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Gropius Bau

Gropius Bau 2017

Lunchführungen zur Ausstellung „Friedrich Kiesler: Architekt, Künstler, Visionär“

Guided lunch tours through the exhibition “Frederick Kiesler: Architect, Artist, Visionary”

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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.

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Festivals & Programme Series

Friedrich Kiesler, born 1890 in Czernowitz (Chernivtsi), died 1965 in New York, was an Austro-American architect, stage designer, designer, artist and theoretician. His artistic approach blurring boundaries between individual artistic genres, his concept of an endlessly flowing space and his holistic theory of design Correalism belong to the greatest visions of the 20th century and enjoy undiminished topicality. Over and above this, Kiesler was a central figure in the network of New York&rsquo;s aesthetic community, and his circle of friends reads like a Who-is-Who of the avant-garde.

Berlin is almost predestined for this: It is the city in which Kiesler celebrated his first great success with an electro-mechanic stage design for Karel Čapeks W.U.R. (R.U.R.) Werstands Universal Robots in 1923 at the Theater am Kurf&uuml;rstendamm and literally jumped feet first into the avant-garde scene. A year later in Vienna he caused a furor with the exhibition design of the &ldquo;Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik&rdquo;, which he also curated, and another sensation with his Space Stage (Raumb&uuml;hne) as the central exhibition piece. In 1925, Josef Hoffmann invited him to design the Austrian theatrical section for the &ldquo;Exposition Internationale des Arts D&eacute;coratifs et Industriels Modernes&rdquo; in Paris. He used this commission to present his City in Space, his vision of a futuristic floating city, as an exemplary exhibition structure. In 1926 he travelled to New York, to once again organize an &ldquo;International Theatre Exposition&rdquo;.

Kiesler left Europe with avant-garde projects in his luggage. Arriving with great expectations, many remain largely unfulfilled initially. His ideas seemed too avant-garde for the new world. Kiesler quickly came to terms with the harsh reality of 1920s New York and found a successful occupation designing display windows and business premises. With the Film Guild Cinema, Kiesler designed the first 100% Cinema in 1929 in New York, an icon of modern cinema architecture, indeed, with additional projections on side walls and the ceiling of the auditorium it is an early example of Virtual Reality.

Into the 1930s Kiesler worked on furniture and lamp designs and erected his Space House, his vision of a family home as a 1:1 model in the show rooms of the Modernage Furniture Company in New York in 1933. Many core issues of Kiesler&rsquo;s theory on design, respectively architecture, above all his &ldquo;space-time architecture&rdquo; concept are formulated here for the first time.

After an interruption of more than ten years, Kiesler began to work in theatre again in 1934. He made a successful d&eacute;but in the New York theatre scene with the stage design for George Antheil&rsquo;s Opera Helen Retires, which led to an engagement at the Juilliard School of Music. Around 60 decors were created there during his teaching career of 25 years. With the Woodstock Theatre (1929) and the Universal Theatre (1959-62) Kiesler created two prototypes of multi-functional cultural venues, which were however only realised as models.

From 1937 to 1941, Kiesler directed the Laboratory for Design Correlation at Columbia University in New York and developed his theory of Correalism, an holistic approach to design based on scientific analysis that revolved around the human being. Kiesler&rsquo;s research led him to concentrate intensively on human perception and he developed the Vision Machine, through which he sought to visualize human vision as an active process. These studies formed the basis of his later exhibition designs. In the course of the 1940s Kiesler also worked on two extensive book projects &ndash; a publication of his theory of design of Correalism, and a cultural anthropology of architecture with the sonorous title &ldquo;Magic Architecture&rdquo;. Both writings remained unpublished.

At the same time, Kiesler also designed several spectacular exhibition rooms: Peggy Guggenheim&rsquo;s &ldquo;Art of This Century Gallery&rdquo;, the &ldquo;Russian American Exhibition&rdquo;, a &ldquo;Hall of Ecology&rdquo; in the American Natural History Museum, the exhibition &ldquo;Bloodflames 1947&rdquo;, as well as the &ldquo;Exposition Internationale du Surr&eacute;alisme&rdquo;. All of these were redolent of his close relationship to surrealists in exile in New York. Kiesler was an artist&rsquo;s artist. Exchange and collaboration with artistic colleagues were of immense importance to him. This is especially true of Marcel Duchamp. Kiesler published his first article about Duchamp&lsquo;s The Large Glass in an American magazine (Architectural Record, 1937). Duchamp lived in the Kiesler&rsquo;s apartment for almost a year; they played chess together, shared their interest in natural science, technical innovations and the operating principles of human perception. They worked on exhibitions and design magazines together. However, their ways parted after a fight in New York&rsquo;s surrealist community.

Kiesler created an extensive environmental sculpture from parts of the surrealistic set design for the opera The Poor Sailor (Le Pauvre Matelot) by Darius Milhaud, the so-called Rockefeller Galaxy, which was shown in the 1952 exhibition &ldquo;15 Americans&rdquo; at MoMA. Based on this sculpture, Kiesler developed a further Galaxy sculpture for Philip Johnson&rsquo;s Glass House in New Canaan. Further so-called Galaxy paintings were created: Clusters of picture plates were arranged at meticulously defined intervals to each other, partly on the floors, walls and ceilings. The &ldquo;space in between&rdquo;, the individual picture plates, was considered as important as the paintings themselves.

Kiesler always maintained that every person has a &ldquo;basic design idea&rdquo; &ndash; the work with &ldquo;space&rdquo; could be designated as such for him. Space, especially endlessly flowing space, is a key concept throughout all of Kiesler&rsquo;s work. In 1950 he created an egg-formed Endless House model for the first time. During the 1950s he refined this concept and received a grant in 1958 to erect a 1:1 model of an Endless House in MoMA&rsquo;s Sculpture Garden. Even if it failed to be completed, it was still undisputedly one of the icons of visionary 20th-century architecture.

The only one of Kiesler&rsquo;s buildings to actually be built was opened in Jerusalem in 1965: the Shrine of the Book, planned by Kiesler together with Armand Bartos. The symbolically highly charged building containing Old Testament scrolls found near the Dead Sea, as well as the unbuilt Grotto for Meditation in New Harmony, Indiana, were indicative of the great interest in sacred spaces in Kiesler&rsquo;s late work.

During the years 1964-1965, Kiesler worked on large environments composed of individual sculptures cast in aluminium or bronze. Both his sculpture Bucephalus, a reference to Alexander the Great&rsquo;s battle steed, as well as the large environment Us, You, Me, united Kiesler&rsquo;s complete oeuvre. In a way, the walk-through sculpture Bucephalus, a small mythologically and symbolically charged Endless House equipped with theatrical sound effects, represented the sum of all his earlier projects. Nowadays Kiesler&rsquo;s sculptural projects are barely known and can be discovered for the first time in Berlin as an essential component of his wide-ranging oeuvre in the exhibition at Martin-Gropius-Bau.

Martin-Gropius-Bau devoted an exhibition to the universal artist Friedrich Kiesler, in which his complex oeuvre is presented in all its facets for the first time in Germany. Central projects, important artistic friendships and collective works illustrated his importance in 20th-century architecture and art history, and mapped out his environment.

Friedrich Kiesler: Architekt, Künstler, Visionär

Friedrich Kiesler: Architect, Artist, Visionary

Frederick Kiesler: Architect, Artist, Visionary

veranstaltungen

Programme

Ausstellungen 2017

Exhibitions

Exhibitions 2017

2017

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.