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Gropius Bau

Gropius Bau 2017

Lunchführungen zur Ausstellung „Der Britische Blick: Deutschland – Erinnerungen einer Nation“

Guided lunch tours through the exhibition “The British View: Germany – Memories of a Nation”

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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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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.

Ab 4. September

Festivals & Programme Series

Germany? Where is it? I do not know where to find such a country 
&mdash;&nbsp;Johann Wolfgang von Goethe und Friedrich Schiller, Xenien, 1796

On 9 November 1989, media all over the world reported on the fall of the Berlin Wall &ndash; an event that gave rise to a new, united Germany. Today, this Germany plays an important role in world affairs. For decades, citizens in East and West Germany lived under different political systems, but they had many deep-rooted memories in common.

This exhibition explored some of these memories on the basis of approximately 200 objects that originated during the last 600 years in Germany, and which are formative for culture, business and politics &ndash; past and present. They tell stories of great German achievements, of philosophers, poets and artists, and of historical events that have shaped the face of Germany today. A nation that has emerged in the shadow of the most terrible memory of all, the Holocaust.

There are memories that are well known, and others that have yet to be discovered or newly rediscovered. The selected works often told several stories and painted a nuanced picture of Germany&rsquo;s complex history. Using high-profile museum pieces and historical documents, the exhibition&rsquo;s five chapters outline, in thematic and chronological jumps, how Germany ultimately became what it is today:

Germany - Memories of a Nation 
Fluid borders 
Empire and Nation 
Made in Germany 
Crisis and Remembrance

The exhibition begins and ends with the year 1989 and Gerhard Richter&rsquo;s Betty from 1991, who is glancing back.

Valuable works were on display, such as Albrecht D&uuml;rer&rsquo;s 1515 woodcut of a rhinoceros and the 1730 porcelain version of Johann Gottlieb Kirchner, which was based on a template from D&uuml;rer. They represent two of the most valuable technological and artistic achievements of the German world: modern printing and the invention of porcelain. Porcelain was re-invented in the early 18th century in Mei&szlig;en. It became an important European industry and proved competition to China&rsquo;s &ldquo;white gold&rdquo;. The grandiose Nuremberg Chronicle from 1493 reflects the introduction of the print, which was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. Through this invention, knowledge and art would easily be disseminated throughout Europe.

The astrolabe of 1596 displays German precision and the highest standards in gold work. Skilful German metal craftsmen built some of the best scientific instruments of Early Modern times. Johann Anton Linden was one of them. His astronomical compendium is as big as an eBook reader &ndash; and is a world time clock and GPS in one. An aphorism is engraved: &ldquo;Time is running out. Death is like a threshold that you have to cross.&rdquo;

One of the most impressive objects of the exhibition was Ernst Barlach&rsquo;s bronze sculpture, entitled The Floater (&ldquo;Schwebender&rdquo;). It&#39;s an angel in another form: the mouth and eyes are closed, the wings are folded, the gaze directed inward. Barlach (1870-1937) created it in 1926 on behalf of G&uuml;strower Church Council as a war memorial for the 700th&nbsp;anniversary of the cathedral. The face is reminiscent of the artist K&auml;the Kollwitz, who lost her son in the war in October&nbsp;1914. It represents the pain of all mothers.

Barlach enthusiastically enlisted himself for military service in 1915. He came back a pacifist. In 1933, the Nazis removed his sculptures from public spaces. He was considered a &ldquo;degenerate&rdquo; artist; because his style had nothing to do with heroism. In August 1937, the angel was removed from the cathedral, brought to Schwerin and melted down in 1940 for the war effort. The plaster mould was saved, and a second recast was made and hidden in a village near L&uuml;neburg. In 1951, the angel was meant to be issued again. However, G&uuml;strow was in East Germany, 160&nbsp;km from Berlin. The Cold War was in full swing. It was also unclear how the GDR would deal with Barlach&rsquo;s art, so the cast was issued in Cologne&rsquo;s Antoniterkirche. It wasn&rsquo;t until 1953 that a faithful cast for the G&uuml;strow Cathedral was made. On 13 December 1981, Helmut Schmidt, former Chancellor of Germany, and Erich Honecker, then General Secretary of the East German Socialist Unity Party of Germany, visited Barlach&rsquo;s angel in the cathedral in an official state visit. For both heads of state, the angel represented a common memory.

In 1937, the Buchenwald concentration camp was built at the gates of Weimar &ndash; the city of Goethe and Schiller, of Bauhaus, and the cradle of the democratic constitution of the Weimar Republic. According to estimates, approximately 56,000&nbsp;people died there by 1945. The camp gate of Buchenwald was built in 1938. It bears the inscription &ldquo;To each his own&rdquo;. It was designed by Franz Ehrlich, former Bauhaus student who was detained in the Buchenwald concentration camp. The signature is attached and legible from the inside. The prisoners would have had the inscription constantly before their eyes. The inscription hearkens back to the two-thousand-year old Roman legal principle: &ldquo;To live honourably, to hurt no one, to give each his own [suum cuique]&rdquo;.

Twelve years of Nazi terror counts as one of Germany&rsquo;s central, inescapable memories. The years led to the systematic murder of six million Jews and brought death and destruction throughout Europe.

Many artists, including Georg Baselitz, process this time again and again in their work. In his 1977 etching &ldquo;Eagle&rdquo;, the German eagle and the flag of democratic Germany are worn and frayed and upside down; a reflection perhaps on the fragility of these ideals.

The exhibition traces German identity from a British perspective. The result is a dialogue between Germany and its history.

A British Museum exhibition. Curator: Barrie Cook, historian at the British Museum. Initiated by Neil MacGregor, former Director at the British Museum, London, and created on the basis of his Beck-Verlag book.

The Martin-Gropius-Bau is grateful to the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media, whose funding made this exhibition possible, as well as the German Historical Museum and the Berlin State Museums for the generous loaning of items; to the Friede Springer Foundation for the generous support of the education programme.

Der Britische Blick: Deutschland – Erinnerungen einer Nation

The British View: Germany  – Memories of a Nation

The British View: Germany – Memories of a Nation

Veranstaltungen Der Britische Blick

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Exhibitions 2016

2016

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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furtherInformation

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.