Now that Berlin Art Week and the Berlin Biennale have come to a close, the city returns to its usual programming. As the evenings get shorter and staying in becomes more enticing, we have compiled a list of exhibitions that will encourage you to venture out into the crisp autumn air. From photography to sculpture, immersive film to retrospectives, October promises to be an exciting month for contemporary exhibitions in Berlin. There are an endless number of interesting exhibitions to see in the city, but this is a shortlist of our top five for this season.
FAKE-ESTATE, Schinkel Pavillon
The Schinkel Pavillon presents the first institutional solo exhibition by Swedish artist Anna Uddenberg in Berlin. This multimedia work incorporates performance in an effort to examine the ways in which objects can gain control over their users. Performances take place between 3-6pm, Saturdays and Sundays. Uddenberg’s “usable” sculptures provoke considerations around free will, ownership, and control. The materiality of the sculptural work appeals to ideas of authenticity, forgery, and agency. This exhibition presents a powerful consideration of material culture and existence.
Dates: 15th Sep – 31th Dec, 2022
More Info: Schinkel Pavillon
Queerness in Photography, C/O Berlin
Across three interconnected exhibitions, C/O Berlin considers representations of gender, identity, and sexuality in photography. By examining photography as both an act that captures elements of identity, and as a method of documentation and expression, these three exhibitions explore a complex range of historical and contemporary photographic works. Queerness in Photography also critically examines photography as a medium of stigmatization and discrimination.
Dates: Sep 17th, 2022 – Jan 18th, 2023
More Info: C/O Berlin
A Lying Sun, Galerie Im Turm
Galerie im Turm, in collaboration with Almacén Gallery, presents A Lying Sun, an exhibition which integrates the materiality of two exhibition venues: Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Berlin, Friedrichshain. Featuring work by Berlin-based artists Anna Mirkin and Katharina Trudzinski, the exhibition aims to encourage the two exhibition landscapes to converse with and disrupt one another through sculptural interventions in space. Curated by Yolandé Gouws and Helen-Sophie Mayr, the exhibition hopes to explore the potential of digital three-dimensionality, specifically in relation to the appropriation of public space and urban architecture.
Dates: 4th Oct – 4th Dec, 2022
More Info: Galerie im Turm
Another World, KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Another World, an exhibition developed by Christopher Kulendran Thomas alongside his longtime collaborator Annika Kuhlmann, showcases a major new Kulendran Thomas commission entitled The Finesse (2022). This immersive film installation spans KW’s first-floor gallery and examines some of the lost legacies of this liberation movement in Kulendran Thomas’ family homeland. Its ambitious combination of archive footage with AI-generated avatars is choreographed across five mirrored screens to form an overwhelming architectural experience. Curated by Krist Gruijthuijsen and featuring ceramic works from Aṇaṅkuperuntinaivarkal Inkaaleneraam, Another World blurs the boundaries between history, science fiction, and ideas of the future.
Dates: 22nd Oct – 15th Jan, 2023
More Info: KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Hollywood, Helmut Newton Foundation
Hollywood is a group exhibition featuring work by 13 photographers, alongside Helmut Newton’s own work. The exhibition aims to capture a variety of interpretations of both the city of Los Angeles and the filmmaking industry in Hollywood. Born in 1920 in Berlin, Newton’s artistic practice produced iconic and provocative black-and-white images that captured actors throughout the 1980s and 90s. Among the works exhibited are Annie Leibovitz’s annual Hollywood portraits for Vanity Fair, as well as Anton Corbijn’s minimalist portraits of stars such as Clint Eastwood. Captured by the lenses of acclaimed photographers, this exhibition promises a personal perspective on Hollywood’s fading grandeur.
Dates: 3rd June – 20th Nov, 2022
More Info: Helmut Newton Foundation