For the thirteenth Berlin Art Week, over 100 exhibition venues, museums, private collections, galleries and project spaces are inviting visitors, to discover contemporary art in Berlin. It's about meeting spaces & community, about resistance & protest, and about how art & sound, space & sound influence each other. An exciting supporting programme with performances, music, talks and much more awaits you. Because the choice is not easy, we have picked out 11 highlights for you. Look forward to an exciting weekend of art.
Tip: Many of the exhibitions can be seen beyond the official duration of Berlin Art Week from 11 - 15 September. So don't get stressed, just come back to see the exhibitions with longer durations. You can put together your own personal highlights for Berlin Art Week directly on the BAW website.
Tip 1: Meet in the BAW garden at the Gropius Bau
With installations such as "Curry for Soul" or "untitled 1993 (café deutschland)", the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija has been making the encounter part of the exhibition since the 1990s. The Gropius Bau is showing a selection of his works in the overview exhibition "Happiness is not always fun" and at the same time opening up new, unique spaces for encounters. There will be cooking, coffee brewing and drinking, and a spiral-shaped stage in the atrium of the Gropius Bau will host public performances every day from 3 pm. Around it, you can pass the ball to each other on eight table tennis tables. There is a fully equipped rehearsal room that is open to the public - and can be booked by all Berlin musicians. And little art fans will be able to let off steam in several exhibition rooms that have been transformed into an adventure playground BauBau.
Tip: It's best to drop by yourself, as the Gropius Bau is also hosting the BAW Garden this year, making it the perfect starting point for a visit to Berlin Art Week. Here you will not only find all the information about the entire programme, but you can also get creative yourself in workshops. Snacks and coffee are served in between and you can meet here for a sundowner at the end of the day.
When: during the entire Berlin Art Week
Where: Niederkirchnerstraße 7, Kreuzberg
Tip 2: Collect art at the Positions Berlin Art Fair
107 international galleries from 24 different countries will be showing their selection of contemporary and modern art at this year's Positions Berlin Art Fair. In addition to established artistic positions, you can also discover young talents in the light-flooded halls of the gigantic hangars at the former Tempelhof Airport. A special focus this year is on South Korea. The special exhibition will be accompanied by culinary delights. Once again this year, selected Berlin fashion designers will be presenting their work. With the Sofacompany Lounge, Positions offers newcomers to the art market a curated exhibition with works in the low-price segment.
When: 12 to 15 September
Where: Tempelhof Airport - Hangar 6 & 7, Tempelhofer Damm 45, Tempelhof
Tip 3: Celebrate art at the Gallery Weekend Festival
During Berlin Art Week numerous galleries in Berlin invite you to the Opening weekend with a special programme and extended opening hours. In addition to exciting exhibition openings and group exhibitions, there will be readings, performances, music, sound and interventions by the artists represented by the galleries. You can also look forward to parties and DJ sets. You can find an overview of all participating galleries in our calendar of events.
When: Opening on 13 September 6 - 10 pm, festival Saturday 14 September 12 - 6 pm and Sunday 15. September 11 am - 6 pm
Where: various locations & galleries in Berlin
Tip 4: Feel the pain of protest at the CCA am Kranzlereck
The former department stores' at Kranzlereck (Kranzler X) is being used by the Centre for Contemporay Arts during Berlin Art Week. The CCA normally curates the exhibitions in the foyer building of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, but has now found a spectacular venue for the solo exhibition of the Berlin artist Nazanin Noori in the currently vacant buildings. With "The Echo of Protest is distant tot the protest", the young woman, who works primarily as a sound artist, creates an atmospheric backdrop that brings to life the pain and suffering at the root of many political protests.
When: Tuesday to Saturday, 2 - 7 pm
Where: CCA Berlin @ Kranzler X, Kurfürstendamm 20, City West
Tip 5: Get to know Berlin's art scene and neighbourhoods on a Berlin Art Week Tour
On nine different tours, you will get to know the creative hotspots of various Berlin neighbourhoods. Accompanied by experts and in cooperation with the Museumsdienst Berlin, you will explore the art and gallery scene from Mitte to Neukölln via Kreuzberg, to Charlottenburg or to the west of Berlin. Depending on the distance and the neighbourhood, you will be on foot or by bike. Due to the great demand last year, there are around twice as many offers this time!
If you want to set off on your own, the discovery tours curated together with Berlin Art Link are the right thing for you. From the centre of Berlin to more remote locations, the routes offer various options and combine contemporary art with thematic focuses: For example, you can go along the Spree, then to striking GDR buildings, to the elegant west of Berlin or to the centre for an aperitif. There is also a child-friendly route - and three extra tours for Gallery Night.
When: varies depending on the tour in the afternoon from 11 to 15 September
Where: you can find out the starting point when you buy your ticket
Tipp 6: Gisèle Vienne - Together Haus am Waldsee and Georg Kolbe Museum
Immerse yourself in the world of Gisèle Vienne. This autumn, Haus am Waldsee, the Georg Kolbe Museum and Sophiensælen are joining forces to present the entire artistic oeuvre of the French-Austrian artist, choreographer and director as part of Berlin Art Week. Vienne is primarily known for her work on stage, which she deliberately expands through the use of puppets, with which she stages the longings and fears of a crisis-ridden youth. The life-size puppets that Vienne has created over the past 20 years are assembled in the Haus am Waldsee and staged in the form of a puppet show, while in the Georg Kolbe Museum they are shown in dialogue with historical works by female artists of the European avant-garde.
