Untitled, 2014 © Courtesy of Estate of Ren Hang.
As the year, and the decade comes to a close, take some time out of your busy holiday schedule to experience the best in culture that the city has to offer—from pop-up dinners at an AI exhibition to Allen Ginsberg dramas, and transcendent music.
December 01
It might blow up, but it won’t go pop—BBA Gallery
In collaboration with a creative production team, multidisciplinary artist Vishal Shah explores the powerful and irreconcilable tension between commercial advertising and fine art. The exhibition uses an audio video installation playing on a loop, which renders a beautifully abstracted design that is sometimes beautiful and sometimes obscured.
Holly Herndon. Courtesy of Kraftwerk Berlin
December 06
Proto (restaged) by Holly Herndon—Kraftwerk
Performing a new staging of their most recent album, Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst present their AI baby in an interpretive collaboration with a contemporary ensemble of vocalists. Set against the backdrop of the Latent Being exhibition, this performance explores AI not as something dehumanising, but as an opportunity to appreciate and interact with human beauty through new eyes.
Love, Ren Hang opening—C/O Berlin
Following its Paris debut, Ren Hang’s retrospective comes to Berlin. Showcasing an array of analog photographs, these works are a rare ode to human beings, their bodies, sexuality, beauty, and vulnerability.
Untitled, © Courtesy of Estate of Ren Hang.
December 07
C/O Berlin Talent Award—C/O Berlin
Sylvain Couzinet-Jacques is the winner of the C/O Berlin Talent Award 2019. His most recent project, Sub Rosa, captures the Arco de la Victoria in Madrid, which to this day stands as a symbol of Spanish fascism. His large-scale video-sound installation extends a documentary approach into the conceptual realm: Sub Rosa creates an enlarged space for experience where photography expands into film.
December 11
Aller-Retour et Aller reading with Karolin Meunier—KW Institute
In cooperation with their current exhibition, The Making of Husbands, Karolin Meunier introduces Wanda (1970), with a reading of Aller-Retour et Aller. The reading in the cinema space at Kino Arsenal dissolves the biographies of the film character, the actress and the writer.
Between Realism and Utopia Lecture—ICI Berlin
Presenting reflections on Theodor Adorno and The Authoritarian Personality is professor of practical philosophy, Rahel Jaeggi, and Amabel B. James Professor of History, Peter E. Gordon. Together they reconsider Adorno’s research on the authoritarian personality to produce new descriptions and analyses of authoritarianism, and to initiate a critical review of The Authoritarian Personality.
Beast Without Beauty—Trauma Bar and Kino
A perplexing dance piece from award-winning Beast Without Beauty—an absurdist comedy alluding to Samuel Beckett’s theatre. In this piece, “there are no rules, everything is permitted. Anyone lends themselves to be an object of prey; an intended victim to the other.”
Barbara Loden, Wanda, 1970. Courtesy Foundation for Filmmakers and Bardene International Films
December 11. & 19
Algen Pop-up Dinner with Barkin’ Kitchen—Kraftwerk
Accompanying Refik Anadol’s Latent Being exhibition, Barkin’ Kitchen’s algae pop-up is a future-orientated four course meal that follows a tour of the exhibition. With a menu devoted to algae, the vitamin-containing seaweeds provide optimal nutritional supplement.
December 12
Hybrid Futures. Speculations by Hito Steyerl, Mike Tyka and Jules LaPlace—Futurium
Matching hybridity of theme with innovation of format, this conversation between contemporary artist Hito Steyerl and AI experts Mike Tyka and Jules LaPlace speculates on how scientific disciplines might look in the future, based on scenarios from the arts and sciences of various past epochs.
December 13
The Transcendence Orchestra—Trauma Bar and Kino
The Transcendence Orchestra is a collaborative project of Anthony Child (better known under his techno producer alias Surgeon) and Daniel Bean of Bleep43. The set delves deep into a minimalistic narrative, mixing voice and drone.
Photo by David Baltzer. Courtesy of Volksbühne Berlin
December 14
Tua—.Wav Tour—Funkhaus
Performed in the former DDR broadcasting building, Tua’s new album’s sound is infused with Eastern European influences, as well as ideas of drum & bass, garage, techno and the trashy trance from the artist’s youth.
December 22
HOWL—Volksbuhne
Based on the works of Beat poet and writer Allen Ginsberg, this theatre performance combines street photography together with poetry and music in a surreal fusion of the late artist’s life passions.