Press Releases
Immersion 2020: "Down to Earth" Press Conference & Programme Publication
You are now able to view the complete programme with all participating artists and experts of ‘Down to Earth’ online. In addition to a multiform walk-through exhibition – consisting of objects and installations – there will be live works, workshops and expert talks that change every day.
30 July 2020
Gropius Bau’s Yayoi Kusama exhibition postponed to March 2021
The first comprehensive retrospective in Germany of Yayoi Kusama’s work will now take place at the Gropius Bau in spring 2021 due to scheduling changes necessitated by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
29 July 2020
Immersion 2020: “Down to Earth” from 13 August to 13 September 2020 at Gropius Bau
From 13 August to 13 September the Berliner Festspiele‘s Immersion programme presents the art, performance and discussion project "Down to Earth" at the Gropius Bau. This four week unplugged programme has been inspired by the eponymous essay on climate change by Bruno Latour.
25 June 2020
Otobong Nkanga: There’s No Such Thing as Solid Ground
From 10 July to 13 December 2020, the Gropius Bau presents the exhibition There’s No Such Thing as Solid Ground by Otobong Nkanga. The complex and shifting relationship between humans, land, and corresponding structures of repair is a central premise of Otobong Nkanga’s exhibition at the Gropius Bau. Addressing global systems of exploitation and extraction, her work turns a poetic and critical eye toward the circulation of people, flora and fauna as well as natural resources, especially minerals.
24 June 2020
Open again from 11 May 2020
The Gropius Bau will reopen to visitors on Monday, 11 May 2020. The exhibition Akinbode Akinbiyi: Six Songs, Swirling Gracefully in the Taut Air has been extended until 19 July; Lee Mingwei’s solo exhibition 禮 Li, Gifts and Rituals will be on view for the first time on 11 May and presented until 12 July 2020. There will be extended opening hours until 31 July 2020: the Gropius Bau will be open from Saturday to Wednesday from 10am to 7pm and Thursday and Friday until 9pm; the building is closed on Tuesdays.
4 May 2020
Digital launch of Lee Mingwei: 禮 Li, Gifts and Rituals
The Gropius Bau announces the digital launch of 禮 Li, Gifts and Rituals, an exhibition by Lee Mingwei. Originally scheduled to open to the public at the Gropius Bau in Berlin on 27 March, in response to measures taken to protect our public in light of COVID-19, the exhibition is launching with a series of digital activations. The programme includes video introductions to the exhibition as well as virtual activations of selected artworks and two new works created for the digital realm. Installation views, catalogue excerpts and exhibition texts will also be available on the Gropius Bau website.
3 April 2020
Gropius Bau will be closed from 16 March until 19 April 2020
Dear colleagues,
due to recent developments in relation to Coronavirus, we are closing the Gropius Bau to visitors and cancelling all events and exhibition openings from 16 March to 19 April. We are thereby following the current guidelines and recommendations of the public administrations of Berlin for dealing with the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
13 March 2020
The Cool and the Cold. Painting from the USA and the USSR 1960–1990 Ludwig Collection
In 1989 the Wall came down and in 2020 Germany will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the reunification of East and West. The Gropius Bau takes this occasion to present a comprehensive exhibition drawn to reflect the dialogue and competition between East and West from an art historical perspective, uniting masterpieces from the two global centres of political power that emerged during the Cold War.
3 March 2020
Immersion 2020: Art, Climate and Discourse unplugged - “Down to Earth” from 26 June to 12 July 2020 at Gropius Bau
From June, 26th, until July, 12th, 2020, the Berliner Festspiele present an exhibition project on the topic of climate change as part of the series Immersion, at the Gropius Bau. It is located between art and discourse, and on the topic of climate change. Its title, “Down to Earth”, has been inspired by Bruno Latour. The two-week unplugged programme will bring together artists and experts in sustainability and of “practices of grounding”. The programme comprises visual art, live work, talks, discourses, workshops and concerts.
2 March 2020
Lee Mingwei: 禮 Li, Gifts and Rituals
In spring 2020, the Gropius Bau presents the first mid-career survey in Europe by the artist Lee Mingwei (*1964, Taiwan). The exhibition 禮 Li, Gifts and Rituals proposes a new way of looking at the artist’s work: as an exploration of art’s ability to act as a transformative gift, rooted in the space of intimate experiences and encounters with others.
10 February 2020
CONNECT, BTS: Rituals of Care
The Gropius Bau will host a series of performances as it begins its 2020 programme: an ongoing exploration of themes with particular contemporary urgency, including land and the Anthropocene, violence and repair.
14 January 2020
Akinbode Akinbiyi: Six Songs, Swirling Gracefully in the Taut Air
The 2020 exhibition programme at the Gropius Bau begins with Six Songs, Swirling Gracefully in the Taut Air, a photography exhibition showcasing works from various long-term series composed by Berlin-based Nigerian photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi over four decades.
2 January 2020
Exhibition Programme 2020
The 2020 exhibition programme continues to explore themes of global and historic urgency: land, the Anthropocene, boundaries, global resources, trauma and their relation to the body.
7 November 2019
Open Calls for the Exhibition Lee Mingwei 2020
Lee Mingwei’s artistic practice is primarily concerned with rituals of giving and receiving. From 27 March to 7 June 2020, the Gropius Bau will present a solo exhibition by the artist, showing his installations and performances from the last thirty years. Central to the exhibition is an exploration of art’s potential to be a transformative gift.
23 October 2019
Wu Tsang: There is no nonviolent way to look at somebody
Wu Tsang’s solo exhibition There is no nonviolent way to look at somebody presents films in dialogue with her sculptural practice, working with the interaction of glass, light and text, and including a new stained-glass commission conceived for the Gropius Bau.
14 August 2019
Walking Through Walls
Walking Through Walls marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the most symbolic events of the 20th century, interrogating the experience of vulnerability and anxiety caused by power structures that thrive on confinement and segregation.
8 August 2019
2019 Programme Highlights
The 2019 programme sees the Gropius Bau bring together local and international artists who push forward some of the most important conversations of our time, opening our minds to new possibilities.We start and end the programme with exhibitions that share a profound connection with the Gropius Bau’s heritage as an institution that is deeply rooted in the development of creativity in Berlin.