN, THE WA, VARIOUS AND GOULD, VERA KOCHUBEY, YOANN BOURGEOIS.

The Fourth Plinth is renowned across the globe for bringing world-class contemporary art to London’s most prominent historical public square and Antelope is the 14th commission since the programme of artworks began in 1998. Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Samson Kambalu’s bronze resin sculpture restages a photograph of Baptist preacher and pan-Africanist John Chilembwe and European missionary John Chorley, taken in 1914 in Nyasayland (now Malawi) at the opening of Chilembwe’s new Baptist church. Chilembwe is wearing a hat, defying the colonial rule that forbade Africans from wearing hats in front of white people, and is almost twice the size of Chorley. By increasing his scale, the artist is elevating Chilembwe and his story, revealing the hidden narratives of underrepresented peoples in the history of the British Empire in Africa, and beyond. John Chilembwe was a Baptist pastor and educator who led an uprising in 1915 against British colonial rule in Nyasaland triggered by the mistreatment of refugees from Mozambique and the conscription to fight German troops during WWI. He was killed and his church destroyed by the colonial police. Though his rebellion was ultimately unsuccessful, Malawi, which gained independence in 1964, celebrates John Chilembwe Day on January 15th and the uprising is viewed as the beginning of the Malawi independence struggle. The artist, Samson Kambalu, was born in 1975 in Malawi, and now lives and works in Oxford where he is Associate Professor of Fine Art and a lifelong fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford University. His sculpture, which was made in Deptford, was selected by the Fourth Plinth Commission Group, chaired by Ekow Eshun, following an exhibition at the National Gallery where nearly 17,500 people commented on the selection. For over two decades, The Fourth Plinth has showcased the work of great artists who have not shied away from tackling the important issues of the day. Yinka Shonibare CBE considered the legacy of British colonialism in Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle. Katharina Fritsch commented on gender equality and the masculine posturing in the square with her work Hahn/Cock. Michael Rakowitz’s recreation of the Lamassu, a winged bull and protective deity that was destroyed in Nineveh (near modern day Mosul) in 2015 shone a light on the devastating impact of war on cultural heritage, and Heather Phillipson’s THE END presented a giant swirl of whipped cream, a cherry, a fly and a drone that transmits a live feed of Trafalgar Square, suggesting both exuberance and unease and responding to Trafalgar Square as a site of celebration and protest. Antelope will be on the Fourth Plinth until September 2024 and is a highlight of the inaugural Sculpture Week London, a new initiative that will celebrate public art throughout London in a collaboration between Frieze, Sculpture in the City and the Mayor of London's Fourth Plinth Programme. The Fourth Plinth is funded by the Mayor of London, Arts Council England and Bloomberg Philanthropies. It features on Bloomberg Connects, the free app that allows users to access over 100 museums, galleries, and cultural spaces around the world anytime, anywhere. Through the Fourth Plinth guide, users can access a range of exclusive content, including a video of Kambalu discussing the Fourth Plinth installation and his practice more broadly, information on past commissions and a welcome from Justine Simons OBE, London's Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries. Samson Kambalu said: “I am thrilled to have been invited to create a work for London’s most iconic public space, and to see John Chilembwe’s story elevated. Antelope on the Fourth Plinth was ever going to be a litmus test for how much I belong to British society as an African and a cosmopolitan. Chilembwe selected himself for the Fourth Plinth, as though he waited for this moment. He died in an uprising but ends up victorious.”

The Hamburger Bahnhof presents a multi-layered panorama of Berlin's art scene and the city itself, spanning from the threshold of the opening of the Berlin Wall through to the present. With the new presentation of the collection in the west wing, the Hamburger Bahnhof invites the public to reflect on the role of art and cultural institutions in fostering inclusion, engagement and social transformation. Some 80 artworks, including paintings, works on paper, sculptures, photographs and videos, explore the sociopolitical and economic factors that have shaped the city and the artistic practices to have emerged from within it. Sibylle Bergemann, Rainer Fetting, Isa Genzken, Mona Hatoum, Emeka Ogboh, Anri Sala, Selma Selman, Isaac Chong Wai and Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt are among the 60 artists included in the display. For the first time, the Nationalgalerie’s contemporary art holdings will enter into a long-term exchange with the art collection of the German Federal Government and the collection of the ifa – Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations. The exhibition will be further enriched by a selection of significant new acqui-sitions. Familiar major works will be shown alongside others that have rarely, if ever, been shown before.

