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

Experience the unique performance of "Die 2fach Blinden (Les deux aveugles)" at Brotfabrik in Berlin. This comical short opera delves into the concept of altruism as a business model, following the story of a social capitalist in hiding and a homeless street musician vying for the best spot on a bridge to fleece tourists. As they compete, they realize their mutual responsibility for each other's plight, leading to a satirical exploration of their circumstances. Presented in a new German adaptation by Jan Rymon and Kundry Rymon, with musical arrangements by Tristan Breitenbach, this musical burlesque by Jules Moinaux and Jacques Offenbach promises a blend of disrespect, jazz, and wit. Produced by students from Berlin's Hochschule für Musik, Universität der Künste, Jazz-Institut, and Filmuniversität Babelsberg, this event on May 30, 2024, offers tickets priced between €11.15 and €16.35.

Witness the excitement of the 38th Internationale Deutsche Meisterschaften Para Swimming at the Schwimm- und Sprunghalle im Europasportpark (SSE) in Berlin from May 30 to June 2, 2024. Over 500 talented athletes from 50 nations will gather for this prestigious event, marking one of the final major championships before Paris 2024. Prepare to be enthralled by top-tier sportsmanship as competitors vie for qualification to the Games, shatter records, and achieve personal bests. Find all essential details about the IDM Schwimmen, including the event schedule, on the official website. Don't miss this opportunity to immerse yourself in world-class para swimming action. Secure your tickets now, priced between 8,48 € and 22,05 €.

Get ready to rock as ★DEATHCHANT★, ★LOVE YOUR WITCH★, and ★DANGER DOLLS★ are coming to Berlin! This thrilling event, presented by Fantasticore & Swamp Productions, promises to take you on a wild ride through the firmaments of rock'n'roll. Hailing all the way from LA, ★DEATHCHANT★ will be headlining the Cobblestone Casualties EU Tour, bringing their electrifying sound to Urban Spree on May 31st and June 1st. With their powerful and unforgettable performances, ★DEATHCHANT★ is a must-see for any rock music fan. Joining them on stage are the fierce and talented ★LOVE YOUR WITCH★, who will be returning to Berlin for one night only to shake the RAW venue with their explosive energy. And don't miss out on ★DANGER DOLLS★, the hard rock menace of Berlin's nights, who are sure to leave an indelible mark with their passionate performances. This event is a true celebration of rock'n'roll, capturing the excitement and nostalgia of the first time you heard your dad's favorite records. Organized by Urban Spree, Fantasticore Productions, Swamp Booking, and Riding Easy Records, this event is not to be missed. Get your tickets now for €17.17 and experience the magic of ★DEATHCHANT★, ★LOVE YOUR WITCH★, and ★DANGER DOLLS★ at Urban Spree in Berlin.

Experience THE ECCO Sessions, a unique celebration of sound and storytelling taking place at Engels in Berlin. This inaugural event will feature a captivating evening of collective listening, highlighting the creative audio works produced by the first cohort of THE ECCO initiative. A diverse group of podcast producers, audio artists, journalists, and writers have collaborated on crafting short audio pieces, stepping outside their comfort zones to share stories they've longed to tell or ideas previously unexplored. These works have been created not for commercial gain, but for the sheer joy of exploration. Prepare to immerse yourself in a blend of experimental audio art, traditional storytelling, and perhaps even a live performance. THE ECCO Sessions promises more than just a showcase; it is a vibrant community gathering that celebrates the art of audio storytelling. Doors open at 6:30 pm on May 31, 2024, with the show commencing at 7 pm and lasting approximately 2 hours. Following the event, festivities and enjoyment are bound to continue. Secure your ticket for 10.77 € and be part of this enriching experience. For additional information about THE ECCO, visit their website.

