Summer is in full swing in Berlin, and I wandered the city questioning which friends I can have an Aperol glass blown out of our hands with by a gust of summer wind and which I should better leave on Seen, as they have crossed over to the immigrant-hating side of German politics. Berlin Biennale curator Zasha Colah claimed there is no censorship in Germany ( not legally, but pre-emptively); another finger on the pulse moment for KW who did manage to remove at least one of their board members for reposting rampant homophobic and Islamophobic content. This week we met with young Iranian artist Mahdad Alizadeh, who had to install his show at Nothelfer Galerie while the US was “eliminating” nonexistent nuclear facilities in his hometown. These are the type of sentences one ends up writing in 2025 if you are half way keeping it real and I have long made my peace with it. Where art meets life meets war.  He has one plea to the imperial powers that be. Please stop bombing Tehran; the art scene there is much stronger than Berlin. An artist got to eat.

“Stimmen, die sich suchen” (Voices in Search of One Another) was first curated and funded by the Goethe-Institut Rome in 2019, in collaboration with Casa Onna. In 2021, a second version was presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in the Italian Pavilion.

Haus am Lützowplatz (HaL) is now presenting the third expanded and final version of the exhibition. To mark the conclusion of the project, the book „Stimmen, die sich suchen“, designed by büro uebele, will be published by Edition Fotohof Salzburg.

Thu July 3rd 17h @Satellit Berlin:  KIEZ-BROT-WERKSTATT#14 workshop: (IM)POSSIBLE LOAVES mit Marisa Beniamim
The workshop invites visitors to literally ingest the Ernst-Thälmann-Park’s contested history, fostering dialogue about nature’s silent activism. Using detoxifying herbs like nettle, cilantro, and sunflowers, participants bake bread infused with plants that absorb cyanides and heavy metals.  (IM)POSSIBLE LOAVES is held by artist Marisa Benjamim at Satellit in occasion of her exhibition “(Im)possible Antidote” within the exhibition series “Ecosystems of Care / Ökosysteme der Fürsorge” by Prater Galerie in Ernst-Thälmann-Park.  “(Im)possible Antidote” is a site-specific project engaged with the Park’s layered history as a former gasworks (1872-1981), where soil remains poisoned by cyanides, phenols, and tar despite partial remediation. Artist Marisa Benjamim responds by activating the subject phytoremediation—the natural detox capacity of plants.  

4 Jul-2 Aug 2025

For the first time in Berlin, the work of Mexican artist, researcher, and theatre set designer Carmen Mariscal is being presented. Her interdisciplinary practice explores memories embedded in spaces – from the human body to clothing, architecture, and the city itself. Her current project investigates the layered histories of the site now occupied by the Mexican Embassy in Berlin. Through photography, film, and installation, Mariscal explores the layered histories of the embassy’s current site, uncovering traces of memory, transformation, and diplomacy throughout the 20th century. Her work brings to light forgotten stories that connect Mexico, Germany, the United Kingdom, and others, tracing its transformations throughout the 20th century. In addition the exhibition includes two films from previous site-specific projects in Mexico. 
To mark the exhibition, a public talk followed by a walk to the Kunstverein will take place on 2 July at 6pm, hosted by the Mexican Embassy (Klingelhöferstraße 3, 10785 Berlin).
 Sediments of Memory is part of Spatial Practices in Art and Architecture for Empathetic Exchange (SPACEX), a project supported by the European Union.   Simultaneously, the exhibition Pandora's Box - An alternate dramaturgy of the past and the present or for a dystopian world featuring works by William Cody Maherand Signe Mähler, as well as the new display Die Welt wieder verzaubern by Barbara Holub in our Schaufenster, will be opening.

The Kunstverein is pleased to present the works of German photographer Signe Mähler and American poet William Cody Maher. Their joint exhibition, Pandora's Box - An alternate dramaturgy of the past and the present or for a dystopian world brings together images and sceneries, poems and life narratives, introducing a world in which the personal and the universal intersect and mirror one another. 

Traces Remain brings together the work of Alistair Gow, Birgit Klerch, and Esther Schnerr — three artists whose practices examine the subtle and lasting imprints of human presence. Though distinct in medium and approach, their works circle shared questions: How do we inhabit the world? What lingers once we have passed through?

