UTOPIA. Keep on Moving
© Rimini Berlin

UTOPIA. Keep on Moving
19 Apr – 26 May

Exhibitions and Events

In a time plagued by wars and upheavel, the Akademie der Künste is dedicating itself to the subject of utopia. Akademie President Jeanine Meerapfel has invited the artistic sections of the Akademie to participate in this programme dedicated to historical and contemporary utopias for imagining better futures. With artistic installations, lectures, talks, concerts, film screenings and theatre performances.

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Young short-haired woman with raised arms appears blurred against a red background
Denise Onen: Understanding, © Lili Bo Ming

Critical listening is the first step toward an ethics and aesthetics of care and freedom. Accepting new sounds gives access to other layers of history and experience. Artists from South Africa and Germany share their listening experiences in new sound works and installations, combining indigenous sound practices and spirituality with the latest technologies and contemporary forms of artistic expression.

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A man stands on a windowsill of an open window and looks  outside through a camera mounted on a tripod
Michael Ruetz and Astrid Köppe, Film still from Facing Time, Documentary, 2023, Direction: Annett Ilijew, © Photo: Ines Thomsen, © Annett Ilijew and Michael Ruetz

Since the mid-60s Michael Ruetz has observed the transformation of urban habitats in a large-scale photographic study. Ruetz’ images of Berlin are an expression of how architecture can shape and redefine our environment, thus giving it a prerogative of interpretation over our perception. His photo series develop their own aesthetics beyond documentary sobriety, revealing a poetry of time in the process.

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What contributions can artists make to demand a policy that addresses climate change efficiently and expediently? How can art encourage the necessary transformation of society? More than 40 Akademie members call on each and every individual to push for climate protection. Their statements can currently be read on the glass façade of the Akademie der Künste building on Pariser Platz.

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Anna Seghers Museum
Anna Seghers Museum in Berlin Adlershof, photo: © Andreas [FranzXaver] Süß

Bertolt Brecht's study, Helene Weigel's conservatory, Anna Seghers' “crow's nest” : Regular tours offer visitors a fascinating insight into the homes and studies of the writer Bertolt Brecht, actress and theatre director Helene Weigel and the writer Anna Seghers. The Brecht-Weigel Museum in Berlin-Mitte and the Anna Seghers Museum in Berlin-Adlershof are both part of the Akademie der Künste.

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Reading Room Pariser Platz
Reading Room Pariser Platz, photo: © Katja Strauß

The Library of the Arts is one of the largest special libraries on culture and the modernist arts. Its holdings are characterised by media from every artistic genre from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day, as well as valuable private libraries, which are accessible to everyone free of charge. The voyage of discovery through its treasures begins in the Reading Room and leads into the hidden stacks. Guided tour in German.

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Akademie der Künste at Pariser Platz. Photo © Jeanette Gonsior
Akademie der Künste at Pariser Platz. Photo © Jeanette Gonsior

The Akademie der Künste is an international community of artists that currently totals 407 members in its six Sections (Visual Arts, Architecture, Music, Literature, Performing Arts, Film and Media Arts). It is an exhibition and event location. A key component of the Akademie are its Archives, which collectively form one of the most important interdisciplinary archives on 20th century art.

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Statement by the Visual Arts Section on the proposal for the Berlin Senate's new anti-discrimination clausemore

Statement by the Senate of the Akademie der Künstemore

Further news are available in German only: News

Brecht-Haus (Brecht House), photo: Ingeborg Fries
Friday, 3 May
Guided Tour

1 pm

Brecht-Weigel Museum
Chausseestraße 125
10115 Berlin

Discovering Brecht between Chausseestraße and the Berliner Ensemble

A two-hour walk leads from the Brecht-Haus (Brecht House) to the Berliner Ensemble in the footsteps of Bertolt Brecht. This is where the writer and director moved in the years after his return from exile, where he achieved his artistic breakthrough in the 1920s. Meeting point ist the courtyard of the Brecht-Haus. In German.

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© Rimini Berlin
Friday, 3 May
Exhibition Opening

6 pm

UTOPIA. Keep on Moving Utopian Dimensions

In the exhibition, curator Diana Wechsler presents works by different artists for the historically charged Akademie building on Pariser Platz which create possible horizons for a contemporary humanism. Carolin Emcke reads from her new book What is true. On Violence and Climate, followed by a discussion with Jeanine Meerapfel. The Broken Frames Syndicate ensemble will present musical pieces throughout the evening. In German.

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Exhibition opening “Kinder im Exil”, Studio at the Akademie on Hanseatenweg, 2016
Saturday, 4 May
Theatre Performance

4 pm

Hanseatenweg

Studio

UTOPIA. Keep on Moving Building Blocks of the World, Children's Requests

Children from the Hermann-Boddin-Grundschule put on a theatre play. On the first day of school, the teacher explains the letters of the alphabet to the class: you can do anything with them, ask questions, laugh, build the world – a war can destroy them. Kristiane Petersmann, Moritz Nitsche, Benjamin Scheuer developed the play with the children and Nele Hertling. Stage adaptation by Gesine Bey based on a story by Andrea Bajani and Brecht's poem Bitten der Kinder. In German.

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Top: Wolfgang Kaleck, © ECCHR Photo: Nihad Nino Pušija / Bottom: Eva von Redecker, © Photo: Sophie Brand
Saturday, 4 May
Lectures and Talk

5 pm

Hanseatenweg

Studiofoyer

UTOPIA. Keep on Moving Concrete Utopias – Eva von Redecker and Wolfgang Kaleck

How can rethinking the concepts of freedom and human rights help us find concrete strategies to make our world a better place? Eva von Redecker, philosopher and author of The Freedom to Stay, and Wolfgang Kaleck, lawyer, Secretary General of ECCHR and author of The Concrete Utopia of Human Rights, present their thoughts on this. In German.

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Christin Berg, Beyond The Now (Film still), 2022, © Christin Berg studio fire on air / VG Bild-Kunst
Saturday, 4 May
Readings, Performances, Music

7:30 pm

Hanseatenweg

Studiofoyer

UTOPIA. Keep on Moving New Forgotten Utopias

Speculating, fabulating, building worlds – what strategies are used by artists and writers to meet the challenges of societies and the planet? Akademie members and JUNGE AKADEMIE fellows scrutinise forgotten and new utopian narratives and social concepts. With musical interventions by Steloolive. In German and English.

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Please click here to view all events and exhibitions.

Upcoming

Poesie der Zeit. Michael Ruetz – Timescapes 1966–2023 Exhibition: 9 May – 4 Aug 2024 more

Franz Kafka – The second century Lectures, readings, talks, film: 3 – 4 Jun 2024 more