Sep. 4, 2025
The 14th edition of Berlin Art Week kicks off next week from September 10th to 14th. Annually, Berlin Art Week becomes a platform for Berlin’s most important art institutions to present the latest of the city’s contemporary art scene. This year, the BAW Garten will open at Hamburger Bahnhof as the festival’s hub, offering a variety of workshops and events for locals and visitors alike. On Thursday, the 12th edition of Positions Berlin Art Fair opens at Berlin-Tempelhof Airport, bringing together a mix of national and international galleries, presenting both emerging artists and established names. In the evening, galleries across the city host exhibition openings as part of Gallery Night.
To serve as a guide during these intense, art-filled days, we’ve complied a list to highlight some of the most anticipated and exciting exhibitions and events. To help you fill in the moments between shows, check out our art-themed Hotel and Restaurant Guide.
LAS Art Foundation
Christelle Oyiri: ‘Dead God Flow’
Opening Reception: Wednesday, Sept. 10; 6–10pm
Exhibition: Sept. 11–Oct. 19, 2025
las-art.foundation
CANK, Karl-Marx-Straße 95, 12043 Berlin, click here for map
LAS Art Foundation presents artist, DJ and producer Christelle Oyiri’s first installation in Berlin: ‘Dead God Flow’ at CANK in Neukölln. The video work ‘Hauntology of an OG,’ explores links between Memphis, Tennessee and ancient Egypt. Developed together with photographer Neva Wireko and narrated by rapper and poet Darius Phatmak Clayton, the piece braids together histories of conflict and monuments, thereby constructing a city in which rap emerges as an architecture of sound. In ‘Hyperfate’ (2022), the artist explores the mythologization of deceased rappers and their canonization by fans as modern day saints. In these negotiations of martyrdom and memory, excellence and prophecy, we are, to use Oyiri’s words, reminded that, “death is not an ending but a loop, a broken god’s beat still pulsing.”
Christelle Oyiri and Neva Wireko: ‘Hauntology of an OG,’ video still, 2025. Mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Künstler:innen, LAS Art Foundation, Amant and Pinault Collection // © Christelle Oyiri and Neva Wireko
Julia Stoschek Foundation Berlin
Mark Leckey: ‘Enter Thru Medieval Wounds’
Opening Reception: Wednesday, Sept. 10; 6–10pm
Exhibition: Sept. 11, 2025–May 3, 2026
jsfoundation.art
Leipziger Straße 60, 10117 Berlin, click here for map
For nearly three decades, Mark Leckey has examined how media shapes perception, memory and desire, illuminating these complex, shifting processes. Now, the Julia Stoschek Foundation Berlin is exhibiting more than 40 works in ‘Enter Thru Medieval Wounds,’ one of Leckey’s most extensive solo exhibitions to date. With seminal works from the collection such as ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore’ (1999), Leckey’s now-iconic portrait of British rave culture, and ‘Cinema-in-the-Round’ (2006–08), for which he received the prestigious Turner Prize in 2008, ‘Enter Thru Medieval Wounds’ traces the intersections between pop and youth culture, social class and the evolution of technology from the 1970s to the present.
Mark Leckey: ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore,’ 1999, DVD, 14′30″ // Courtesy of the artist and Cabinet, London
Schering Stiftung
kennedy+swan: ‘The Red Queen Effect’
Opening Reception: Wednesday, Sept. 10; 6–10pm
Exhibition: Sept. 11–Nov. 30, 2025
scheringstiftung.de
Unter den Linden 32–34, 10117 Berlin, click here for map
New technologies make it possible to collect, visualize and analyze data from inside the human body. But what does it mean to expose our physical selves to algorithmic systems? ‘The Red Queen Effect’, kennedy+swan’s exhibition at Schering Stiftung, looks at the complex interrelations between data-driven diagnostics, technology-based prevention and structural inequalities from both an individual as well as a collective perspective. The exhibition takes its name from a scene in Lewis Caroll’s novel ‘Through the Looking-Glass’ where the Red Queen explains to Alice that she must run as fast as she can in order to not fall behind. In evolutionary biology, this image serves to describe the race between species and the environment: biological systems need to change constantly to survive. For kennedy+swan, this image describes a collective feeling in the midst of technological acceleration—and the need for artistic imagination to offer new perspectives as a counterpoint to this dynamic.
