The artists worked together for several months, focusing on the concept of entropy. It can be seen as a key to read the disintegrating times we are living in, as well as giving us some agency against its effects. But most of all, what these artworks teach us is the possibility of resistance.

Ruth Sergel approaches the ongoing nature of death, and addresses the instance of being a Jewish person in Berlin, while remembering the countless Palestinian victims in Gaza since 2014. Ioana Lungu on the other hand addresses displacement and diaspora, while reminding the seemingly forgotten history of coexistence between the two cultures.

Their works speak volumes about the importance of coming together, as people and as communities. Mar’a’yeh (مرايه, the name of LABA Berlin’s interfaith program) means “mirror” and the name of the project itself embodies the interconnectedness of all things, while insisting on the importance of personal values, experiences, and most of all, of dialogue.

With Make the World, Nellie Lindquist also addresses the polarized and dystopic times we are living in through an interesting connection between fiction and reality.

The project starts from an extract of a sabotage manual from World War II that recites: “Anyone can break up a showing of an enemy propaganda film by putting two or three dozen large moths in a paper bag. Take the bag to the movies with you, put it on the floor in an empty section of the theater as you go in and leave it open. The moths will fly out and climb into the projector beam, so that the film will be obscured by fluttering shadows.”

This seemingly amusing proposal becomes the focus of her animated video, which helps us reason on how we can actually shape the world we live in, starting from the smallest things.

Meow by Peng Yi-Hang seems to start with a funny side as well, by photographing a series of people wearing leopard patterns in Berlin.

But if one looks deeper, the series actually addresses the concepts of concealment and identity. Clothes surely are a shared language, that are used in this case to nurture intimacy and interpersonal acknowledgment.

“The wall between observer and observed, so present in Peng Yi-Hang’s earlier works, begins here to dissolve. What remains is the subtle vibration of encounter: the recognition that distance itself can connect. Through Meow, Peng Yi-Hang brings photography back to its most human form – the moment when looking becomes a meeting, and the city, for a brief second, breathes as one.” – Chun-Chi Wang

Gropius Bau: Underneath the Surface

Gropius Bau has recently opened an exhibition on the iconic work of Diane Arbus, titled Konstellationen. Showcasing for the first time all the 454 prints belonging to her estate, run by her former student Neil Selkirk, it is a marvelous chance to see images unpublished until recently. The exhibition is organized without a chronological or thematic order, but as a constellation in itself. It invites viewers to wonder at the powerful work of the artist, who made her unique worldview her trademark. Arbus had a stunning ability to capture individuality in its essence, and to portray the complexity of human experience. Her talent at looking beyond her lenses and into the people she met enabled her to create a compelling portrait of the society she lived in, highlighting all the beauty that lies in being ourselves. 

Gropius Bau is also presenting another powerful exhibition on the work of Ligia Lewis. I’M NOT HERE FORRRRR… brings together new and past artworks, spanning from performance to installation and movies. The power of her practice is the connection of bodies as a political act. With it, Lewis addresses important themes such as race, gender, violence and resistance, actively opposing the erasure of Black lives that society still seems to perpetuate.

KW: Collaborating with Technology

KW Institute for Contemporary Art has recently inaugurated a powerful exhibition in collaboration with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf, opening interesting new perspectives on the role of AI.

Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst’s Starmirror is based on an uncommon concept: AI is not an enemy, but a means to benefit the collective. The two artists and technologists have realized for the occasion a series of installations, spanning sound design and machine learning, never forgetting the fundamental role of the public. Ordo is for example a piece on the possibility of new harmonies, citing a Medieval play to make the issue of the struggle between good and evil topical once again.

The exhibition challenges the public perception of AI as a negative medium, opening up new collaborative perspectives between humans and machines: another way of coming together and joining forces for a better world.