More than 15 installations, sculptures and interventions have been set up in and around the Hamburger Bahnhof since it opened as a museum of contemporary art in 1996. These include Dan Flavin's striking blue and green light installation on the façade of the main building as well as works by Tom Fecht, Urs Fischer, John Knight and Gregor Schneider. Some of the works are more visible than others. The Endless Exhibition enables visitors to explore the artworks and to reflect on their relevance for the collection today – through public tours, a dedicated publication and website. Each year the Endless Exhibition will be expanded by a newly commissioned work of art that is to be permanently acquired for the collection of the Nationalgalerie. Berlin-based artist Judith Hopf, whose installation and sculptural work deals with social definitions and power relations, will kick off this important expansion of the collection.

The exhibition, Unbound: Performance as Rupture,addresses how over generations artists have used their bodies and the performative action recorded by the camera to intervene in and refuse dominant ideological orders and the colonial gaze perpetuated by the camera. Setting collection works in dialogue with loans, Unbound brings together seminal videos, films, and photographs from the 1970s to today that through performance afford various forms of rupture, fracture, and pause, which resonate on aesthetic as well as social and political levels. In addition to performance documentation and performance-for-the-camera, the exhibited artworks offer investigations into contemporary image and performance economies that examine how bodies move across or evade physical and digital spaces. With works by Panteha Abareshi, Eleanor Antin, Salim Bayri, Nao Bustamante, Matt Calderwood, Peter Campus, Patty Chang, Julien Creuzet, Vaginal Davis, Ufuoma Essi, VALIE EXPORT, Shuruq Harb, Sanja Iveković, Stanya Kahn, Tarek Lakhrissi, Klara Lidén, Senga Nengudi, Lydia Ourahmane, Christelle Oyiri, P. Staff, Sondra Perry, Howardena Pindell, Pope.L, mandla & Graham Clayton-Chance, Katharina Sieverding, Akeem Smith, Gwenn Thomas.

The exhibition in the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection is dedicated for the first time to the artistic relationship between the French surrealist André Masson and the Berliner Ernst Wilhelm Nay, whose art became the figurehead of abstract modernism in post-war West Germany. In 1931, André Masson's (1896-1987) large-format painting “Massacre”, which is the starting point of the exhibition, was created. A year later it was published in large format by Christian Zervos in the magazine “Cahiers d'art”. On a formal level, this image, as well as a number of other paintings and drawings by Masson from the same period, bear striking similarities to works by Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902-1968) from the 1940s. In terms of content, Ernst Wilhelm Nay and André Masson, who have never met each other in person, take largely opposite positions: While Masson's works focus on the memory of the horrors of the First World War, the young soldier Nay creates a mythological alternative world to the catastrophe of the Second World War World War. Analytical Cubism, developed by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963) between 1909 and 1912, and “automatic writing” (“écriture automatique”), which was first propagated by the Surrealists around André Breton in the early 1920s. were the model for this new design language. In the 1940s and 1950s it was also used by artists such as Asger Jorn (1914-1973), Georg Meistermann (1911-1990) and Theodor Werner (1886-1969). A total of around 70 works will be shown.

This exhibition recognizes the complex oeuvre of VALIE EXPORT (b. 1940), one of the twentieth century’s most influential media and performance artists in the world, who intrepidly challenged social norms and role models with her media-reflective practice and critical feminist perspective. Presenting works created between 1966 and 2009, the exhibition provides a comprehensive overview of VALIE EXPORT’s career. A filmmaker, performance artist, and media artist who is now celebrated as an icon of feminist art, EXPORT caused a sensation with her actions in public space in the late 1960s. The retrospective covers a wide range of works from her provocative “expanded cinema” actions, symbolic performances, and analytical conceptual photography to multimedia installations and urban interventions. The works reflect the multifaced development of an artist whose works are still topical and serve as important points of reference for sociopolitical investigations today.

