Gropius Bau

Veranstaltungen Licht und Farbe in der Russischen Avantgarde

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Berliner Festspiele 75

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Reflexe und Reflexionen

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Located in the centre of Berlin, the Gropius Bau is a lively place for encounters with art and each other. As an internationally renowned exhibition centre, it offers space for major exhibitions and performances by contemporary artists.

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The Gropius Bau is closed on Tuesdays.

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Gropius Bau 2025

Exhibitions & Projects

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Our newsletters keep you updated on current and upcoming exhibitions and events. Learn more about our kids programme and plan your next visit.

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We’re Looking Forward to Welcoming You Again in March!

Preparations for the European Film Market, taking place at Gropius Bau from 12 to 18 February 2026, are in full swing. Our programme will resume in March – featuring a performance by <a href="${link:{uuid:{16d14ae2-9463-45b4-91de-95a846c0f377},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/2026/veranstaltungen/leila-hekmat}}}">Leila Hekmat</a>, the <a href="${link:{uuid:{fd3f9e70-97e8-46fb-b639-fc701f8d4039},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/baubau/veranstaltungen/baubau-play-day-pop-up-26}}}">big pop-up</a> of our play space BAUBAU and the opening of our <a href="${link:{uuid:{baa82be9-6411-41e5-806b-4889004c8459},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/2026/ausstellungen/peter-hujar-liz-deschenes}}}">Peter Hujar / Liz Deschenes</a> exhibition. Find all information about the opening hours of our Beba restaurant and our bookshop in our <a href="${link:{uuid:{62c3018b-bb40-46ce-8019-646ec5cd2e4a},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/besuch/informationen}}}">Information &amp; Tickets</a> section.

See You Soon

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Advance sales are now live: tickets for ten selected concert highlights of the Musikfest Berlin, which in 2026 will also mark the 75th anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele, are now available. The programme includes Gy&ouml;rgy Ligeti’s grotesquely humorous anti-opera Le Grand Macabre and George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

Musikfest Berlin

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Performers and life-sized dolls – living creatures and inanimate objects – come together in Gisèle Vienne’s and Étienne Bideau-Rey’s dance-theatre performance. The choreography in slow motion – composed in dialogue with original music by Peter Rehberg – is diffracting time and thus enabling usually unseen parts of experiences to be seen.

Showroomdummies #4

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In Thorsten Lensing’s new play, Ursina Lardi, Karin Neuh&auml;user, Sebastian Blomberg, André Jung and drummer Willi Kellers play characters careening their way from one disaster to the next. What defines them is an absurd blend of brutality and tenderness, anarchy and metaphysical curiosity, existential pain and zest for life.

Tanzende Idioten

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As an international co-production, artists Nina Laisné and François Chaignaud and singer Nadia Larcher have developed a performance that is carried by music, singing and dance at once. In Último helecho, European Baroque meets South American folklore and mythology.

Último helecho

More Berliner Festspiele

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Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition

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The Practice – What Moves Artists

The Practice – What Moves Artists&nbsp;is a book series by Gropius Bau that invites artists to showcase a practice that they pursue, that has influenced them or that has been with them for a long time. In the second volume of the series, artist, performer and author Vaginal Davis looks back on the saucy underground scenes of Los Angeles and Berlin together with former bandmates.&nbsp;On Dangerous Ground recounts past gigs, spectacular live performances and well-kept secrets.

Vaginal Davis: On Dangerous Ground

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A Vibrant Place for Enganging with Art and Each Other

Located in the centre of Berlin, Gropius Bau is an internationally renowned institution that stages large-scale exhibitions and performances by contemporary artists. Its diverse events focus on exchange and discussion, bringing together local and global perspectives.

About Gropius Bau

Our 2026 programme preview is now online! We look forward to exhibitions by <a href="${link:{uuid:{5b0f3ce6-6920-4dda-b121-7f4ee8dfe6f0},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/2026/ausstellungen/marina-abramovic}}}">Marina Abramović</a>, <a href="${link:{uuid:{baa82be9-6411-41e5-806b-4889004c8459},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/2026/ausstellungen/peter-hujar-liz-deschenes}}}">Peter Hujar</a>,<a href="${link:{uuid:{8a90734a-4720-4924-83bd-058dc760b63c},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/2026/ausstellungen/christoph-schlingensief}}}"> Christoph Schlingensief</a>, <a href="${link:{uuid:{6c1a42a8-26ca-468e-bb05-1eca3f4e2f3a},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/2026/ausstellungen/gabriele-stoetzer}}}">Gabriele St&ouml;tzer</a> and many other artists who cast an uncompromising gaze on society.