Experience an unforgettable evening at Pink Mario’s event, "Orion and Beyond", taking place in Berlin at the Märkisches Ufer 1z venue. Step aboard the historic ship Helene on the river Spree on May 31, 2024, for a night filled with cosmic music and dance. Pink Mario, also known as Lazlo Barclay, a prominent dream pop artist from Berlin, will treat guests to a captivating journey through space with interactive art, live performances, and eccentric alien-themed decorations. Immerse yourself in Pink Mario's unique sound, blending modern pop with experimental electronic music, featuring smooth vocals over pulsating synth and bass lines. Be part of this musical transmission from Earth to outer space, as Pink Mario gears up for the release of his debut album in late 2024. The event schedule includes an opening act at 7pm, followed by Pink Mario's live performance at 9pm, and a DJ set until late at 10.30pm. Tickets are available for €17.17. Please note that wheelchair accessibility is limited; reach out for assistance if needed. Get ready for a magical evening surrounded by great music and even better company aboard the charming ship Helene.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Between 1949 and 1990, thousands migrated to the GDR from countries such as Algeria, Angola, Chile, Cuba, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Syria, and Vietnam. Their stories remain largely untold. The exhibition and research project Echoes of the Brother Countries is dedicated to the often overlooked political, economic, educational, and artistic links, as well as the exchange and migration movements between the GDR and other socialist-orientated states, the so-called brother countries. However, in the shadow of the iconographic depictions of solidarity such as a 'united class struggle' or 'socialist internationalism', there were other realities. Despite the GDR’s emphasis on fair labour conditions and professional development, migrants experienced labour exploitation, cramped living quarters, surveillance, curtailment of certain freedoms such as getting pregnant or being in a relationship, racist and xenophobic attacks, withheld wages and broken promises by their government and the GDR government. However, there were practices of solidarity across individual, local, national, and global scales, including GDR support for so-called anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and liberation struggles in other parts of the world. How were these relations made possible? And how much of this history and its legacies remain visible today? The exhibition and research project brings together numerous positions that create a common space for remembrance, dialogue, and reflection on transnational solidarities and contradictions. With an extensive opening and educational programme, Echoes of the Brother Countries explores the question of how these interwoven histories continue to shape the former brother countries to this day, especially the lives of the people who migrated under the conditions of these alliances. The multidisciplinary project critically maps the GDR history and relations with its brother countries, a term that is critically taken up for its gendered problematics, and illusions of and allusions to equality. Amid erasures, gaps, and absences in broader public educational discourses, the project attempts to understand the reverberations of those histories in Germany as well as in the former br countriesother to situate these relations as part of a global history of cultural movement and exchange. With contributions among others by Abed Abdi, Khaled Abdulwahed, Donald Acquaye, Maimuna Adam, Kais al-Zubaidi, Santos Chávez, Ivan Cibulka, Sarah Ama Duah, NguyÃ1⁄4n LÃ Ã...c, Ângela Ferreira, Carla Filipe, Lea Grundig, Sami Hakki, Kiluanji Kia Hendaário Jano, Isaac Newton-Schule, Emile Itolo, Januário Jano, Hiwa K, Euridice Zaituna Kala, Martha Ketsela, Songhak Ky, Verena Kyselka, Heinz-Karl Kummer, Hernando LeÃan, Humberto LÃopez, MORUS High School, Nástio Mosquito, Olu Oguibe, Cés OlhagRosenfeld, Riad Ali Saad, Farkhondeh Shahroudi, Sophie-Brahe-Gemeinschaftsschule, Dito Tembe, Sung Tieu, Christoph Wetzel, Horst Weber

The mystery in Morandi's work, the state of suspension between those present and absent, was the starting point for Silke Panknin's work “Tabula Rasa”. Pascal Reif drew an abstract industrial scene in “Schwarzfall” (Blackfall). Everything disappears into black. Everything arises from black. Simon Terzer's “Dazwischen” (In between) builds a bridge between his nature-loving home in the Dolomites and the dynamic city of Berlin. Like a slip of the tongue that betrays one's thoughts, each image of Sara Toussaint's "Atto Mancato" alluded to a reality detached from the object it represents. In “Das Leuchten der Zukunftsmaschine - The sleeping Berlin starship” Klaus W. Eisenlohr looked for visual inspiration during the art event “The Sun Machine is Coming Down”at Berlin`s icc. Ebba Dangschat's pictures from the “Polyphonia” series were intuitive snapshots that she captured while traveling, visual dialogues whose echo resonated in the viewer. With “I used to look at the sky”, Melina Papageorgiou dedicated herself to the streets of Berlin. She is only interested in the material: the asphalt. With “Atemeta” Jewgeni Roppel filtered out the existential phenomena of media technology using his own moods and metaphors. Doris Schmid's video "It's all a dream" with music by Eunice Martins turned out to be a fantastic and dream-like short story, inspired by the Argentine author Julio Cortázar. For her work “Matsu-Japan” Silke Panknin photographed trees that were supported with huge sticks. "I remember that followers of Shintoism assumed that nature is sacred and that kami, so-called gods, live in these trees". For “Very First Place”, Kirsten Johannsen invited people to describe the first place they remember. She then developed architectural models and cartographic folding objects, which she presented with audio documents. „Fremd bin ich eingezogen, fremd zieh ich wieder aus“ (A stranger I arrived here, a stranger I go hence) was about Sibylle Hoffmann’s and Hansgeorg Jeggle`s photographic search for the self and a search for the other, the strangeness in this world.