At first glance, one can make out a bizarre face carved in wood. But there is far more hidden behind the narrow opening depicting a mouth: it is the entrance to the fascinating world of bees. What we see is one of only a few extant Bannkörbe – beehives made from organic materials including wood, straw, and cow manure. This unique form of beehive and craftsmanship was prevalent in northern Germany between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. These hives, each one of a kind, are characterized by their grotesque masks, which were intended to ward off the “evil eye” and honey thieves. Within the field of bee research, they reflect the belief in magic and thus provide an alternative model to the dominant concepts of “modern” beekeeping, which often seeks to use modern technology to achieve productivity, profitability, and control over bees. In his extended research project Bannkörbe, Aladin Borioli (b. 1988, Switzerland) works with bee researchers, scientists, collectors, and apiarists, using artistic research to explore the sociohistorical, political, and ecological relationship between humans and all species of bees. This is one of many subprojects of Apian, a collaborative entity Borioli initiated, intended as an ever-expanding and ongoing archive that operates as a “ministry of bees”. The multimedia project Bannkörbe will be presented in an exhibition space for the first time at C/O Berlin. The multipart exhibition is divided across a number of stations that shed light on the concept of the beehive, ancient beliefs about bees, and fascinating techno-logical possibilities to implement alternative beekeeping methods. The exhibition comprises artworks by Borioli, a catalogue of photographs featuring previously unpublished images of Bannkörbe, and a corpus of archival and research material from bee studies and cultural history can be explored. A video installation in a separate room lets visitors experience a “modern” beehive firsthand from the inside, and an interactive research area invites them to delve deeper into the topics. In his practice, Borioli works at the intersection of art and science and of photography, philosophy, and field research. His approach is meticulous and inspired, working in the tradition of visual anthropology. The artist’s collaborative approach creates an unusual synergy between partners, disciplines, and approaches, enabling new ways of thinking about bees and – where possible and compatible with ethical guidelines – seeing from the bees’ perspective. In light of the alarming death of bees over the past decades, the exhibition Aladin Borioli . Bannkörbe is an attempt to anchor the topic of sustainable beekeeping practices in our present moment and to encourage a more active caring for bees.

"On Rape – And Institutional Failure" uses an assemblage of found and original photographs, reports, quotations, videos, and artifacts to explore the structures that make rape possible. Working across temporal periods, cultural practices, and media, Abril reveals the normalization of misogynist attitudes and behaviors in society and politics but does not resort to explicit depictions of sexualized violence. A 2018 case of rape in Spain occasioned Abril's investigation. Occurring at the height of the #MeToo movement, the incident set off country-wide protests. Five men brutally raped a young woman and were later released on bail. When they were ultimately charged, it was not for rape, but merely for sexual harassment, which carries a lighter sentence. Against the backdrop of protests against a flawed system hostile to women, Abril explores why institutional failures on this scale occur, and how traditional assumptions, cultural influences, myths, and laws serve to shield perpetrators by reinforcing power dynamics and dependent relationships. On Rape – And Institutional Failure is the second chapter in the artist's long-term project A History of Misogyny, in which she responds to manifold forms of systemic violence against women. Abril succeeds in allowing a deep empathy for victims of sexualized violence while inviting viewers to consider the complex relationship between experience, image, and language, as well as the limits of depicting trauma. The artist uses a moving political narrative to counter the feeling of silencing often experienced around the subject while simultaneously appealing to society’s sense of responsibility. Abril's research-based practice makes her one of the most important next-generation artists working with archives, written testimonies, and original photographs today. She uses multilayered narratives to make visible complex and suppressed taboo themes today. C/O Berlin presents the artist's first institutional solo exhibition in Germany in Collaboration with Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris.

Jenna Bliss uses research and intuitive associations in her artistic work to sift through personal and collective memories, question common assumptions and expand established narratives. Her focus is often on historically marginalized topics, ranging from addiction and the pharmaceutical industry to the consequences of 9/11 and the global economic crisis. Her long-format films, photographs, short videos and sculptures are motivated by impressions, encounters and observations in her daily life and their far-reaching associations with social conventions and historical contexts. For her first institutional exhibition in Germany, Bliss is showing works from her ongoing series on the recent history of Wall Street, to which she has added a new chapter on the global economic crisis of 2008. The new film, True Entertainment (2023), is set in 2007 at the world’s most prestigious art fair. The art world booms within the three white walls of the fair booth, ignorant of the financial crash that is soon to come. The film takes its cues from a new cultural contribution of the later 00s: the scripted “reality” show. The genre not only informs the film stylistically, but also provides a simultaneously seductive and alienating effect, teetering between drama and satire. The film is shown alongside a constellation of older works that explore the legacy of 9/11. Though at times anachronous, Bliss borrows aesthetics and technologies from the time periods of her research. Through the montage of found, archival and original footage, both in terms of text and image, Bliss elicits the material’s inherent ideologies and exposes historical connections.

