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Gropius Bau

Gropius Bau 2023

Lunchführungen zur Ausstellung „Germaine Krull – Fotografien“

Guided lunch tours through the exhibition “Germaine Krull – Photographs”

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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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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.

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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The programme has been published. Advance ticket sales will start on 18&nbsp;April at 10:00.

Theatertreffen

More Berliner Festspiele

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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

Germaine Krull (1897-1985) was a prominent photographer in 1920s and &lsquo;30s Paris, who shaped the history of photography with her experimental shots and photo articles for magazines like VU, Vari&eacute;t&eacute; and Jazz.

As part of photography&rsquo;s avant garde, Germaine Krull was closely affiliated with artists like Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Man Ray and Andr&eacute; Kert&eacute;sz. Walter Benjamin and Jean Cocteau were photographed by her, and were among her admirers. Benjamin included her in his &ldquo;Kleine Geschichte der Fotografie&rdquo; (brief history of photography). He highly regarded Germaine Krull&rsquo;s strong engagement at both a political and social level, coupled with her radical visual aesthetics, ranking her alongside artists such as August Sander and Karl Blossfeldt. Jean Cocteau is quoted as saying that she and her camera have &ldquo;uncovered a new world, fusing technology with soul&rdquo;.

Yet Germaine Krull&rsquo;s work is difficult to classify. She has developed a profile as a unique, distinctive photographer, particularly during her Paris years (1926-1935). Both her oeuvre and her life are characterised by changes and relocations:

Krull is born to German parents in East Prussia, is raised in Italy, France and Switzerland, and commences her training at Munich&rsquo;s Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt f&uuml;r Photographie (academy and research centre for photography) in 1915. It is there that, in 1917, at the age of 21, she opens her first studio. She adopts the pictorialist approach to photography, capturing people and interiors with a soft focus, creating a paintwork-like effect. The young photographer publishes her portfolio of nudes in an initial illustrated book, but very few of her early shots have been preserved. Among those that have are two portraits of Kurt Eisner, the first Minister-President of the Free State of Bavaria and a socialist revolutionary. It is also in Munich where she first encounters Buddhism, takes up an interest in theosophy, and participates in the great &ldquo;November Revolution&rdquo; in 1918. She becomes involved with the Spartacists. Following her expulsion prompted by the confusion of the Bavarian Council Republic, Krull starts living as a political activist in Russia. She returns to Germany (Berlin) in 1922 and resumes her photography work. She creates unconventional nudes in Karl H&uuml;bschmann&rsquo;s Kurf&uuml;rstendamm studio, including of her sister Berthe in theatrical poses. In the capital, Krull meets Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens, whom she later marries. She spends a few months in Amsterdam with him, before finally moving to Paris in 1925.

It is there that she experiences her breakthrough with her unusual photographs of technical structures, including series: The Eiffel Tower, ports and industrial plants. She creates a new type of technical photography, which does away with spectacular pictorial rhetoric. Her book, &ldquo;M&eacute;tal&rdquo; (1927/28), catapults her into the international avant-garde of photographers, known as the Nouvelle Vision (New Vision). Her shots send viewers mad, their fragmentation not permitting any orientation or point of reference, while simultaneously opening up new, unusual perspectives.

In 1928, she is hired by Lucien Vogel, chief editor of the newly established weekly illustrated magazine, &ldquo;Vu&rdquo;, for photo articles, and, together with Andr&eacute; Kert&eacute;sz and &Eacute;li Lotar, she invents a new form of reporting. With her small Icarette (6x9 cm), she takes shots characterised by their proximity to the subject, which result in portraits and streetscapes (including a report on Paris&rsquo; homeless) which reflect a notion of topicality and unconventional realism without artistic effect. She primarily focuses on specific aspects of Parisian life in the working-class neighbourhoods and market halls, at outdoor markets and annual fairs. She performs numerous assignments for magazines, the fashion industry and advertisers.

Krull takes part in major international exhibitions, such as Essen&rsquo;s &ldquo;Fotografie der Gegenwart&rdquo; (1929), and the Werkbund &ldquo;Film und Foto&rdquo; (1929) travelling exhibition, which was also being displayed in the Martin-Gropius-Bau at the time. She publishes illustrated books, and experiments with multiple exposures and collage-like details. She works on scenes depicting the Parisian underworld, landscapes, automotive images and streetscapes, and portraits artists, literary figures and filmmakers, including Colette, Andr&eacute; Malraux and Sergei Eisenstein. She repeatedly photographs hands as if they were faces &ndash; always with an unorthodox angle and not subscribing to any specific trend.

Having become involved with France Libre, the resistance organisation founded by General de Gaulle, in 1941, Germaine Krull works as a war photographer, witnessing events such as the Battle of Alsace (about which she later writes a book). Her working conditions change, when after World War II the media no longer express interest in photographers&rsquo; artistic statements, but rather only in the illustration of texts.

Krull relocates to Asia, where she takes over Bangkok&rsquo;s &ldquo;Hotel Oriental&rdquo; as manager. This continent inspires her to capture thousands of shots of Buddhist sites and monuments. It is another 15 years before she returns to Paris to exhibit her photos. Right until the end of her life, she continues to publish originally designed books, including &ldquo;Ballets de Monte-Carlo&rdquo; (1937), &ldquo;Uma Cidade Antiga do Brasil&rdquo;(1943), &ldquo;Chiang Mai&rdquo;(around 1960) and &ldquo;Tibetans in India&rdquo; (1968). Despite being in her seventies, she joins the followers of Tibet&rsquo;s Dalai Lama, who fled to northern India, and lives with them there in an old temple for some time. Germaine Krull dies a somewhat forgotten figure in the Hessian town of Wetzlar in 1985.

The displayed works were provided by public and private collections, including from the Museum Folkwang, Essen; the Amsab Institute of Social History, Ghent; the Ann and J&uuml;rgen Wilde Foundation, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; the Centre Pompidou, Mus&eacute;e national d&rsquo;art moderne, Paris; the Biblioth&egrave;que Nationale de France, Paris, and the Bouqueret-R&eacute;my and Dietmar Siegert collections.

She is one of the protagonists of modern-day photography, yet her work has rarely been explored, and only presented at a few exhibitions. After the large exhibition at the Folkwang Museum in Essen in 1999, the Martin-Gropius-Bau, in co-operation with the Jeu de Paume Paris, was dedicating a retrospective to the focus areas of her work and her aesthetic innovations. With about 130 original prints, and excerpts from photo magazines, the exhibition demonstrated the extraordinary depth and inventiveness of her pieces.

Germaine Krull – Fotografien

Germaine Krull – Photographs

Veranstaltungen

Programme

Ausstellungen 2015

Exhibitions 2015

2015

Programm

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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Theatertreffen-Blog Header

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

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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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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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The exploration of myths and rituals shapes the fourth edition of the Performing Arts Season with works by Marina Abramović, Mario Banushi, Marie Chouinard, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas, Ictus, Bl!ndman, Dumb Type, Damien Jalet / Kohei Nawa and Gisèle Vienne. The programme will be published on 18 June, and advance ticket sales will start.

Performing Arts Season

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The Theatertreffen’s jury of critics announced their selection of the 10 most remarkable productions for the 2026 Theatertreffen. The programme will be published on 2&nbsp;April, advance ticket sale will begin on 18 April, 10:00.