Exploring our relationship with space and material is String Constructions by Kazuko Miyamoto, a leading figure of the feminist and Post Minimal movements of the 60s and 70s. The artist creates ephemeral sculptures out of strings, forcing us gently to deal with our vulnerability and showing us the power we all hold as a collective. These constructions of strings impact space in their unity, shaping with their presence an interesting reflection on ourselves.

neugerriemschneider: Plurality of Cultures

Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen is showcasing his first solo exhibition at ​​neugerriemschneider, 2 stories: voids & times. His practice is based on fused histories, connecting all the arts while investigating the past of humanity in its inconsistency. Myths, legends and anecdotes are the base of his video practice, which challenges them from within. What is actually true and how can it be perceived? How does documentary meet fantasy?

In an intertwined and fast world, Ho Tzu Nyen tries to connect all the dots, and to show how important actually is the plurality of voices and cultures of which the world is made. His connection to the arts also creates a brilliant homage to the acclaimed late artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres. One of his masterpieces, Untitled (Perfect Lovers) deals with love and the impact of time in the most moving way. From the deeply personal, the artwork becomes once again universal and political, with a video installation that challenges linear time in a new contemporary way.

At their other location in Linienstraße, neugerriemschneider is exhibiting the powerful work of the acclaimed Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno.

His practice has been dealing for years with the importance of nature, and of its recognition in a human-centered view of the world. The exhibition is deeply rooted in his long-standing collaboration with indigenous communities from Northern Argentina.

Water is the main source of life, but also a resource that is being exploited and polluted without many limits. Through their collaboration, they intend to make us reflect on its importance, while giving us actual options for a more conscious and respectful relationship with it.

Another central theme to the exhibition, and to Saraceno’s whole practice, are spiders and our misconception of them.

Arachnophobia is a widespread fear, actually based on stratified cultural biases. Fear is also a powerful instrument to put communities, both human and non-human, against each other. His series on spiders not only tries to address and change this, but shows us the beauty and the power of a creature that has been ostracized and misunderstood for such a long time.

Sprüth Magers: Living in a Fantasy

On November 14, Sprüth Magers is opening an exhibition by the acclaimed American artist Kara Walker. Since the beginning of her impressive career, Walker has worked on themes such as violence, race, gender and sexuality, showing us a different view of American history. With this new body of work, made of unusual watercolors, the impact of the incoherence of her country is brought to another level. Imagined as the land of freedom, inclusion and possibilities, its creation was actually marked by genocide and slavery.

Her practice brilliantly shows us how history is always negotiated and recreated, underlying the truths hidden in plain sight. Tituba's Handmaidens deals with the Salem witch trials, another disturbing moment of American history, that marked the killing of people due to the fear of difference. With Liberation (after Ben Shahn) she shows us a group of children playing in war rubble: a strong image that not only deals with the impact of wars on population, but that reminds us how violence can become a trauma inherited and passed on from one generation to the next. It is a fundamental topic, if one thinks about all the conflicts surrounding us in contemporary times.

“Fantasy rules our world now. Conjecture, myth, storytelling, tall tales, hearsay, heresies, nobody to be believed and repercussions galore,” Walker stated about our era. Her art thus is a powerful means for us to obtain the proper instruments to see it for what it is, and to question the power structures we take for granted.

Galerie Tanja Wagner: Collective Dreams 

At Galerie Tanja Wagner Anna Witt will soon present her new works, united under the title of Radical Optimism. Witt uses dreaming as a collective way out, dealing with the impact of society on our psyche. Based on Jacques Rancière’s Nights of Labor – a book about a group of 19th century workers who meet at night to articulate their hopes and dreams – she recreated a contemporary group of workers in a factory in Berlin, asking them to do the same. Daydreaming becomes this way a personal yet collective practice, underlying the negative impact of contemporary working structures. Our lives are eaten up by long shifts, hyperconnection and most of all from the importance given to our work in shaping who we are. In this context, her practice becomes a powerful tool of resistance and social change.

This selection of exhibitions to see in Berlin in December is here to make us reason on our divided societies and souls. We are constantly opposed to one another, whether it is because we perceive each other as dangerous or simply as different. This November also marked the 36th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, a powerful reminder of how division is never the answer. Through a common effort and a deeper understanding of who is in front of us we can actually create a world that is made for everyone, and not just for a few. This selection is here to suggest various ways to get there. Don’t miss the chance to see these thought-provoking exhibitions, and see where this journey takes you.