Exhibitions 2020

Otobong Nkanga’s interest lies in the complex relationship between humans and land. In her works, she explores this relationship within the tension between exploitative extraction processes and structures of care and repair. Following her one-year stay 2019 at the Gropius Bau, the solo exhibition offered insights into the central issues of her work.

From September 2019 to September 2020, the 11th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art unfolded as a process with “exp. 1”, “exp. 2”, and “exp. 3”. From 5 September to 1 November 2020, an exhibition, serving as the epilogue, brought together these experiences and the issues they raise in four locations, including the Gropius Bau.

Down to Earth, our summer 2020 at the Gropius Bau: four weeks without electricity, loudspeakers, videos, screens, air travel or spotlights, but with daylight, heat, recycling, analogue music, dance and talks by experts on change, exhibitits on the themes of the ocean, Gaia, puddles, the living earth, a sawn-up Porsche and modern rituals, in the spirit of Latour, Margulis, Lovelock and the Shipibo – 14 rooms and different overall every day.

The photography exhibition Six Songs, Swirling Gracefully in the Taut Air brought together works from various long-term series composed by Berlin-based Nigerian photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi, who has captured intimate scenes and communal life in cities such as Lagos, Berlin, Johannesburg, Bamako and Chicago, among many other locations.

Lee Mingwei’s artistic practice is primarily concerned with rituals of giving and receiving. The Gropius Bau presented a solo exhibition by the artist, showing his installations and performances from the last three decades. Central to the exhibition was an exploration of art’s potential to be a transformative gift.

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.

Featuring works by Laurie Anderson, Richard Avedon, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Isaac Julien, Annette Messager and Wolfgang Tillmans, the comprehensive group exhibition Masculinities: Liberation through Photography at the Gropius Bau explored the ways in which masculinity is experienced, performed and socially constructed from the 1960s to the present day.