Programme 2026

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Widely regarded as one of the most original and influential artists of the 20th century, Diane Arbus’ bold black-and-white photographs demolish aesthetic conventions and upend all certainties. With&nbsp;Diane Arbus: Konstellationen, Gropius Bau presents the most comprehensive exhibition of her work to date.

Diane Arbus: Konstellationen

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Ligia Lewis is a central figure in redefining performance within the context of the visual arts. Her solo exhibition&nbsp;I’M NOT HERE FORRRRR… at Gropius Bau&nbsp;brings&nbsp;together new and existing works that explore themes of race, gender, violence and resistance.

Ligia Lewis:I’M NOT HERE FORRRRR...

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With BAUBAU, the artist Kerstin Br&auml;tsch designed an&nbsp;admission-free play space for kids, where more is allowed than forbidden. On Gropius Bau’s ground floor, colourful wallpapers, structures, objects and open-ended material called “loose parts” configure flexible spaces that are shaped by children’s activities.

BAUBAU:A&nbsp;Play Space for Kids

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What is and has been the role of play in public space? Gabriela Burkhalter’s&nbsp;Playing in the City&nbsp;presentation traces the history of playgrounds since their emergence in 1900 to today. The free presentation is open to all and can be seen in two rooms next to BAUBAU’s entrance.

Playing in the City:A Short History from 1900 to the Present

Currently at Gropius Bau

Widely regarded as one of the most original and influential artists of the 20th century, Diane Arbus’ bold black-and-white photographs demolish aesthetic conventions and upend all certainties. With Diane Arbus: Konstellationen, Gropius Bau presents the most comprehensive exhibition of her work to date. Featuring 454 prints, many of them shown here for the first time, Konstellationen offers new perspectives on Arbus’ iconic images and the wide range of her portraiture.

Ligia Lewis is a central figure in redefining performance within the context of the visual arts. In her multifaceted practice, she combines performance, live installation and film. From autumn 2025, Gropius Bau presents I’M NOT HERE FORRRRR…, the artist and choreographer’s most comprehensive solo exhibition to date. It brings together new and existing works that explore themes of race, gender, violence and resistance.

Ligia Lewis: I’M NOT HERE FORRRRR…

Current Exhibitions

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With Bishop Black, Hugo Tepest, Perel, River Roux, Ulrike Ottinger

On 8 January, we’re kicking off the new year with another edition of our event series Sp&auml;tschicht, which we’re organising in collaboration with Schwules Museum. This edition centers the body as a place of negotiation, militantly rejecting society’s norms.

Sp&auml;tschicht x Schwules Museum

We are looking forward to welcoming you back in mid-March with the reopening of our play space, <a href="${link:{uuid:{df42e57d-a14a-4b44-a5e4-9d3e7dcab5a6},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/baubau}}}">BAUBAU</a> (on 22 March), and two exhibitions, <a href="${link:{uuid:{55d64239-53fe-4b12-8567-a63191c6cae4},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/2025/ausstellungen/vaginal-davis}}}">Vaginal Davis: Fabelhaftes Produkt</a> (from 21 March) and <a href="${link:{uuid:{9618c701-bd05-432e-b688-5943e1f7fc57},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/2025/ausstellungen/yoko-ono}}}">YOKO ONO: MUSIC OF THE MIND</a> (from 11 April). For details on opening hours and tickets, please visit our <a href="${link:{uuid:{62c3018b-bb40-46ce-8019-646ec5cd2e4a},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/besuch/informationen}}}">Information &amp; Tickets</a> page. We look forward to seeing you soon!

See you in March!

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How does the bourgeois longing for revolt take shape, when the faith in progress and reason is unsettled? Berlin-based artist and director Leila Hekmat explores this question in her newly commissioned performance Roses Rising – The Movement, premiering in the Gropius Bau’s atrium. Moving between concert and ballet, the piece transforms the space into a landscape hovering between bunker, rehearsal room and dreamscape and invites the audience to witness a dinner party unravel into a happening.

Leila Hekmat: Roses Rising – The Movement &nbsp;

Playing, laughing, making noise, letting off steam, doing nothing – all in an exhibition venue! With BAUBAU, the artist Kerstin Br&auml;tsch designed an&nbsp;admission-free play space for kids, where more is allowed than forbidden. On Gropius Bau’s ground floor, colourful wallpapers, structures, objects and open-ended material called “loose parts” configure flexible spaces that are shaped by children’s activities.

BAUBAU

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Working in New York City between the Stonewall uprising of 1969 and the onset of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, Peter Hujar captured a pivotal cultural moment in piercing black-and-white photographs. In the exhibition Persistence of Vision, Hujar’s photographs are interspersed with contemporary works by New York City-based artist Liz Deschenes, opening up an intergenerational dialogue on photography.&nbsp;

Peter Hujar / Liz Deschenes: Persistence of Vision

Upcoming at Gropius Bau

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Located in the centre of Berlin, the Gropius Bau is a lively place to encounter art and each other. The internationally renowned institution stages large-scale exhibitions and performances by contemporary artists.