“And with that all the stories lost their diversity. Only those who had borne their alphabets suffer their diversity come back, tells of those who had borne their diversity.” A diffused light catches lines of text in the spaces between flowing lines; lets shadows create there and fade again just as quickly. Onur'imen's recounts dissolve temporal and geographical boundaries by expanding mythological traditions with contemporary perspectives and projecting dynamic landscapes into the gallery's exhibition room in the tower. The written variations and additions invoke a subtle resistance to established stories, their resistance and inherent narratives and thus to everything that draws legitimacy from those very stories.

School of Casablanca ist ein Kooperationsprojekt zwischen der ifa-Galerie Berlin, KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin) und ThinkArt (Casablanca), das von der Sharjah Art Foundation, dem Goethe-Institut Marokko und Zamân Books & Curating unterstützt wurde. Gestartet im Jahr 2020, greift das Projekt die innovativen Ansätze der Kunsthochschule Casablanca aus den 1960er Jahren auf und beleuchtet einen entscheidenden Wendepunkt in der marokkanischen Kunstgeschichte nach der Unabhängigkeit von 1956. In dieser Zeit entwickelte Casablanca ein völlig neues Selbstverständnis und brach radikal mit Traditionen. Eine tragende Rolle spielte bei dieser Entwicklung die Kunsthochschule Casablanca mit ihren modernen Ansätzen, künstlerischen Ideen und pädagogischen Methoden. Sie griff unter anderem auf das Bauhaus-Manifest aus dem Jahr 1919 von Walter Gropius zurück und wurde zu einem wegweisenden Forum. School of Casablanca knüpft an die Ideen, Traditionen und Fragestellungen der Casablanca Art School an und verankert sie im Heute und im zeitgenössischen Denken. Auch im einundzwan- zigsten Jahrhundert stellt sich die Frage, wie die Rolle und die Bedeutung von Kunst und Design in der Gesellschaft neu gefasst werden können. Welche Institutionen, Kunst- und Designhochschulen, welche Praktiken und Lernformen brauchen wir gegenwärtig? Wie produzieren wir Wissen und wie teilen wir es? Was ist ein kollektiver Lernprozess? Das Projekt startete 2020 mit einem Residenzprogramm: In den vergangenen Jahren haben die eingeladenen Teilnehmer:innen – Künstler:innen, Designer:innen, Kurator:innen und unabhängige Wissenschaftler:innen – an dem Ausstellungsprojekt School of Casablanca in Casablanca geforscht und gearbeitet. Sie überdachten dabei die gesellschaftliche Funktion und Sichtbarkeit von Kunst im öffentlichen Raum und vermittelten in Workshops, Diskussionsveranstaltungen, Stadtspaziergängen und Interventionen ihre kulturellen Praktiken in die Stadtöffentlichkeit. Im November 2023 folgte eine Ausstellung in Casablanca an fünf Orten. Mit der gleichnamigen Ausstellung School of Casablanca in der ifa-Galerie Berlin wird das Konzept und Projekt nach Berlin zurückgespielt. Die Ausstellung stellt einen Dialog zwischen den von den Kooperationspartner:innen in Auftrag gegebenen Arbeiten und den umfangreich recherchierten Archivmaterialien her, agiert in der Gegenwart und reflektiert gleichzeitig die Vergangenheit.

The photographs on view from the François Pinault Collection ‒ covering the genres of portraits, fashion, still lifes, architecture and photojournalism ‒ span from 1910 to the late 1970s and include works from the renowned Condé Nast Archive. Arranged chronologically, they serve as examples of developments in fashion history and mirror radical social changes in the Western world.

