Exhibitions 2019

Walking Through Walls marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the most symbolic events of the 20th century, interrogating the experience of vulnerability and anxiety caused by power structures that thrive on confinement and segregation.

Wu Tsang’s solo exhibition There is no nonviolent way to look at somebody presented films in dialogue with her sculptural practice, working with the interaction of glass, light and text, and included a new stained glass commission conceived for the Gropius Bau.

The exhibition Garden of Earthly Delights saw over 20 international artists using the space of the garden as a metaphor for the state of the world, in an exploration of the complexities of our chaotic and increasingly precarious present.

Bani Abidi is known for her distinctive approach to filmmaking, which derives from the dark absurdities of everyday life. They Died Laughing was an extensive presentation of Abidi’s works, bringing together moving image and print-based works that span two decades.

With The Black Image Corporation, Theaster Gates conceived a participatory exhibition which explores the fundamental legacy of Johnson Publishing Company archives. Featuring more than four million images, they have contributed to shape the aesthetic and cultural languages of African American identity.

Ladies on Paper. Recent Works by Vaginal Davis was the first institutional presentation of Vaginal Davis’ paintings in Berlin. Over a period of six weeks, six different recent portraits were shown successively in single hangings. Taken from a series of works created over the last two years, the paintings depicted six different public figures from the worlds of art, film and literature.

The artist book as an art object in and of itself: Under the title of Museum in My Head, the Walther König Bookshop curated an exhibition of artist books which focused on collecting and archiving at the Gropius Bau.