Tuesday 10 November 2009 | 10:00 hrsVenue: Akademie der K&uuml;nste, Pariser PlatzOrganizerKulturprojekte Berlin in cooperation with the city of Istanbul and Akademie der K&uuml;nste Berlin

Gropius Bau

Gropius Bau 2023

Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz

Akademie der K&uuml;nste, Pariser Platz

Istanbul Modern Berlin

Pressekonferenz zur Ausstellung „Istanbul Modern Berlin“

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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

“Istanbul Modern Berlin” is exhibiting eighty works that represent outstanding milestones in the development of modern Turkish art. These works have been drawn from the distinguished and comprehensive collection of the Istanbul Modern Museum of Art. The survey presents Istanbul’s current art production as part of the historical development of the twentieth century, including the controversial debate over Western modern art between 1920 and 1950, the emancipation of the artists’ own aesthetic positions from the 1960s to the 1980s, all the way to the internationally networked contemporary art scene of the past twenty years.
“Istanbul Modern Berlin” forms part of the “Istanbul Next Wave” exhibition series on the current art scene in the Turkish metropolis. This joint project by the city of Istanbul and the Academy of the Arts encompasses three exhibitions that can be seen in the Academy buildings on Pariser Platz and Hanseatenweg as well as in the Martin-Gropius-Bau. “Istanbul Next Wave” represents the climax of Berlin’s events marking the twentieth anniversary of the Berlin-Istanbul city partnership and marks the international kick-off to a programme with which Istanbul is presenting itself as the 2010 European Capital of Culture in cooperation with Kültür A.Ş.
“Istanbul Modern Berlin” provides the basis for the curatorial team’s efforts under the direction of Çetin Güzelhan to present Turkish art in a new way that will transcend the traditional cliché of “delayed modernity”. This modern movement, which reaches far back into the fifteenth century Ottoman Empire, has always found itself in an ambivalent dialogue with Western Europe. Caught between attraction and close exchange on the one side, and exclusion and confrontation on the other, an independent modern movement emerged that picked up speed after the founding of the young Turkish Republic by Kemal Pasha. But this movement, with its discontinuities, complex layers, cultural force and uniqueness, also laid the foundation for contemporary Turkish art and a post-modern society with an identity that is at once Islamic and modern.
Over the past centuries, Turkey has experienced an astounding development that has been characterised by a remarkable opening to the outside world. In the Martin-Gropius-Bau visitors will be able to see this rapid development in the visual arts from the early twentieth century to the present day.
<h3>Artists</h3>
Haluk Akakçe, 1970; Erol Akyavas, 1932–1999; Özdemir Altan, 1931; Avni Arbas, 1919–2003; Hale Asaf, 1905/1906–1938; Bedri Baykam, 1957; Ramazan Bayrakoglu, 1966; Aliye Berger, 1903–1974; Nurullah Berk, 1906–1982; Sabri Berkel, 1907–1993; Semiha Berksoy, 1910–2004; Ferruh Basaga, 1914; Bubi, 1956; Cihat Burak, 1915–1994; Ibrahim Çalli, 1882–1960; Ali Avni Celebi, 1904–1933; Taner Ceylan, 1967; Adnan Çoker, 1927; Cevat Dereli, 1900–1989; Nejat Melih Devrim, 1923–1995; Ismet Dogan, 1957; Burhan Dogançay, 1929; Feyhaman Duran, 1886–1970; Ayse Erkmen, 1949; IInci Eviner, 1956; Bedri Rahmi Eyüboglu, 1911–1975; Leyla Gediz, 1974; Hamit Görele, 1894–1981; Mehmet Güleryüz, 1938; Neset Günal, 1923–2002; Nedim Günsür, 1924–1994; Nazmi Ziya Güran, 1881–1937; Mustafa Horasan, 1965; Ergin Inan, 1943; Balkan Naci Islimyeli, 1947; Dogan Ismet, 1957; Nuri Iyem, 1915–2005; Zeki Faik Izer, 1905–1988; Gülsün Karamustafa, 1946; Zeki Kocamemi, 1900–1959; Komet, 1941; Temür Köran, 1960; Irfan Önürmen, 1958; Erkan Özgen, 1971; Sener Özmen, 1971; Hikmet Onat, 1882–1977; Ahmet Oran, 1957; Mübin Orhon, 1924–1981; Mustafa Pancar, 1964; Orhan Peker, 1926–1978; Sarkis, 1938; Yusuf Taktak, 1951; Hale Tenger, 1960; Cemal Tollu, 1899–1968; Canan Tolon, 1955; Selim Turan, 1915–1994; Ömer Uluç, 1931; Adnan Varinca, 1918; Nil Yalter, 1938; Pinar Yolaçan, 1981; Fahr el Nissa Zeid, 1901–1991
<h3>Curators</h3>
Çetin Güzelhan is a curator and art historian. Following his studies at the Academy of Applied Art in Istanbul, he studied as a DAAD fellow at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. He followed this up with coursework at the University of Hamburg combined with exchange semesters at the Aby Warburg Institute in London and at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. He conducted research on Aby Warburg in the archive of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul between 1992 and 1994. Since 1984 he has been involved in numerous curatorial and art historical activities in Germany and Turkey. Çetin Güzelhan has served as the curatorial and artistic adviser to the “Contemporary Istanbul” art fair since 2007. He is the managing curator of “Istanbul Next Wave”.
Levent Çalikoglu is a curator and art critic. He is currently the chief curator of the Istanbul Modern Museum of Art. Çalikoglu studied art history at the University of Ankara (Bachelor of Arts) and museum studies at Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul (Master of Arts). At Yildiz Technical University he is a lecturer in the department of art management. He has published numerous articles on modern and contemporary Turkish art. Since 1998 he has been the curator of national and international exhibitions for various institutions and museums, including the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Akbank Culture and Art Center, Yildiz Technical University Art Gallery, alle in Istanbul and Space Triangle Gallery, London. He most recently prepared the exhibition “New Works New Horizons” at the Istanbul Modern (2009). Levent Çalikoglu is currently the creator of the “Istanbul Modern Berlin” exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau together with Çetin Güzelhan within the framework of “Istanbul Next Wave”.

Veranstaltungen F.C. Gundlach

Ausstellungen 2009

Exhibitions 2009

2009

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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