Alistair Gow’s - winner of the BBA Art Award at Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair London 2024, elusive compositions capture fragile moments of encounter and dissolution. These are not portraits, but presences — suspended in quiet tension, caught between intimacy and estrangement.

Birgit Klerch, shortlisted Artist for BBA Artist Prize 2025, turns inward to the emotional atmospheres of rooms and horizons. Her paintings emerge from lived environments, shaped by time and memory. 

Esther Schnerr, also shortlisted, reaches deep into natural history, exploring evolution, extinction, and the Anthropocene. Together, their works form a shared ground — one that is layered, fragile, and marked by what has come before. In Traces Remain, we are invited to witness not only what is seen, but what is felt, remembered, and inevitably changed.

4 Jul-9 Aug 2025

BBA is pleased to present the first solo exhibition by BBA Photography Prize 2024 winner Vladimir Khorev. Currently based in Taipei, Taiwan, Khorev explores the poetic dimensions of urban life through photography, with a focus on light, colour, and form. His practice blurs the boundaries between documentary and abstraction, transforming fleeting everyday scenes into visually compelling compositions. The exhibition Characters centres on the Wanhua District of Taipei, one of the city’s oldest and most characterful neighbourhoods. Taken near the historic Longshan Temple, the images capture passers-by in unguarded moments of pause, movement, or solitude. By using glass fencing found on the streets as a visual device, Khorev introduces layers of reflection, distortion, and transparency—evoking a subtle tension between intimacy and distance.

Navot Miller presents a new series of paintings ranging from large-scale to intimate works alongside a colorful architectural intervention. For the first time in the artist’s practice, there will be a theatrical reveal at 7 PM, during which the covered paintings will be unveiled and made available for public viewing.

The exhibition unfolds through portraits, urban scenes, and intimate exchanges. Echoes of Edward Hopper’s quiet tension run throughout the series. The conceptual center of Paradise consists of two fresh anecdotes in Miller’s life—a recent romantic relationship with a person and a departure from a place he considers home: Berlin. Miller’s approach to both Eliezer and Berlin is filled with warmth, humor, and eventual heartbreak. Their story infuses the paintings. Here, longing is not failure, but a sign of being alive—a theme also touched on in Olivia Laing’s The Lonely City.

An exhibition essay from Oliver Koerner von Gustorf will be available on our website and at the gallery prior to the opening.

Afterparty for the @navotmiller Paradise exhibition at Dittrich&Schlechtriem
@_f_l_o_w_w_w_ @frznte @riotbutt 
@dittrichschlechtriem 
Flyer @studio_yukiko

if you know you know 

Sat + Sun July 5 & 6 10 am – 9 pm PRESENT CONTINUOUS: ON PALESTINIAN LAND, LABOR AND ECONOMY
This is a two-day symposium on the political economy of Palestine and the reconstruction of Gaza
For everyone older than 14 years
In English
Amid 20 months of bombing and ongoing genocidal violence against Palestinians in Gaza, this two-day symposium seeks to critically engage with the political economy of Palestine and the violent imaginaries of some of the proposed reconstruction plans of Gaza.
Through panels, workshops, and artistic interventions, Present Continuous offers the space to discuss how the prisms of land, labor, industry, energy, and infrastructure can help us understand the economic architecture of the occupation over the past century, while reflecting on how these logics of economic domination have been resisted and are being reimagined for alternative futures.
People of all backgrounds are warmly invited to join the symposium.

With contributions by @counterinvestigations @palestinespeaks @wesmellgas @GlobalSouthUnited
@Klima4Palästina @kraeuterquatsch @jjjalt93 @forensicarchitecture @counterinvestigations @dimitrandr @sanabelar

Sat, July 5th 17-19:30 District choir Offensive parade around Moritzplatz by Pia Lanzinger
with active participation of the neighborhood
and accompanied by the choir of statistics with Bernadette La Hengst (music)
Meeting place: from 4:30 pm at the CLB or at 17:00 at Moritzplatz
Those who come later can easily find and hear us around Moritzplatz.
Stop by and sing along!
Free admission!
A project by Katharina Schlieben and Pia Lanzinger
www.turning-the-point.de 
@lahengst 
@chorderstatistik 
@studio_macimaci

Sat July 5th, 19h @Axel Obiger Finissage of Things We Have In Common with Achim Kobe + Franziska Goes                 

„…Both Goes and Kobe’s approaches to abstraction suggest that our lives, like art, are composed of intriguing patterns and experienced on multiple planes. When surrounded by examples of their works, my eye tries to find a patch on which to pitch a tent within Goes’jaunty patchwork compositions. Then it glides across the elegant handmade minimalist visual groves and plowed bands of Kobe’s seductive painted paper expanses. As intrinsically different as their work is, I know that they are always conscious of each other while doing their own thing. …“ (Excerpt from Exhibition Text by Dominic Eichler Things We Have In Common)

This will be the 68th @sonntag_berlin with a performative interaction by Anja Ibsch @anjaibsch. For the first time in the history of SONNTAG, the event will be taking place outside in a public community garden; @waldgarten.britz.