Program Artists: Collective Gabriela Germany, Ban Ying shelter house and consultant service for migrant women, Raksa Seelapan (with Fah Passion-Asasu, Liad Hussein Kantoworicz), Analie Gepulanin Neiteler & Anika Baluran Schäfer, Sine Plambech & Sommai Molbaek, Stefanos Tai, Susanne Wycisk, Vijitra Kunawut Curated by Sarnt Utamachote as part of the exhibition program POLY 2024 at Galerie Wedding In collaboration with Week Against Racism, Thaispora Podcast, Sinema Transtopia, Ban Ying Berlin and Gabriela Germany What is care, if turned away from the customers, back to the providers themselves? The project departs from the extremely violent cliché images that are projected on especially Thai and Filipina women and queer bodies. Some of us have been asked »are you married to a German guy? « during our visa application, some have been called »women from the catalogue«, some »prostitute«, some »maids«. These racist words triggered us, collective un.thai.tled, to dig deeper into such histories and, unfortunately, the realities of our »sisters and aunties«. A research grant by Akademie der Künste in 2022 therefore allows us to continue our trajectory from previous engagement with the Thai community in Preußenpark (»Thai Park«, Berlin). The result is the exhibition and programme IN NOBODY’S SERVICE, as part of the POLY programme of Galerie Wedding, focusing on a multidisciplinary polysemic approach to history writing, labour, love, and care in contemporary arts practice. Migration histories from Thailand and Philippines to the West have been shaped by American influences and colonisation in the region and entangled the white colonisers’ military bases and their desires with the conditions of gendered migration after. With West Germany’s parallel interests in tourism and developing labour exchanges – of sex, care and the reproductive industry, it gave birth to, for example, the marriage agencies in Berlin (that linked husband and wife together), or cheap maid agencies across developing countries, the brothels and massage salons in Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg. Here our bodies have been rendered to mere »providers« – resulting in questions like the ones posed at the visa application centre. Are we »that kind of woman«? At the same time, we also recognise that these oppressive spaces can be subverted into places of care, comfort, and knowledge. This project aims to allow such a past now entangled in our present to be our material for artistic collaboration with our »sisters and aunties«. Highlighting the non-biological kinship and relationality, we attempt to focus on the proximity of common struggles and empathy that arose. De-stigmatizing this service sector (including sexwork) and its negative connotations on us, we take this as a chance to reclaim our rights to healing and temporal liberation. When »that kind« and »this kind« come together, then we are unbeatable. Via the intersection of class, gender, sexuality, and – if we may say – dreams, IN NOBODY’S SERVICE recognises the carved-out realities beyond the realms of their white husbands or social conditions – now available for us, now in nobody’s service.