Hans Uhlmann's (1900–1975) abstract metal sculptures and drawings shaped the image of German post-war modernism. Imprisoned by the National Socialists in 1933, he designed sketches of delicate wire heads in prison, which he realized after his release. After 1945, the engineer graduate decided to only work as an artist. In the 1950s he increasingly developed the figurative forms into constructivist compositions. Uhlmann realizes large-scale projects in public spaces such as the sculptures in front of the Deutsche Oper and in the Hansaviertel. He exhibits in numerous galleries in West Berlin and, as a curator, also becomes a promoter of modern and contemporary art. Nevertheless, Uhlmann's drawings and sculptures are still largely unknown to a wider audience. The exhibition traces his creative periods from the 1930s to the 1970s. Using around 80 works - sculptures, drawings, photographs and archive material - she also examines his role as a curator, university teacher and networker in post-war West Berlin. It is the first comprehensive retrospective in more than 50 years.

The Kotti-Shop/SuperFuture collective runs an art and project space on the ground floor of the New Kreuzberg Center at Kottbusser Tor. Julia Brunner and Stefan Endewardt have established an artistic practice there in close exchange with their neighbors. The focus is on design processes in the urban environment as well as spending time together. The projects include playground planning as a community task, collage-based coffee drinking and large-format outdoor installations. Kotti-Shop/SuperFuture present their working methods in the Berlinische Galerie. They go beyond the approach of urban development in dialogue, which has often degenerated into empty phrases. Rather, they value the diversity of neighborhoods, understand public space as a common asset worthy of protection, and promote collaborative processes of negotiation and design. The expansive installation in the Berlinische Galerie shows collective art production and its framework conditions. And last but not least, all visitors can practice the art of lingering. As part of the exhibition, events and workshops with Kotti-Shop/SuperFuture will take place.

Where humans build, nature is destroyed. This dilemma is becoming increasingly clear in view of finite resources and the enormous contribution that construction contributes to global warming. Three Berlin projects show how opponents can become teammates. To do this, interdisciplinary teams rely on the potential of mushrooms, trees and clay using the latest technologies. Your buildings gain an ecological quality from the green materials, but also a completely new character: they breathe, grow and therefore come to life themselves. The surprisingly sensual experience of this architecture creates a conscious relationship with our environment and can therefore have a lasting effect that goes beyond the material. In the exhibition, expansive installations make this tangible. In addition, sketches, plans, photographs and models explain the three approaches and designs for a future-oriented building culture.

Moreover, due to the proprietary nature of much corporate tech, even the most curious among us cannot gain deeper insight. Today, we are forced to come to terms with our relative lack of power in the face of inscrutable systems. What symptoms of this personal and political drama register in the cultural field? What moods, symbols, or narrative frames capture the aesthetics and politics of exclusion, occlusion, secrecy, and speculation concerning technology’s inside? This extensive group exhibition at KW builds upon the recent book by Nadim Samman titled Poetics of Encryption: Art and the Technocene. It surveys an imaginative landscape marked by Black Sites, Black Boxes, and Black Holes—terms that indicate how technical systems capture users, how they work in stealth, and how they distort cultural space-time. These themes form the basis three chapters that play out across all gallery floors at KW. Spanning analogue and digital media, Poetics of Encryption features both historic and newly commissioned work by more than 40 international artists. Featuring artists: Nora Al-Badri, Morehshin Allahyari, American Artist, Emmanuel Van der Auwera, Gillian Brett, Émilie Brout & Maxime Marion, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Julian Charrière, Joshua Citarella, Clusterduck, Juan Covelli, Kate Crawford & Vladan Joler, Sterling Crispin, Simon Denny, enorê, Roger Hiorns, Tilman Hornig, Rindon Johnson, Daniel Keller, Andrea Khôra, Jonna Kina, Oliver Laric, Eva & Franco Mattes, Jürgen Mayer H., Most Dismal Swamp, NEW MODELS, Carsten Nicolai, Simone C Niquille, Trevor Paglen, Matthias Planitzer, Jon Rafman, Rachel Rossin, Sebastian Schmieg, Charles Stankievech, Troika, UBERMORGEN, Nico Vascellari, Zheng Mahler, among others. The exhibition architecture has been made in collaboration with architect Jürgen Mayer H. / J. MAYER H. and partners, architects. A dedicated website-as-catalogue also features three ‘web-first’ artistic commissions, rich media, and a bespoke AI chatbot. See poeticsofencryption.kw-berlin.de

Jill Mulleady (*1980 in Montevideo, Uruguay) and Henry Taylor (*1958, in Ventura, USA) share a long-standing, close friendship and an absolute dedication to painting. The duo exhibition You Me is testimony to a bond between two artists of different generations, origins and socialization, in which painting and the constant reference to art history act as a common denominator. In their figurative imagery, Mulleady and Taylor reveal ambivalences that inevitably demand a positioning of the viewer in relation to painting in the juxtaposition of the private and the public as well as the representation of bodies.