Ab 4. September

Festivals & Programme Series

An exhibition of the State Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki“In their search for the rhythms of the world through the pictorial, the painters of the Russian avant-garde brought out a new light, no longer the external light of the sun, but rather the internal light that is an emanation of the world’s energies.” 
 Jean-Claude Marcadé
George Costakis is known as one of the most important art collectors of the 20th century. In Russia during the 1950s and 60s he purchased works of Russian avant-garde artists in whom no one seemed to be interested at the time. Today the Costakis Collection of the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki counts as one of the most outstanding collections of art.
Berlin is the only station in Germany for this exhibition, which comprises some 320 works, as well as archive material, of around 50 artists. Some of the works will be on public display for the first time in this exhibition. The exhibition was curated by the Director of the State Museum in Thessaloniki, Professor Miliades Papanikolaou.
All of the different movements within the Russian avant-garde from 1900 to 1943 are represented in the collection. The exhibition does not consider the artworks in the light of their affiliation with one movement or another, but rather focuses on the preoccupation of the Russian avant-garde artists with light and colour and their importance for the development of art in the 20th century. It is divided into ten chapters: 
 1. Black – 2. Auto-Luminous – 3. The Imaginary Colour – 4. The Liberation of Colour – 5. The Domination of Colour – 6. The Study of Colour – 7. Colour in Decoration, Colour in Production – 8. Light and Science, Light and Technology – 9. Fading – 10. White
The consideration of monochrome works is followed by that of works liberated from colour; the study of works preoccupied with light in a cosmic and metaphysical context leads into works marked by the influence of electricity, photography and film. Archive material, manuscripts, books, photographs and films complement the exhibition.
Among the artists particularly featured are Alexander Drevin, Ksenia Ender, Ivan Kliun, Gustav Klutsis, Ivan Kudriashev, El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, Solomon Nikritin, Liubov Popova, Alexander Rodchenko, Olga Rozanova, Antonina Sofronova, Vladimir Tatlin, Ilya Chashnik, Nadezhda Udaltsova and Konstantin Vialov.
Miltiades Papanikolaou, Professor of Art History at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki and Director of the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki (SMCA) is the principal curator of the exhibition, supported by an international committee of experts: John E. Bowlt, Charlotte Douglas, Nicoletta Misler and Maria Tsantsanoglou, who is also responsible for the coordination.
The publishers Dumont Verlag have published a trilingual catalogue (German – English – Greek) with some 450 pages, containing essays by authors from more than nine countries, including Snejanka Bauer, Lutz Becker, John Bowlt, S.O. Chan-Magomedow, Charlotte Douglas, Maria Ender, Olga Fota &amp; Maria Kokkori, Konstantin Istomin, Aliki Kostaki, Christina Lodder, Jean-Claude Marcadé, Nicoletta Misler, Miltiades Papanikolaou, Ada Raev, Alexandra Schazkich, Maria Tsantsanoglou, Margareta Tillberg and Syrago Tsiara.
The catalogue also contains theoretical treatments and texts by the Russian artists. It gives an insight into the study materials and learning programmes that were used in art schools at the time and shows the importance that was given to light and colour.
“Both exhibition and catalogue were designed in the framework of an evolutionary, historical perspective, recording the different stages in the approach to colour and light, the gradual liberation from the function of representation and the final independence of pure shape and colour.” 
 Miltiades Papanikolaou, principal curator of the exhibition
<h3>On the History of the Collection</h3>
George Costakis worked for almost four decades at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow. His passion for collecting works of the Russian avant-garde from 1900-1943 began in earnest in 1946. In the 1970s his flat in a high-rise building in Moscow became a kind of private museum and meeting place for artists, intellectuals and collectors, who were able to discover both famous and unknown pioneers of the Russian avant-garde, whose work had a decisive influence on artistic developments in Western Europe, including Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko or Liubov Popova.
In 1977 Costakis decided to leave the Soviet Union and return to Greece, the land of his forefathers. He had to leave behind a small part of his collection in Moscow. When Costakis died in 1990, his collection disappeared from the public eye until the Greek government bought it in the year 2000.
In the wake of Thessaloniki’s year as European Cultural Capital in 1977, the world-famous collection was given its own exhibition space in Thessaloniki, the State Museum of Contemporary Art.
“The Costakis Collection must be regarded as a magnificent monument to one of the greatest achievements in the history of Russian civilization.” 
 John Bowlt, Professor at the University of Los Angeles

Licht und Farbe in der Russischen Avantgarde

Colour and Light in the Russian Avant-Garde 

2004

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Upcoming

The Berliner Festspiele organise a range of festivals and art exhibitions, concerts, dance and theatre performances, readings, lectures, debates and much more throughout the year. These events are presented at a range of locations across Berlin but are concentrated primarily at their own two venues: the Gropius Bau and the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

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You can listen to some of our events this year digitally in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library after the live concerts.&nbsp;In addition, On Demand offers from past years are available.