kennedy+swan: ‘Lung Portraits,’ detail // Courtesy of kennedy+swan
Schinkel Pavillon
Issy Wood: ‘Magic Bullet’
Opening Reception: Wednesday, Sept. 10; 6pm
Exhibition: Sept. 11, 2025–Jan. 31, 2026
schinkelpavillon.de
Oberwallstraße 1, 10117 Berlin, click here for map
‘Magic Bullet’ is Issy Wood’s first large-scale solo exhibition in Germany and comprises a new series of works that respond to the Schinkel Pavillon’s striking architecture. In her paintings–whether on canvas, musical instruments or velvet furniture–the artist captures our world in a pictorial form that is both uncomfortable and seductive, fluctuating between realism and surrealism. Despite, or because of, her anachronism in technology and subject matter, Wood seismographically records the sentiment of her generation in a unique way. Objects and surfaces function as surrogates for the untouchable fears and desires of the inner and outer worlds, which clash harshly in her staggered images.
Issy Wood: ‘Slouching towards the maxillofacial unit,’ 2018, oil on linen, 100 × 140 × 4.5 cm // Courtesy of the artist and Carlos/Ishikawa
Palais Populaire
Charmaine Poh: ‘Make a travel deep of your inside, and don’t forget me to take’
Opening Reception: Wednesday, Sept. 10; 7–9pm
Exhibition: Sept. 11, 2025-Feb. 23, 2026
palaispopulaire.db.com
Unter den Linden 5, 10117 Berlin, click here for map
Charmaine Poh has been named Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year for 2025 and opens ‘Make a travel deep of your inside, and don’t forget me to take’ at the Palais Populaire during Berlin Art Week. The Singaporean-Chinese artist’s work spans multiple media, including film, installation, photography, text and performance. Poh’s practice centers on narratives of agency, repair and futurity, exploring the visibility and opacity of femininity and queerness in Southeast Asia. In her video installations, she breaks with conventional documentary formats, opening space for marginalized voices and long-silenced memories. Specifically, she casts a lens on forms of resilience and spirituality that challenge power structures as well as the exploitation of both human and natural resources.
Charmaine Poh: ‘The Moon is Wet,’ 2025 // © Charmaine Poh
Galerie Molitor
Jesse Darling
Opening Reception: Thursday, Sept. 11; 6–9pm
Exhibition: Sept. 12–Nov. 8, 2025
galeriemolitor.com
Kurfürstenstraße 143, 10785 Berlin click here for map
Multimedia artist Jesse Darling’s practice critically examines dominant social, political and symbolic structures. Through his work—which spans sculpture, installation, drawing and text—he explores how authority, the body, nation, religion and technology are staged and contested. Darling highlights the inherent fragility of systems we often consider stable. Bent security fences, crumbling architectural fragments and reimagined everyday items appear in his work, disrupting ideas of stability and linearity. Through humor—sometimes subtle, sometimes biting—he emphasizes collective struggle, solidarity and action. At Galerie Molitor, Darling’s comprehensive solo exhibition brings into focus current social and artistic discourses that resonate with the local context. His aesthetic and conceptual exploration of the fragility of political systems, mechanisms of social exclusion and forms of systemic violence aligns closely with themes that are central to current discussions within the Berlin art scene.
Jesse Darling: ‘Emergency Lighting,’ 2023, lightbox, vinyl, 19.2 x 39 x 6 cm // Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Molitor, Berlin, photo by Choreo
Neue Nationalgalerie
‘PERFORM! 2025’
vAL: ‘Bellied’
Performance: Sunday, Sep. 14; 3pm
Isaac Chong Wai: ‘Falling Reversely’
Performance: Sunday, Sep. 14; 3:30pm
smb.museum
Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785 Berlin, click here for map
Now in its fourth edition, the Neue Nationalgalerie’s performance festival ‘PERFORM!’ unfolds during Berlin Art Week on the museum terrace with works by Joan Jonas, Isaac Chong Wai, vAL and Yoko Ono. At its core is Jonas’ groundbreaking ‘Mirror Piece I & II’ (1969/2025), performed daily throughout the festival. On September 14th, Isaac Chong Wai presents ‘Falling Reversely’ (2021/2024), first shown at the 2024 Venice Biennale. In it, dancers reclaim bodily autonomy by reenacting, in reverse, the documented falls of people suffering violent racist attacks in public spaces. The same day features Yoko Ono’s participatory ‘Bells for Peace’ (2019/2025) and ‘Bellied’ (2025) by vAL aka Corey Scott-Gilbert. Commissioned for the occasion, ‘Bellied’ gathers fragments of shattered reflection to sketch new possibilities beyond fractured hopes. With scepticism as fuel, the performer roams empty bleachers, using mirrors to follow the audience’s gaze before crossing into their space.