The installation Undisciplined Construction of an Archive stems from Calovski’s reflections on his hometown of Skopje. The city was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1963, and as a result it became the subject of an international city-planning competition won by the Japanese architecture firm Kenzo Tange. This new start was seen as an opportunity for Skopje to create an internationally recognized symbol of Macedonian national identity within the multi-national state of Yugoslavia. Tange’s Master Plan for creating an ideal city involved re-shaping all aspects of the city—on the societal, economic, political and cultural levels. But this plan was never realized in full; instead, the results are marked by all the discrepancies between the urban utopia sketched on the drawing board and the real needs of Skopje’s residents—to which they hoped the government would respond with practical urban planning decisions. The chasm between lofty plans and real results constitutes the starting point for Calovski’s exploration of the Archive for City-Planning and Architecture in Skopje, as well as for his reflections on the widespread optimism of modern architecture in the 1960s and ’70s—whose gestures were later often criticized as authoritarian. In 2017, the archive housing the documentation of Kenzo Tange’s master plan for Skopje as well as other large architectural projects was almost completely destroyed by fire. Calovski had begun exploring this archive in 2004, and he has devoted the most recent chapter of his research project to this very history of its destruction. He confronts excerpts from burned archival materials such as old photographs or books and maps—which in some cases can no longer be opened because in being opened they would disintegrate to ashes—with his own memories. On his motivations, Calovski says: “Every time we experience a loss of something associated with our personal but also collective history, be that a document, a building, or a person, we feel that we have lost our footing both in the present and the future. It is a disconcerting, disorienting, and ultimately debilitating experience, and it takes time to recover enough to address it with some consequence. In particular, in times of active aggression, I wanted to understand how a residual archival matter concerns itself with potentiality and re-emergence as new and specific knowledge grounded in its embodiment.” In the installation MAKEDONIUM: Dramaturgy of the Unfinished, Calovski addresses the lesser-known history of a public monument entitled “Makedonium”. As with the master plan of Kenzo Tange, this work also involves a planned utopia and its relationship to the structures actually realized when, in the 1960s and ’70s, Socialist Macedonia erected various public monuments to commemorate the nation’s past. The monument in question, memorializing a people’s rebellions against various oppressors, was built between 1969–1974 on the basis of a design by architect Iskra Grabuloska and sculptor Jordan Grabuloski. Iskra Grabuloska, over the course of several decades, also created an archive, later gifted to the State Archive of Macedonia, in which she documented the couple’s conceptual and aesthetic intentions. Calovski developed his work in several parts—of which the most recent is exhibited in this exhibition—together with the artist Hristina Ivanoska, his partner. Both artists, however, have created distinct works from the project. The work we show here involves Calovski’s reflections on a part of the monument that was never built: a room that was meant to serve as a discursive space. While the curated, educational content foreseen by Grabuloska in that space was to reflect the spirit of the Macedonian liberation movement through the projection of films and slides, the room was also intended to catalyze self-reflection and dialogue. With this in mind, Calovski has created an object for our exhibition, which he has allocated to this unrealized room. Calovski’s most recent project included in this exhibition is Schöning Revisited: Extensions, Chroma, Inflections. Here, he has focused on architect Pascal Schöning, who was known for his concept of “Cinematic Architecture,” an architecture that encompasses the planning, not only of buildings, but more broadly of space, events, and relationships. Calovski’s starting point for this new installation is the architect’s former apartment in the Cité Radieuse, which—together with all its furnishings, books, and other content—has been integrated on its original site into the collection of the Archive of the Avant-Garde. The Cité Radieuse, located in Briey, France, was one of five apartment projects built by Le Corbusier on the model of his Unitè d'Habitation in Marseille—another is the Wohnmaschine in Berlin. Calovski has brought from Schöning’s apartment and incorporated into his installation at Zilberman the original doors, which Schöning himself collected and used as a partition, as well as mirror and glass plates and other materials and ephemera. Calovski works with these elements, extending them, or replicating them. In this way, he picks up on the modular approach professed by Le Corbusier, while at the same time re-thinking the living, social, and organizational concepts developed first by Le Corbusier and then by Pascal Schöning. For some years now, Yane Calovski and his family, which includes the artist Hristina Ivanoska and their son Teodor, have lived and worked commuting between Berlin and Skopje. Calovski describes this movement between two places as a dichotomy and says that it reflects the most basic of his working principles. This means embracing the modularity of his constructions, the gesture of collaboration, the shared use of resources, and a continuous search for meaningful connections, for a conversation, that leads to new and specially adapted concepts of political responsibility and creativity.

