Wednesday 11 June 2008 | 12:00 hrsOrganizerBerliner Festspiele in cooperation with city government and the culture committee of MoscowAn exhibition of the Moscow House of PhotographyCurated by von Olga Sviblova, directorMade possible by the Sparkassen-Kulturfonds des Deutschen Sparkassen und Giroverbandes

Gropius Bau

Gropius Bau 2023

Alexander Rodtschenko

Alexander Rodchenko

Pressekonferenz „Alexander Rodtschenko“

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Berliner Festspiele 75

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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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There are currently no exhibitions on view at Gropius Bau.

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Gropius Bau 2026

Events

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!

Gropius Bau is currently closed for exhibition preparations. Our restaurant Beba and our bookstore will reopen on 4 March, before we kick off our spring programme, 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="${link:{uuid:{baa82be9-6411-41e5-806b-4889004c8459},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/2026/ausstellungen/peter-hujar-liz-deschenes}}}">Peter Hujar / Liz Deschenes</a> exhibition. Find more details in our <a href="${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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Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition

Marina Abramović

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With Andrew Durbin, Biliana Voutchkova, Gary Schneider, Queer Analog Darkroom and Selin Davasse – free admission

Sp&auml;tschicht x C/O Berlin

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The full programme and tickets for all events of Musikfest Berlin are now available. In 2026, the festival also marks the 75th anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele and brings together leading international orchestras, renowned conductors and outstanding soloists in a diverse concert programme – ranging from opera productions to contemporary works, from Gy&ouml;rgy Ligeti’s grotesque humorous anti-opera Le Grand Macabre to George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

Musikfest Berlin

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In 2026 the Berliner Festspiele celebrate their 75th anniversary. A selection of events programmed throughout the entire year engage take the anniversary as their theme or mark the occasion with works at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, the Gropius Bau, the Philharmonie Berlin, on Berlin’s Ringbahn and at other locations in the city.&nbsp;

75 Years of the Berliner Festspiele

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Selected from more than 700&nbsp;productions, Theatertreffen once again presents the 10&nbsp;most remarkable productions of the year in May. The festival is complemented by the new format Mehr Drama! as well as a series of conversations curated by Matthias Dell on aesthetic, social and culture-political issues.

Theatertreffen

More Berliner Festspiele

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

The programme has been published. Tickets are available now. Selected from more than 700&nbsp;productions, Theatertreffen once again presents the 10&nbsp;most remarkable productions of the year in May. The festival is complemented by the new format Mehr Drama! as well as a series of conversations curated by Matthias Dell on aesthetic, social and culture-political issues.

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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 third volume of the series On the Erotic, performance artist Marina Abramović talks about female sexuality after menopause, the eroticism of the masses and her love for the planet.

Marina Abramović: On the Erotic

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A Vibrant Place for Enganging with Art and Each Other

Located in the centre of Berlin, Gropius Bau is a lively place to encounter art and each other. The internationally renowned institution is part of the Berliner Festspiele and stages large-scale exhibitions and performances by contemporary artists, offering new perspectives on our present.

About Gropius Bau

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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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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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Peter Hujar / Liz Deschenes: Persistence of Vision

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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. They set the tone and decide what happens in this place.

BAUBAU

Spielen in der Stadt

A Short History from 1900 to the Present

What has been the role of play in public space, both historically and in the present? Complementing BAUBAU, our free play space for kids, Gabriela Burkhalter’s Playing in the City 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 the play space’s entrance.

Playing in the City

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Marina Abramović, one of the most influential contemporary artists, presents Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition at Gropius Bau, marking her first major solo show in Berlin since the 1990s. The exhibition brings together historical and new works by the performance artist, tracing her ongoing engagement with ritual, eroticism, death and the body as a site of political resistance.

Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition

Currently and Upcoming

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With Andrew Durbin, Biliana Voutchkova, Gary Schneider, Queer Analog Darkroom and Selin Davasse

On the occasion of <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: Persistence of Vision</a>, Sp&auml;tschicht x C/O Berlin turns its focus on 26 March to photography within the shifting terrains of urban space, visibility, and resistance. Look forward to performances, a workshop, a screening and a reading. Admission is free.

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!