Tip: At the Sophiensaele on 15 September, you can watch the film Jerk by Gisèle Vienne as part of an artist talk. The film starts at 2 pm, the talk at 3.30 pm. Admission is free. From 14 to 16 September, the performances of Crowd will also be shown here.
This Causes Consciousness to Fracture - A Puppet Play
When: 12 September 2024 to 12 January 2025
Where: Haus am Waldsee, Argentinische Allee 30, Zehlendorf
A Puppet Play
I know that I can double myself. Gisèle Vienne and the dolls of the avant-garde
When: 13 September 2024 to 9 March 2025
Where: Georg Kolbe Museum, Sensburger Allee 25, Westend
Tip 7: Visit the Performance Weekend at the KW
As part of Berlin Artweek, KW Institute invites you to a performance weekend. In the solo performance Mean Time (15 September), the artist Amina Szecsödy deals with emancipation and language, or rather the possible misuse of words. She slips into the role of a female oracle who sometimes gives wise prophecies and sometimes speaks in riddles as if possessed. In her first solo performance Arctic Hysteria, dancer and choreographer Sarah Aviaja Hammeken (14 September) explores the dichotomy of growing up in two different cultures. It is about both the resulting abundance of possibilities and the feeling of not really belonging anywhere.
In addition, you are invited to visit the exhibitions on Friday between 7 and 9 pm with free admission.
When: 14 and 15 September, 2 and 6 pm, please register at reservation[at]kw-berlin.de
Where: Auguststraße 69, Mitte, 4th floor (in English)
Tipp 8: Explore space & sound at Hamburger Bahnhof
Wenn ihr euch für Sound, Musik und Performances interessiert, dann solltet ihr während der Berlin Art Week unbedingt das Soundfestival im Hamburger Bahnhof besuchen. Nicht nur beschäftigen sich die aktuellen Ausstellungen mit dem Grenzbereich von Musik und Kunst, im Rahmen des Soundfestivals erlebt ihr zahlreiche Konzerte und Performances mit namhaften Künstlerinnen. Darunter die Ikone der Punk/Postpunk/No Wave-Szene Lydia Lunch (12. September, 18 Uhr), die Künstlerin Naama Tsabar (12. September 20:30 Uhr und 21:30 Uhr und 14. September 19 Uhr, 20 Uhr und 21 Uhr). Erlebt die Historische Halle und den Museumsgarten als vielschichtige Klanglandschaft. Gespräche und Führungen zu Themen um Raum, Klang und zeitgenössischer Kunst ergänzen das Festival-Wochenende.
Wann: 11. bis 15. September
Wo: Invalidenstraße 50-51, Mitte
Tip 9: The new exhibitions in the Kindl Brewery
Resistance is a theme that is the focus of several exhibitions at the KINDL - Centre for Contemporary Art. "Ride Or Die", a video installation by Berlin-based artist Nina E. Schönefeld, is about resistance to the political shift to the right in Europe and the threat to the separation of powers and freedom of the press. Schönefeld is primarily concerned with the moment of decision, when relentless, radical resistance begins.
Artists also explore strategies of resistance in the exhibition The New Subject. The focus here is on body image and how to resist laws and political control structures that are instrumentalised to suppress "undesirable" or "unconventional" bodies.
When: Opening on 14. September - duration of the exhibitions until January/February 2025
Where: Am Sudhaus 3, Neukölln
Tip 10: Dream on – Berlin, the 90s at C/O Berlin
On 9 November 35 years ago, the Wall fell and the once divided city of Berlin was reunited. A time of new beginnings, change and the search for identity began. While politicians debated building investment and housing issues, the young generation used the brownfield sites to realise their own utopias for the future. The empty spaces are converted into work and creative communities or used for unofficial music clubs. A wild time that is documented by seven young photographers, who together found the Agentur Ostkreuz . Their pictures from this time and other archive material can now be seen at C/O Berlin.
When: 14 September to 22 January
Where: C/O Berlin (in Amerika-Haus), Hardenbergstraße 22 - 24, Tiergarten
Tip 11: Mariechen Danz „edge out“ at Berlinischen Galerie
Artist Mariechen Danz is concerned with methods of conveying knowledge and information. With her exhibition "edge out", she transforms the long entrance hall of the Berlinische Galerie into a spatial installation that connects walls and floor. Follow the footsteps and explore the different mediation media, which in various combinations open up completely new spaces for thought. World maps and technological buttons, body parts printed on fossils or human organs immortalised in formaldehyde like pieces of jewellery. Biology, geology, technology, anatomy and educational objects from different centuries - as well as their shadows - become blurred and encourage us to think about what the respective mediation formats say about society and power structures.
When: 13 September to 31 March
Where: Alte Jakobstraße 124 - 128, Kreuzberg