HKW
Group Show: ‘Global Fascisms’
Opening Reception: Friday, Sept. 12; 6pm
Exhibition: Sept. 13–Dec. 7, 2025
hkw.de
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin, click here for map
‘Global Fascisms’ at HKW critically examines the aesthetic, social and political dynamics of fascism, questioning its appeal and ideological mechanisms. With both contemporary and historical works by around 50 artists responding to contexts in which far-right ideologies thrive, the exhibition interrogates contested notions such as “identity,” “community” and “belonging.” By integrating art with rigorous interdisciplinary research, ‘Global Fascisms’ promotes new ways of understanding and confronting these pressing issues at a critical moment when electorates worldwide are shifting dramatically towards right-wing, far-right and authoritarian movements. Art is positioned not only as a medium for reflection, but as an active force in challenging authoritarian aesthetics and ideologies.
Gülsün Karamustafa: ‘Soldier,’ 1976, mixed media on paper, 70.5 x 58.5 cm // Courtesy Gülsün Karamustafa, BüroSarıgedik, Salt Research and Gülsün Karamustafa Archive
softpower
Selin Davasse: ‘Corpus Iuris Artis: II. The Hearing’
Exhibition: Aug. 30-Sept. 14, 2025
softpower.world
Teilestraße 11-13 Hof 2, 3.OG, Aufgang C, 12099 Berlin, click here for map
Pickle Bar
Selin Davasse: ‘Corpus Iuris Artis: III. The Appeal’
Performance: Saturday, Sep. 13; 7 & 8pm
picklebar.berlin
Amtsgericht Mitte, Littenstraße 12–17, 10179 Berlin, click here for map
The law is a fragile performance that relies on speech acts: swearing to tell the truth, telling a self-serving version of the truth, making up the truth along the way, surviving the holes being poked in our truth and trying to get to the truth at whatever cost. Selin Davasse questions, codifies, institutionalizes and puts on trial the art world’s representational claims and ethical posturing with charges such as “Deceitful and Depraved Victim-Playing,” “Willful Obfuscation of Class Privilege During the Course of Victim-Playing,” or “Conspiracy to Commit Performative Allyship.” In a playful attempt at imagining legal norms, instruments and procedures, Davasse speculates on how these tools and processes would be implemented in common art world scenarios. ‘Corpus Iuris Artis: II. The Hearing’ is presented at soft power as part of Featured 2025, in cooperation with Pickle Bar’s presentation of Davasse’s performance ‘Corpus Iuris Artis: III. The Appeal’ in a Berlin district courtroom, marking the end of the three-part cycle.
Selin Davasse: ‘Corpus Iuris Artis: I. The Deposition,’ 2025, curated by soft power at Mouches Volantes, Cologne // Photo by Dirk Rose
Remise im Wrangelkiez
Group Show: ‘MAXIMAL’
Opening Reception: Friday, Sept. 11; 1-10pm
Exhibition: Sept. 11-14, 2025
maximalartweek.wixsite.com
Wrangelstraße 52, 2. Hinterhof, 10997 Berlin, click here for map
For this year’s Berlin Art Week, Sophia Süßmilch and Cathrin Hoffmann will curate the exhibition ‘MAXIMAL’ in a space with a limited lifespan. The Remise in the Wrangelkiez, a small neighborhood in Kreuzberg, is tucked away in a former industrial courtyard, framed by a Catholic church and a mosque. Next door you’ll find a vacant slaughterhouse, the workshop of an 85-year-old car mechanic who has worked there for decades and storage rooms used by stall builders who still supply Berlin’s markets. Built around the turn of the 20th century and currently still used as an artist’s studio, the demolition of the Remise is already scheduled. ‘MAXIMAL’ responds to the looming disappearance of creative free spaces in urban centers. For a brief moment, it creates a place of maximum artistic density, where nearly 40 Berlin-based and international artists come together. Breaking with classical curatorial principles, the works are arranged according to unusual criteria. Visitors navigate an overcrowded space and experience how absence and presence both become part of the exhibition.
Portrait © Sophia Süßmilch & Cathrin Hoffmann