Persistence of Vision

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

A&nbsp;Play Space for Kids

A Short History from 1900 to the Present

From sandpits to adventure playgrounds, urban play spaces have – throughout their evolution – taken many different forms. What has been the role of play in public space, both historically and in the present? Complementing BAUBAU, our free play space for kids, Gabriela Burkhalter’s Playing in the City 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 the play space’s entrance.

Playing in the City &nbsp;

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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.

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Festivals & Programme Series

Alexander Rodchenko is one of the great artists of the Russian Constructivism of the first half of the 20th century. His works are well-known worldwide and he still is one of the most important exponents of the modern movement. Before discovering photography in the mid 20s as a new media, he had already excelled in Moscow as an innovative artist interested in all forms of artistic expression. His idea of photography was of a total break from the artistic photography of epochal changes in Russia and in Europe.
Alexander Rodchenko was a young, left wing artist when the October revolution broke out in 1917. He was born in St.&nbsp;Petersburg in 1891, the son of a theatre craftsman. In 1901 the family moved to Kazan where Rodchenko attended art school in 1910. There he met the artist Warwara Stepanowa, who later became his wife. In 1914 he moved to Moscow and studied for a short time at the Stroganow School for applied arts. Even then he rejected the established concepts of a sensualistic, middle-class art and moved towards abstract painting.
In 1916 he met Vladimir Tatlin who invited him to an exhibition he had organized “Magazin” (The store) in which Kasimir Malewitsch, Ljubow Popowa and Alexandra Exter also took part. After the revolution, like many other avant-garde artists, Rodchenko played a role in the creation of new structures of artistic production in the young Soviet Union. From 1918 until 1921 he was a member of IZO Narkompros (section for visual arts in the People’s Commissariat of Enlightenment). In 1920 he was a founder member of INChUK (Institute of Artistic Culture) and developed, together with Wassily Kandinsky and other artists, the idea of a network of Art Museums throughout the whole country. Between 1920 and 1930 he was a professor at the Faculty of Metal work at the WChUTEMAS/WChUTEIN (Higher State Artistic-Technical Institute).
In 1921 he announced the end of painting on canvas after spatial constructions followed his essential contribution to abstraction (compositions of dots and lines without perspective). In 1922 he took part with his work in the “First Russian Art Exposition” at the Gallery Van Diemen in Berlin.
In the later artistic discussions of the 20s, the role of technology acquired a greater importance. In the circle of the Constructivists, of which Rodchenko was part, the solution was found: “Art in Production”. From this Rodchenko developed the idea of an artist-engineer, who considers art mainly as the design of objects of utility. He worked in advertisement together with Wladimir Majakowski, he designed murals, banners, kiosks.
For Mayakovski’s poetry book “Pro eto” (About This) Rodchenko made the first photomontages out of real fragments as interpretation independent of the literary text. He was also one of the founders of modern typography. At the same time he devoted himself increasingly to photography. In 1924 he bought his first camera. The first pictures he took were of his family, art friends and colleagues of the magazine LEF such as Wladimir Majakowski, Ossip Brik and Ljubow Popowa. In 1925 he designed the Russian pavilion for the Exhibition “Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels modernes” in Paris where Rodchenko bought himself a new camera, an Ica 4x6,5. With this camera he was able to explore new subjects and views outdoors. On his return to Moscow he started to document the architectural and social changes of the city. One of his most famous series is: “Buildings in the Mjasnitzkaja-Street” in which he shows architecture from an extremely low angle. In the following years he strolled through Moscow and took photographs of the latest constructivist buildings, worker’s clubs, factories with modern plants and canteen kitchens, telegraph poles, power stations, staircases and parks. He fixes the images from extreme angles from above and from below, in diagonal, sections and details. For the visual sensitivity of the time this was an unusual procedure. However, according to him, the new tasks and topics required a new form of presentation:
“We must revolution our optical perception. We must remove the veil from our eyes, which means ‘from the umbilical’, and the most interesting shots of the modern age are those taken from above downwards and from below upwards and their diagonals.” (1928).
The photographs were published in 1923 in the magazine LEF which he co-founded, and later in Novy LEF for which Rodchenko designed the First Page. In Novy LEF he published his thoughts on the function of photography in the sense of perceptive-psychological considerations. “The modern city with its multi-storey buildings, factory buildings, factories etc. the commercial areas with two or three story buildings, trams, cars, three-dimensional neon signs, steam-driven ocean liners, aeroplanes, all this (…), has necessarily changed the psychology of the traditional perception to a great extent. It seems as if only a camera is able to illustrate modern life.” (1928)
However in 1928 Rodchenko was becoming subject to increasing criticism. As soon as his photographs were published in the magazine Novy LEF, the magazine Sowjetskoje commented his photographs as “dangerous” and “bourgeois formalism”. He was defamed as a follower of Moholy-Nagy’s and Man Ray’s experimental photography. The political reason was a stronger use of photography as a means for socialistic mass-communication, which should be clearly „readable“. Soviet publishers asked again for traditional landscape, portrait and documentary photography. In 1930 Rodchenko had to leave his teaching post at WChUTEMAS and in 1931 he was excluded from the group Oktjabr which had formed in 1928 from the group Novy LEF.
In the thirties, Rodchenko worked with his wife Warwara Stepanowa as an Art Creator for many editions of the magazine SSSR na strojke (USSR in construction). 1933 he travelled to Karelia for a special edition of the magazine to report on the construction of the White Sea channel, which had to be built within 500 days, mainly by prisoners. In the period of big propaganda trials in the thirties, he started to paint again, mainly subjects from the circus world, which he also took pictures of. In 1940 an edition on the circuses was planned in the magazine SSSR na strojke which was never published due to the war. After the war, although he was in poor health, he experimented with colour photography and worked as an Art Creator. Alexander Rodchenko died in Moscow on 3rd December 1956.
The exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau shows the many facets of Rodchenko’s innovative photographic work: the beginning of photomontage, the portraits of his friends and family, partially as multiple angles, the experiments with perspectives, picture structures, effects of light and shadows, the reports with the montage of text and pictures and also the series on the circus and the last experiments with colour photography. For the first time it will be possible to view works from the estate managed by the heirs. Olga Sviblova, director of the “Moscow House of Photography”, acted as curator for the exhibition.

