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The Berlinische Galerie has devoted over 1000 square metres to presenting its collection. Waiting to be discovered among the roughly 250 works on show are paintings, prints, photographs, architecture and archive materials rarely or never displayed before. Walking around this exhibition is like time travel and takes visitors through Berlin in 17 chapters: the Kaiser's era, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi dictatorship, the new beginnings after 1945, Cold War in the divided city, and the counter-cultures and unconventional lifestyles that evolved in East and West under the shadow of the Wall. In East Berlin, an alternative art community developed from the late 1970s. In West Berlin from the late 1970s, aggressive art by the “Neue Wilden” placed the divided city back in the international limelight.

Already 2,000 years ago, the emperors of China had portraits of loyal officials and generals made in order to display them in their palaces. This presentation features depictions of meritorious officers that the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736–1795) had commissioned for their display in the hall of fame Ziguangge to demonstrate his power and legitimacy. In the 20th century they became spoils of war not one but two times. Located adjacent to the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Ziguangge is a two-storey pavilion. During the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736 – 1795), the building was a venue for military rituals and banquets and housed paintings with battle scenes of the imperial military campaigns and portraits of meritorious officers.

The exhibition examines the transformative potential of public art and explores the methods and motivations behind such works, as well as their social impact.

Monira Al Qadiri (*1983) is a Kuwaiti visual artist born in Senegal and educated in Japan. Recent shows include solo exhibitions at UCCA Dune, China (2023); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2023); the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (2022); Blaffer Art Museum, Texas, USA (2022); Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2020); Kunstverein Gottingen, Gottingen, Germany (2019); The CIRCL Pavilion, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2018); Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon (2017) and Gasworks, London, UK (2017); amongst others. In 2022, Al Qadiri was featured in the Venice Biennale's central exhibition “The Milk of Dreams.” She is based in Berlin.

With over 500,000 objects, the Münzkabinett (Numismatic Collection) is one of the largest coin collections worldwide. It is renowned for its rich variety and the continuity of its coin series, ranging from the dawn of minting in Asia Minor in the 7th century BC to its collections of coins and medals from the 21st century.

Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff (1923 – 2011) is one of a small number of female German artists to have enjoyed an international career between the 1950s and 1970s with her sculpture and drawings. She was the only female sculptor, indeed the only woman, among the founders of the notable group of German artists ZEN 49. Milestones along her path to success were the invitations to take part in documenta in Kassel in 1959 and 1964 and the Biennale di Venezia in 1962. She was awarded major prizes for her art and was featured in the relevant publications about sculpture after 1945. And yet her name remains largely unknown. If anything, she is recognised as one half of the acclaimed Berlin duo Matschinsky-Denninghoff. Her husband Martin Matschinsky (1921–2020) started out as a photographer and stage actor. In 1955 he began helping his wife to implement her sculptures. From 1970 they signed these together, laying the foundations for the Matschinsky-Denninghoff brand. Even sculptures for which Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff had garnered an international reputation between 1955 and 1970 were retrospectively declared by the couple to be joint creations. Their large works in the signature style were to become landmarks in several West German cities.