The social documentary recordings show various facets of everyday life. Riemann's rich image wealthy image not only reflects personal condition in a difficult political situation, but also general social concerns.

Kyiv Perennial interprets the idea of the biennial as a collective, long-term endeavor against the backdrop of survival – politically, socially, and culturally: “Perennial” means “lasting”, “enduring”, or “persisting”. Through presenting artistic and discursive practices, Kyiv Perennial addresses the multi-layered realities of war. The contributions engage and examine a wide-ranging spectrum of urgent themes, including war trauma, flight and displacement, the social and political polarization in European societies, ecological destruction caused by military conflict, and decolonial tendencies in contemporary Eastern European culture and politics. Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has given rise to a new wave of investigative, research-based, and documentary approaches deployed by artists, activists, and journalists. Their works have amounted to a collection of evidence of war crimes that reach from the killing of civilians and the erasure of architectural and other cultural heritage to environmental destruction that will affect Ukrainians until long after the end of the war. In addition to presenting these, Kyiv Perennial will put back into focus the Russian invasion of the Donbas region, the history of the Crimean Tatars, and German war crimes on Ukrainian soil during World War II. Going beyond a mere reckoning with the past, the exhibition orients itself towards the future, seeking possible exit strategies from the current deadlock of war, authoritarianism, and colonialism. The Berlin edition of the Kyiv Biennial commences with a three-day opening weekend: On February 23, the Kyiv Perennial opens at nGbK am Alex, two further openings follow at Between Bridges and station urbaner kulturen/nGbK Hellersdorf on February 24 and 25. On June 1, Prater Galerie organizes the symposium “What’s Left of the Friendship of Nations?”.

[…]That painting and sculpture are not skills that can be taught in reference to pre-established criteria, whether academic or moderne, but a process, whose content is found, subtle, and deeply felt, that no true artist ends with the style that he expected to have when he began, any more than anyone’s life unrolls in the particular manner that one expected when young… - Robert Motherwell While life in its merely biological aspects is a miracle and a secret, man in his human aspects is an unfathomable secret to himself – and to his fellow man. - Erich Fromm We are not completely in control of ourselves or perhaps what we believe we control, we do not understand, and thus there is no such thing as control (as Borges might put it?). We can understand that we are something with certain flitting intentions, we are on a constant fight to understand what surrounds us and how it affects us with the aim of understanding how we can gain a modicum of control over the known and the known unknown. Ultimately in order to better define ourselves. As one defines something in relation to a system of values/morals/information/thoughts/procedures. It is a system of interrelated relationships, which influence one another. We are an inevitability. Why? Because we cannot change what we cannot control, at least completely. We don't know what drives us, what keeps us alive and reproducing, or why we're here. However, a certain level of ignorance is probably for the best. Nonetheless this leads us to take many actions, reach certain conclusions and commit to certain behaviours about which we cannot know for certain how and why we did it, why we committed to it, and so on. We are what we are and that we do not know what it is. The process of art is a reflection of this. One begins with certain concepts and precepts and ideas and as time passes and other inputs enter our mental arena, we evolve into something unexpected, by ourselves, and together with others as a group. The individual and his social circle develop in tandem. At times others will be better at detecting our proclivities as they have the benefit of being at a distance, which allows to form a more informed picture of what we may turn out to be or to make. Focusing on the artwork itself, there is often a preconceived work and plan of execution, as well as mastery of the craft of bringing to life said object, but even when all these factors are present which is not always true, the work will arrive at its end form never exactly as predicted. The inevitability of being in physical form. How can one expect what one creates to be devoid of traits derived from oneself? The creator gives freedom to its creation just as much as it stamps it with a seal of parenthood.