Veranstaltungen Alexander Rodtschenko

Ausstellungen 2008

Exhibitions 2008

2008

Programm

Programme

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.

Berliner Festspiele

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In 2026 the Berliner Festspiele celebrate their 75th anniversary. A selection of events programmed throughout the entire year engage take the anniversary as their theme or mark the occasion with works at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, the Gropius Bau, the Philharmonie, on Berlin’s Ringbahn and at other locations in the city. Outstanding international that liberal societies and their cultural institutions face in a new, multipolar world order. artists such as Marina Abramović, Gabriele St&ouml;tzer and Akira Takayama will set the agenda both thematically and aesthetically. Entitled “Die gro&szlig;e Unordnung” (The Great Disorder), the four-day focus Reflexes &amp; Reflections will also enquire about the challenges.

75 Years of the Berliner Festspiele

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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

Key Visual Theatertreffen 2026

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Drama and Discourse, Mehr Drama!, Discussions, Awards

The 10 Most Remarkable Productions

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103 ensembles from all 16&nbsp;federal states have submitted their productions for the 47th&nbsp;Theatertreffen der Jugend 2026. The programme will be published on 30&nbsp;April, advance ticket sales will start on 6&nbsp;May.

Theatertreffen der Jugend

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In June 2026, Sasha Waltz &amp; Guests will be performing the productions Beethoven&nbsp;7 and In&nbsp;C at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. Sasha Waltz &amp; Guests will also be staging a special evening to celebrate the 75th&nbsp;anniversary of the Goethe-Institut.

Sasha Waltz &amp; Guests

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In August 2026, the festival Tanz im August will return to the Haus der Berliner Festspiele with several productions. Tickets for Sounding Light are already available. The other productions will be published in June.

Tanz im August

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The third edition of Reflexes &amp; Reflections, again curated by the political scientist Saba-Nur Cheema and the historian Saba-Nur Cheema, marks the 75th&nbsp;anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele. As a cultural institution that is linked to Berlin’s eventful history, in their anniversary year the Berliner Festspiele will examine the consequences of the current geopolitical upheaval for open societies.

Reflexes &amp; Reflections