Musikfest Berlin in the Media Library

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The international Jazzfest Research Lab&nbsp;welcomes academics and students to take a critical look at the festival’s archive, its programmes, creators, musicians and – last but not least – its myths. In two seminars during the summer semester of 2024, students from the Berlin University of the Arts and the University of Hildesheim have explored the festival’s history from various perspectives. In this film, the participants give a first look at how they dealt with their research subject.

Introducing: Jazzfest Research Lab

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To mark its 60th anniversary, Jazzfest Berlin is celebrating the cultural diversity of the neighbouring district of Moabit in collaboration with around 35 official partners and initiatives and with over 350 participants of all ages.&nbsp;In June 2024, interviews were conducted with 20 partners who presented their perspectives, wishes and ideas for the Jazzfest Community Lab Moabit. You can get a first impression with this film.

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Curated by&nbsp;Meron Mendel and Saba-Nur Cheema&nbsp;

From 13 to 16 June 2024, the interdisciplinary themed days “Reflexes &amp; Reflections” on the Israel-Palestine conflict and its consequences for society in Germany took place at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. You can now find video and audio recordings of the discourse events in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library!

Reflexes &amp; Reflections. 7 October, the war in Gaza and the debate in Germany

In the Media Library

Musikfest Berlin will take place from 28&nbsp;August to 23&nbsp;September 2026 in co-operation with the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation and marks the 75th&nbsp;anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele. Tickets are already available now for ten selected concert highlights at the Philharmonie Berlin. These guest concerts include some of the world’s best symphony orchestras and choirs from Finland, Spain, England, South Africa, the USA, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The complete festival programme will be announced on 21&nbsp;April 2026.

Musikfest Berlin 2026: Tickets for First Concert Highlights Available Now!

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The 10 Remarkable Productions 2024

On 26 January, the Theatertreffen’s jury of critics announced their selection of 10 remarkable productions for the 2024 Theatertreffen at a press conference. Our congratulations go to the nominated production teams and all participants! The programme will be published on 5 April.

Theatertreffen 2024

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The massacre, hostage-taking and rocket attacks by Hamas have shaken us deeply. The grue-some attack on Israel on 7&nbsp;October left us stunned and initially lost for words.

The Berliner Festspiele on Current Events in Israel, Gaza and Germany

With this letter of intent, we, the signing cultural organizations, express our intention to welcome, host and stage Ukrainian theatre artists in our venues, to make Ukrainian dramatic work visible to the European community.

Support of the Ukrainian Cultural Scene

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Thorsten Lensing

Tanzende Idioten

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As an international co-production, artists Nina Laisné and François Chaignaud and singer Nadia Larcher have developed a performance that is carried by music, singing and dance at once. In “Último helecho”, European Baroque meets South American folklore and mythology.

Último helecho

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A dance collage by John Neumeier which explores aspects of German expressive dance through music, texts and songs and commemorates the victims of Nazi rule. Guest performance of the National Youth Ballet John Neumeier.

The Invisibles

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Advance sales are now live: tickets for ten selected concert highlights of the Musikfest Berlin, which in 2026 will also mark the 75th&nbsp;anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele, are now available. The programme includes Gy&ouml;rgy Ligeti’s grotesquely humorous anti-opera Le Grand Macabre and George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

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As an international co-production, artists Nina Laisné and François Chaignaud and singer Nadia Larcher have developed a performance that is carried by music, singing and dance at once. In Último helecho, European Baroque meets South American folklore and mythology.

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The Berlinale will be a guest at Haus der Berliner Festspiele: on this occasion the venue will be transformed into a high tech cinema. The spectrum of films at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele ranges from premieres and reruns of the Competition, Berlinale Special and Berlinale Special Gala to the Panorama section.

76th Berlin International Film Festival

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Tickets for ten selected concert highlights of the Musikfest Berlin, which in 2026 will also mark the 75th&nbsp;anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele, are already available. The programme includes Gy&ouml;rgy Ligeti’s grotesquely humorous anti-opera Le Grand Macabre and George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

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<h3>Theatertreffen</h3><h4>2 to 20 May 2024</h4>The 10&nbsp;remarkable productions, selected by a jury of critics, were announced in a press conference on 26&nbsp;January 2024, 11:00. The programme will be published on 5&nbsp;April, advance ticket sales will start on 19&nbsp;April at 14:00