Reviews

Notes from exhibitions, museums and concerts

The Brass Choir Nobody Mentions: Matthias Muche's BONECRUSHER at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Matthias Muche's BONECRUSHER at Jazzfest Berlin, in front of the altar of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Photo: Florian Jäger, 1 November 2026

Published on November 1, 2026

The Brass Choir Nobody Mentions: Matthias Muche's BONECRUSHER at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

At Jazzfest Berlin, Matthias Muche's trombone orchestra BONECRUSHER brings new music rather than jazz to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The idea is good, but the solemn room makes a serious concert even more devout.

Faust at the Blackboard: Dominique Horwitz at the Renaissance-Theater

Dominique Horwitz in "Herr Teufel Faust" in front of the blackboard of formulas and the moon, Renaissance-Theater Berlin. Photo: Florian Jäger, 27 October 2026

Published on October 27, 2026

Faust at the Blackboard: Dominique Horwitz at the Renaissance-Theater

At the Renaissance-Theater, Dominique Horwitz plays Goethe's "Faust" alone, in front of a blackboard full of physics. The white touring set doesn't fit the Art Deco auditorium, and that works in the play's favour.

The Afterlife Is Broadcasting on Every Channel: Susan Hiller at KW

Susan Hiller, "Channels", 2013, wall of cathode-ray televisions on the ground floor of KW. Photo: Florian Jäger, 24 October 2026

Published on October 24, 2026

The Afterlife Is Broadcasting on Every Channel: Susan Hiller at KW

KW presents the first Berlin survey of Susan Hiller, with Koo Jeong A on the three floors above. Whether the stories are true never interested Hiller. She wanted to know why we keep telling them.

Same Stage, Different Gesture: Grace Weaver at Soy Capitán

Grace Weaver, "Parataxis", at Soy Capitán: two figures at a table, left, and a figure holding an amphora, right. Photo: Florian Jäger, 13 September 2026

Published on September 13, 2026

Same Stage, Different Gesture: Grace Weaver at Soy Capitán

At Soy Capitán, Grace Weaver builds one stage from a lamp, an amphora and a striped wall, and puts a different figure on it each time. "Parataxis" works because of that repetition, which turns everyday life into ritual.

Nothing Keeps Its Outline: Paweł Książek at Persons Projects

Paweł Książek, "Rhizome", at Persons Projects: the hang around the corner, from the hair painting to the flame and the candle. Photo: Florian Jäger, 13 September 2026

Published on September 13, 2026

Nothing Keeps Its Outline: Paweł Książek at Persons Projects

At Persons Projects the same eye motif appears as a painting, a drawing and a red fragment of a face. Hair, flame and water in "Rhizome" share no subject, only the lack of a fixed outline, and the hang turns that into a method.

Help Turns Into Rescue: Vladimir Sorokin at Taiga Gallery

Vladimir Sorokin, "Morning After the Blizzard No. 2", 2026, beside sheets from the "Pushkin, help me!" series at Taiga Gallery. Photo: Florian Jäger, 13 September 2026

Published on September 13, 2026

Help Turns Into Rescue: Vladimir Sorokin at Taiga Gallery

At Taiga Gallery, Sorokin's large canvases tell the story of "Der Schneesturm" while the small sheets call on Pushkin. Two series, same size, same technique, and on some sheets "help me" has been overwritten with "save us".

Eight Names, One Voice: "TRACE METALS" at galerie burster

"TRACE METALS" at galerie burster: the view through to the second room, with the concrete block in front. Photo: Florian Jäger, 13 September 2026

Published on September 13, 2026

Eight Names, One Voice: "TRACE METALS" at galerie burster

Perforated metal, concrete, foil and glazed ceramic: at galerie burster, eight artists show surfaces that might have peeled off city facades. Strong on material, but palette and method are so uniform that eight names barely add up to eight voices in the room.

The Art Business Mocks Itself, Then Packs Up: "BEL ÉTAGE" at BACKSPACE

Relief paintings and figurative canvases in the corridor at "BEL ÉTAGE", BACKSPACE. Photo: Florian Jäger, 13 September 2026

Published on September 13, 2026

The Art Business Mocks Itself, Then Packs Up: "BEL ÉTAGE" at BACKSPACE

Three galleries and nine names shared a hall in a light-industrial yard for three days. "BEL ÉTAGE" at BACKSPACE was more sampler than argument, and at its best where the works mocked the business that hung them.

A Dining Table Becomes a Screen: Izabella Gustowska at KVOST

Izabella Gustowska, "Home’s Shadows", at KVOST: video projected onto an oval table, with a light box beyond. Photo: Florian Jäger, 13 September 2026

Published on September 13, 2026

A Dining Table Becomes a Screen: Izabella Gustowska at KVOST

At KVOST, Izabella Gustowska projects archive footage onto an antique oval table and mounts seaside snapshots on pointed ovals. The new work is dense and exact, and the earlier pieces recede behind it.

