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Flow: LAS Art Foundation showcases Christelle Oyiri and the CEL collective
LAS Art Foundation has a knack for finding intriguing new locations to present their forward-looking technology projects. They’ll set up shop at Cank, an ex-department store in Neukölln, during Berlin Art Week, featuring an exhibition by Paris-based artist Christelle Oyiri titled "Dead God Flow". Her film installations think about the history of Memphis, Tennessee, a city whose name alone evokes ancient Egypt. This was also where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his final speech. The film is narrated by rappers, with their voices and music creating an acoustic landscape that conveys a shared history. Artist collective CEL will also launch their Foundations project during Berlin Art Week. This event series with DJ nights and performances brings together Black art, music, and creative activism.
LAS Art Foundation presents: "Cristelle Oyiri: Dead God Flow" and "CEL: Foundations", Cank, September 11 until October 19
Doctor AI: Kennedy+Swan question the ethics of the machine
Big data is playing a powerful role in medicine, changing how scientists and society respond to health and illness. Artist duo kennedy+swan’s new exhibition thinks about how machines are trained to recognize, classify, and diagnose potential illnesses using human tissue. They query the ethical consequences of letting opaque systems offer medical diagnoses. How does this change our sense of responsibility and trust? How do we ensure autonomy? Does technology-guided prevention amplify existing inequalities? Taking place at Schering Foundation, the exhibition title references a scene from Lewis Carroll’s "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland," in which the Red Queen tells Alice: "here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place." The Red Queen hypothesis in evolutionary biology proposes that species must constantly adapt and evolve in response to constant pressure from competitors to avoid going extinct. kennedy+swan questions this process of optimization, countering it with their perspective as artists.
"kennedy+swan: The Red Queen Effect", Schering Stiftung, September 11 until November 30
Gallery Night: An evening of openings
This year, the galleries' main evening event during Berlin Art Week is happening on Thursday. The individuals behind Berlin’s Gallery Weekend have put together an outstanding, varied program, inviting visitors to drop by exhibition openings with extended hours. Sprüth Magers is showing new works by California-based Andrea Zittel; Nagel Draxler is featuring conceptual artist Andrea Fraser; Crone presents unseen works by the late photographer Daniel Josefsohn; Ebensperger offers a surprising exhibition by choreographer Meg Stuart; while Pace Gallery brings US star Adam Pendleton to a repurposed gas station in Schöneberg. Not to mention the birthday party: Tanja Wagner is celebrating her gallery’s 15th anniversary with a major group show.
Art as resistance: HKW trains a lens on fascism
Japan is the shape of an erect penis—at least in the eyes of Fuyuhiko Takata. His performance video "Japan Erection" shows the artist transforming into a Shinto god. He clenches a Japan dildo between his legs that swings around and destroys his studio. This slapstick piece from 2010 plays with myths of creation and destruction, old-fashioned machismo, and resurgent nationalism. It’s now on view at House of World Cultures. "Global Fascisms" is an exhibition and research project that seeks to understand fascism "as an ongoing global challenge that transcends its historically confined definition, manifesting in diverse political, cultural, and social contexts today." The spectrum of works by 50 international artists testifies to the gravity of the situation.
Firenze Lai, an artist from Hong Kong, paints nightmarish figures whose bodies and spirits have been formed by a manipulative society. South African artist Jane Alexander's animal/human sculptures reflect nature without humans in a (post-) apartheid society. And Israeli conceptual artist Roee Rosen records the metaphors and euphemisms his country uses to disguise Israeli military operations in Gaza. The words come together to form a text that sounds more like a romantic’s lyrical ramblings than a record of destruction and death. The show looks at the politicization of religion and the nationalist conjuring up of a "golden era" as well as social media as echo chamber. Nigerian-American artist Mimi O. nu. o. ha’s short film "These Networks in Our Skin" shows four women working to rewire internet cables using traditional Igbo techniques, manually subverting the power dynamics of this technological infrastructure. sf
"Global Fascisms", Haus der Kulturen der Welt, September 13 until December 7
On Set: Jordan Strafer at Fluentum
During Berlin Art Week, you can watch a work being created at Fluentum, a privately owned exhibition space for film and video art. U.S. artist Jordan Strafer is transforming the former U.S. army headquarters in Berlin-Dahlem into a surreal talk show studio. She’ll film "Dissonance" in front of a live audience, with New Yorker Jim Fletcher as the star. The film is third in Strafer’s "Loophole" trilogy, with the first two films also on view. Her topic is a fictional 1990s rape case in Florida, widely reported on by the media. Strafer brings together script fragments, reality TV, local news, and court files to create an idiosyncratic visual aesthetic.
"Jordan Strafer: Dissonance", Fluentum, September 11 until December 13. Opening and Live-Film-Shoot September 10, 6-10 pm
Everything is possible: The line-up for Berlin's independent scene
The spotlight is on project spaces and municipal initiatives on Friday. The Featured section brings together special projects, showcasing the excellence and diversity of Berlin’s independent scene. Funkhaus on Nalepastraße curates Passage Art, an exhibition at the intersection of art, sound, and technology (with Yngve Holen, Genesis P-Orridge, and Anna Uddenberg). Trauma on Invalidenstraße hosts Cem A's Crit Club debate performance. Sophia Süßmilch and Cathrin Hoffmann are staging a group exhibition in an outbuilding in Wrangelkiez that is soon to be replaced by a multi-story luxury apartment complex, using it to highlight the many independent spaces at risk.
Finally, Monopol columnist Oliver Koerner von Gustorf curates "Industrial Witchcraft" at Die Möglichkeit einer Insel. Much like New Objectivity, it levels a "cold" gaze on the disaster of late capitalism, exploring political, economic, and sexual realities. Artists include Bless, Marc Brandenburg, Eliza Douglas, and Harun Farocki.
Film Legend: NBK shows Margarethe von Trotta
Margarethe von Trotta was the first female director to earn the Golden Lion at Mostra in Venice. She won with Marianne and Juliane in 1981, a film inspired by the story of the Ensslin sisters. Now the film is an essential part of her survey show at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. The exhibition includes clips featuring Rosa Luxemburg, Hannah Arendt, Ingeborg Bachmann, and other figures from history, as well as photos, scripts, and journals—many unpublished. "I never want to judge, but only to understand where something comes from," is how she described her approach. Works by this feminist filmmaker with a critical eye on history are also on view at Babylon, including "Vision—From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen" with her favorite actor, Barbara Sukowa. jh
"Margarethe von Trotta", Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, September 11 until November 9
These articles first appeared in Monopol's special issue on Berlin Art Week 2025.