“What is the non-binary body? What is the non-binary jacket? What is the non-binary haircut? What should the nail bed look like? Like the calluses on your feet. Which shoe size should you have. Do you sit leaning forward a bit or leaning back slightly. Which hair color is non-binary. Which eye color. Which skin color. How much body fat is non-binary. Do the tips of the feet point towards the center or outwards? How does the cough sound.”1 Jay Ritchie’s solo exhibition Wandlung & Scherben [Transformation & Shards] examines social roles and identities in the binary gender system. In a society that consistently feels compelled to categorize bodies not only in terms of gender but also more generally, Ritchie’s photographic and sculptural works focus on the non-binary body and its resilience without negating its wounds. In a personal and poetic manner, Ritchie demonstrates through their own transition how gender can be a journey and a process. However, by making individual experiences visible, the works in the exhibition do not only refer to queer realities. Wandlung & Scherben instead negotiates identity in general as a flowing continuum rather than a rigid construct. Gender is not understood as a fixed category but as a state that, like our entire being, can change and transform. Identities are shaped through experiences, which influence and at times even restrict life. Negative experiences express themselves through traumatization, which can manifest itself in the body as posttraumatic stress disorder. Jay Ritchie speaks as an affected person about their own traumas, which are taken up in the artistic process and made visible. At the same time, Ritchie detaches them from their individual focus, instead understanding them as a collective phenomenon that needs to be addressed. Through this particular mode of thematization, Ritchie creates a space in flux that addresses feminist themes powerfully through its vulnerability, exploring topics like shame, guilt, and self-assertion, and thereby describe a political act. Wandlung & Scherben opens an artistic-discursive space, becoming a plea to rethink and change social structures. The exhibition title indicates that the search for one’s own identity seldom comes to an end. At the same time, it becomes clear that personal development and healing trauma is never linear but is always characterized by interruptions and disruptions. Only by publicly negotiating individual and collective traumas, talking about them, and not remaining silent, can intergenerational cycles of violence be broken and a macrosocial transformation be made possible. Our bodies don’t owe anyone anything. 1 Irina Nekrasov/a: Welche Haarfarbe hat Geschlecht. In: etece buch (ed.), Realitäten. 30 Queere Stimmen. Berlin: etecee buch, 2022.

Noa Eshkol (1924-2007) war Tänzerin, Choreografin, bildende Künstlerin, Pädagogin und Theoretikerin. Sie gründete 1954 das Chamber Dance Quartett in Tel Aviv und entwickelte minimalistische Kompositionen ohne Bühnenbild, Kostüme oder Musik. Ihr Ziel war die absolute Konzentration auf das Wesentliche. Eshkol hatte ein tiefes Verständnis für Körper und Raum und entwickelte 1954 gemeinsam mit dem Architekten Abraham Wachmann ein einzigartiges Notationssystem, das körperliche Bewegungen aufzeichnet und der Dokumentation und Kommunikation dient: die Eshkol-Wachmann Bewegungsnotation (EWMN). Damit leistete sie einen wichtigen kulturellen und wissenschaftlichen Beitrag zu Entwicklungen in der Medizin, der computergestützten elektronischen Musik und der Kybernetik. Die umfangreiche Präsentation gibt Einblick in ihre Bewegungsforschungen seit den 1950er Jahren, Choreografien, Sprachstudien, Tänze, Textilkunst und das von ihr entwickelte Notationssystem für menschliche und tierische Bewegungen. Den Gegenpol zu ihren minimalistischen Choreografien und grafischen Tanznotationen bilden in der Ausstellung großformatige und farbintensive Wandteppiche, die sie ab 1973, mit Ausbruch des Jom-Kippur- Krieges gemeinsam mit ihren Tänzer*innen aus gesammelten und gespendeten Stoffresten schuf. Mit der Präsentation zum Leben und Werk dieser wegweisenden Künstlerin greift das Georg Kolbe Museum für die Institution wichtige Themen wie den modernen Tanz, Körper im Raum und die Architektur der Moderne auf. Die Ausstellung zeigt außerdem Werke zeitgenössischer Künstler*innen, die von Eshkols Praxis inspiriert wurden. Darunter Werke von Sharon Lockhart, Yael Bartana und Omer Krieger sowie eine neu für die Ausstellung entwickelte Arbeit von Ayumi Paul.

The exhibition shows the spectrum of the recent work and introduces into the individual visual worlds of sthe chinese artist Li Zhi, born 1964. Philosophical reflections are expressed and intuition, inspiration and concentration are combined. The images, which strive for peace and quiet, resemble invitations to meditation. They show weathered rocks, fairies or elves in flight, statues, monks, rising mists, meditation figures, views of moving water or deep, wide skies. These unobtrusive motifs are an expression of Buddhist culture and the artist's spiritual experience. Moments of search, change, transformation and transcendence gather in them. They repeatedly address the phenomenon of time, the emptiness in time. They teach a deeper way of seeing and at the same time report a relaxed, tense expectation of the right, present moment of awakening to set off for new, unknown shores.

With Gropius Bau presents Pallavi Paul's first comprehensive solo exhibition. As an artist and film scholar, Paul uses the camera to question how regimes of “truth” are produced and maintained in public life. In her multimedia practice, which includes film, installation, performance, drawing, photography and text, she negotiates the documentary not just as a film or image, but as an ecology of materials, networks, global alliances and systems.