The Strongest Exhibit Is a Shadow: Three Rooms on the Last Day of Berlin Art Week

The first stop: a converted floor with a masonry pillar and ribbed ceiling, Berlin Art Week. Photo: Florian Jäger, 13 September 2026

Published on September 13, 2026

The Strongest Exhibit Is a Shadow: Three Rooms on the Last Day of Berlin Art Week

Three rooms on Lindenstraße, Rudi-Dutschke-Straße and Leipziger Straße were among the more interesting on the last day of Berlin Art Week. The first gives the most, because mirrors, glass and a window's shadow all work together.

Circles Under High Voltage: Martin Margiela and Alan Charlton at Konrad Fischer Galerie

Installation view: round single-colour panels in the two-storey hall at Konrad Fischer Galerie, a halved disc behind the gallery railing. Photo: Florian Jäger, 13 September 2026

Published on September 13, 2026

Circles Under High Voltage: Martin Margiela and Alan Charlton at Konrad Fischer Galerie

Konrad Fischer Galerie shows Martin Margiela and Alan Charlton in a building with green steel stairs and a Bewag high-voltage sign. The hall, where round panels and architecture come together, is the strongest part. The rest is spread across side rooms, an office and a landing.

Nobody Meets Anyone's Eye: Rebecca Brodskis at KÖNIG GALERIE

Rebecca Brodskis, "The Last Ones Awake", in the Vault at St. Agnes: three canvases of stacked heads on the long wall. Photo: Florian Jäger, 12 September 2026

Published on September 12, 2026

Nobody Meets Anyone's Eye: Rebecca Brodskis at KÖNIG GALERIE

In the Vault at St. Agnes, Rebecca Brodskis shows paintings of close friends from her Berlin years. The heads almost touch, yet no gaze meets another, and that is what makes the series work.

The Render Plays Along: Christian Achenbach at KÖNIG GALERIE

Christian Achenbach, "ECHOTROPIA", installation view in the nave of St. Agnes, KÖNIG GALERIE, with the pink-skied canvas on the end wall. Photo: Florian Jäger, 12 September 2026

Published on September 12, 2026

The Render Plays Along: Christian Achenbach at KÖNIG GALERIE

Christian Achenbach's densely outlined landscapes and interiors hang against rough render in the tall hall of St. Agnes at KÖNIG GALERIE. The room makes the paintings look stronger. The interiors are the best of them, where a vase and an orange stay objects while everything around them turns to pattern.

A Roof, Not an Argument: HALLEN 07 at Wilhelm Hallen

The main hall of the Wilhelm Hallen during HALLEN 07, with a neon drawing in front and the inflatable figure behind. Photo: Florian Jäger, 11 September 2026

Published on September 11, 2026

A Roof, Not an Argument: HALLEN 07 at Wilhelm Hallen

HALLEN 07 puts more than 50 artists into a former iron foundry in Reinickendorf. The building is louder than most of what hangs in it, and only a handful of works stand up to it.

Only the Familiar Machines Show Their Insides: IFA 2026 at Messe Berlin

Football robot at RoboCup in Messe Berlin, with children and adults along the barrier. Photo: Dominik Tryba, Introduce Productions, for IFA Berlin

Published on September 7, 2026

Only the Familiar Machines Show Their Insides: IFA 2026 at Messe Berlin

At IFA 2026 in Berlin, AI is printed on everything from glasses to detergent dosing. The robots are shown off as tricks and pets while the robot vacuum does the work. There is no stand for the real shift.

The Title Bar Stays On: "Niu Lai" at Tennis Bar

The hand-drawn poster for the screening: two cattle in outline, "Watch Niu Lai at Tennis Bar", 20h, FR€€. Poster: @tennisbarberlin / @topdogbigboy

Published on September 2, 2026

The Title Bar Stays On: "Niu Lai" at Tennis Bar

At Tennis Bar in Neukölln, "Niu Lai" plays as a YouTube stream, complete with window bar, Chinese screening licence and the wrong aspect ratio. For a film two people built over five years in an architecture program, that is the most honest format going, and the place is full.

A Berlin Built From Replicas: TFELD on the Tempelhof Airfield

The historic Troop Carrier propeller plane behind crowd barriers on the apron at Tempelhof. Photo: Florian Jäger, 22 August 2026

Published on August 22, 2026

A Berlin Built From Replicas: TFELD on the Tempelhof Airfield

The first TFELD, on the apron at Tempelhof, builds its Berlin out of replicas, from the Watergate club to the Kreuzberg lettering. The site handles that with ease, but the festival has yet to find a face of its own.

The Mirror as Experiment: "Lustra" at the Copernicus Science Centre

The Copernicus Science Centre on the Vistula in Warsaw, with signs on the wall pointing to the centre and the planetarium. Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 PL, via Wikimedia Commons

Published on May 24, 2026

The Mirror as Experiment: "Lustra" at the Copernicus Science Centre

At Warsaw's Copernicus Science Centre the mirror is not a motif but an experiment you walk through. Oskar Zięta's steel objects, added for Warsaw, take the show over the line into art.