As always the artist's favorite cake will be served: Rhubarb Crumble!

On view until July 12th @Scotty Group presentation: Chaosmosis with Helene Appel, Emmanuelle Castellan, Chinatsu Ikeda, Nikola Irmer, Jasmine Justice, Alexis Knowlton, Marta Marcé, Alisa Margolis, Mira O`Brien, Eva Schwab, Bettina Sellmann, Katie Vida, Bettina Weiß
The group exhibition Chaosmosis brings together a collective of 14 female-identifying artists who engage in ongoing, in-depth studio dialogues. Fostering interactive collaboration – the exhibition foregrounds the discursive and material traces of their exchange. Chaosmosis adopts a mind-mapping methodology to depict the apparent dichotomy between the simultaneous ordering and disordering that inherently occurs in the process of artmaking. (…)
The methodology mirrors the ongoing exchange among these artists. These exchanges unfold in a non-linear manner, weaving through both material and immaterial media, reflecting the nature of (collective) artistic processes and thought. “[The] power of chaosmosis, [is] its ability to traverse strata and break through barriers.” Felix Guattari
Titled after Guattari’s concept of chaosmosis – a neologism between “chaos” and “osmosis” – the theory suggests that chaos inevitably permeates all structures – individual, social, aesthetic, and technological – transforming them through interaction. 
(….Full text version: scotty-berlin.de/chaosmosis)…
Ultimately, Chaosmosis explores the evolving relationships between artists, their work and their audience—only for these connections to dissolve once again into our minds when the exhibition ends.
(Text Full Version: Lucille Mona Ling)

Clay is at the heart of Mahdad Alizadeh's art, which encompasses sculpture, installation, conceptual and performative elements, and most recently drawings. His small to medium-sized, fired and sometimes glazed clay sculptures are organically shaped and, although not figurative, tend to resemble plant or animal creatures and fragments. On a closer look, viewers recognise traces of the working process, such as hollows created by the ten fingers of his hands, cracks, and bruises. His drawings are linear and colourful and, like the sculptures, oscillate between associative representationalism and organic abstraction. Whether on paper or in clay, Alizadeh works intuitively; he does not start with an idea or imagination, but with his hands as a forming tool. While the artist's physical proximity to the material, the intuitive and ritualised touching, feeling, and shaping are formativehere, he takes a step back from his works when it comes to their installation in the space. His interest in architecture certainly influences the plinths and environments he creates for his sculptures. He uses wood, chipboard, and adhesive tape to contrast the fired or glazed clay figures. What they have in common is an aesthetic of the unfinished that emphasises the material and its texture. Alizadeh also incorporates the viewer's perspective on his works and deals with the discrepancy of physical presence and digital presentation in his more conceptual projects. His work merges between physicality and materiality, presentation and perception. In this way, he manages to question the very essence of art in our complex present. (Text by Hannah Jacobi)

Chinese-Finnish artist Canal Cheong Jagerroos 張彤茹 integrates time-honored techniques from traditional Chinese art, symbols, and language into her mixed-media abstract paintings and immersive installation exhibitions. A process of deconstruction and reconstruction forms the basis of her multi-layered works, beginning with large rice paper ink drawings that she tears into pieces. These fragments are reformed into new compositions with paint and diverse materials, creating a distinctive visual language.

SATZ is a show that looks at how contemporary artists are using language forms to inflect contemporary Art. The written word has long found a place within visual arts but in the last century this often came to mean something with a particular look-and-feel, a weighty conceptualism. In recent years, however, artists have looked for inspiration beyond the legacies of conceptual art and are rather imbibing the influence of graffiti, social politics, anime, graphic novels and online spaces to find new ways to include the written word within visual forms.  

until 14 July 2025