400,000 Cubes, Never Finished: Lina Lapelytė at Hamburger Bahnhof

Lina Lapelytė. We Make Years Out of Hours, installation view Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin, 2026 © Lina Lapelytė. VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026. Photo: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Laura Fiorio

Published on May 1, 2026

400,000 Cubes, Never Finished: Lina Lapelytė at Hamburger Bahnhof

At Hamburger Bahnhof, singing performers rebuild 400,000 wooden cubes. Lina Lapelytė's CHANEL Commission is a smart answer to a huge hall, though any one visit catches only one day's version.

Mahler Gets No More Time Than the New Work: VOM ANFANGEN at the Konzerthaus Berlin

Applause in the Großer Saal of the Konzerthaus Berlin, beneath the chandeliers and in front of the organ

Published on February 14, 2026

Mahler Gets No More Time Than the New Work: VOM ANFANGEN at the Konzerthaus Berlin

The opening concert of VOM ANFANGEN at the Konzerthaus Berlin set Mahler's Fourth beside new pieces by Cymin Samawatie, played by three ensembles. Neither was translated into the other, and one premiere lasted about as long as Mahler.

The Choices Are Made on the Contact Sheet: Graciela Iturbide at C/O Berlin

"Mujer ángel" ("Angel Woman"), Sonoran Desert, 1979 © Graciela Iturbide

Published on February 11, 2026

The Choices Are Made on the Contact Sheet: Graciela Iturbide at C/O Berlin

C/O Berlin hung Graciela Iturbide's first major Berlin retrospective series by series, the right call for a photographer who keeps going back. The contact sheets gave most away.

Closeness Is Not a Distance: "Close Enough" and the After Nature Prize at C/O Berlin

Amerika Haus in Berlin-Charlottenburg, home of C/O Berlin since 2014. Photo: Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Published on January 23, 2026

Closeness Is Not a Distance: "Close Enough" and the After Nature Prize at C/O Berlin

At C/O Berlin's 25th anniversary, 12 Magnum photographers put Robert Capa's line to the test, several asking who controls a picture. The After Nature Prize laureates went further, towards perception that isn't human.

Two Quiet Rooms Next to Banksy: Guillermo Lorca at Moco Museum Barcelona

The Gothic courtyard of the Palau dels Cervelló on Carrer de Montcada, now home to the Moco Museum Barcelona. Photo: Josep Renalias, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Published on August 1, 2025

Two Quiet Rooms Next to Banksy: Guillermo Lorca at Moco Museum Barcelona

At the Moco Museum Barcelona, Guillermo Lorca's six old-master-style paintings were more interesting than the famous names in the collection. They need time, and the place does little to make anyone take it.

Beginnings, Not Greatest Hits: The Museu Picasso in Barcelona

Two anthropomorphic pitchers in the ceramics case at the Museu Picasso on Carrer de Montcada. Photo: Florian Jäger, 1 August 2025

Published on August 1, 2025

Beginnings, Not Greatest Hits: The Museu Picasso in Barcelona

Barcelona's Museu Picasso is about Picasso's beginnings rather than his fame, and more interesting for it than the greatest-hits museums. In one display case stand the 41 ceramics Jacqueline Roque gave the city in 1982.

The Joke Is on the Buyer: "Banksy – A Vandal Turned Idol" at Kleisteck

Three Banksy motifs on a dark wall, "Christ with Shopping Bags" on the right, at Kleisteck, Berlin. Photo: Florian Jäger, 20 January 2024

Published on January 20, 2024

The Joke Is on the Buyer: "Banksy – A Vandal Turned Idol" at Kleisteck

The unauthorised Banksy show at Kleisteck in Berlin hung the familiar images neatly, then put them in grand frames under reverent light. It celebrated the art market the pictures make fun of.

Fidel With a Rainbow: Drawings at the Centro Fidel Castro Ruz

Drawings of Fidel Castro in a glass case at the Centro Fidel Castro Ruz, Havana. Photo: Florian Jäger, 23 September 2022

Published on September 23, 2022

Fidel With a Rainbow: Drawings at the Centro Fidel Castro Ruz

A case of drawings at the Centro Fidel Castro Ruz in Havana shows what a personality cult looks like in a child's hand. As a document it says more than the institution probably intends.

The Pine Outgrows the Concrete: "Monet, Renoir… Chagall" at Bunker de Lumières

Paul Signac's pine at Saint-Tropez projected onto the bunker wall at Bunker de Lumières, Seongsan. Photo: Florian Jäger, 26 June 2022

Published on June 26, 2022

The Pine Outgrows the Concrete: "Monet, Renoir… Chagall" at Bunker de Lumières

At Bunker de Lumières on Jeju, the projection show worked where the painting was already made of light and flat colour: Chagall's windows, Signac's dots. The Impressionists in the title came off flat.

Sphinxes by the Armchair: The Museum of Sex and Health on Jeju

Two gilded sphinxes beside a leather armchair at the Museum of Sex and Health, Seogwipo. Photo: Florian Jäger, 24 June 2022

Published on June 24, 2022

Sphinxes by the Armchair: The Museum of Sex and Health on Jeju

The Museum of Sex and Health in Seogwipo takes its subject seriously in the display cases and loses it among the props. Funny for an afternoon, thin for a museum of health.