Berlin Art Link Magazine

Our feature topic Cycles continues for February, with pieces considering cycles of growth and decay, the recycling of data, and the unrelenting churn of the news cycle. ⁠ For an insight into the Cycles topic, as well as a preview of some of our upcoming feature articles, see Alison Hugill’s letter from the editor:

This weekend in Berlin, there are a number of must-see openings and events, including the opening of Monty Richthofen’s exhibition ‘SWALLOWED BULLETS’⁠ tonight at DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM exploring manipulations of the poem through painting and drawing, Nicole Heinzel’s exhibition ‘frgmntd lmnts / lmntl frgmnts’ opening also tonight at kajetan presenting ambiguous and fragmented elements of our natural world to explore how we decode reality, and performance ‘The Monuments – Chapter 13 – Fragments of Us’ by Jaša at Kühlhaus tomorrow night gesturing towards forgotten histories. See the full list of events:

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As part of our feature topic Cycles, Mia Butter writes on Esvin Alarcón Lam’s exhibition ‘The Practical Guide to Gardening’ at Künstlerhaus Bethanien. Butter discusses Lam’s exploration of bamboo as a means to tackle themes of identity, queerness and colonialism, in particular the colonial impetus of botany and the resilience in the possibility of regrowth. Read the full review:

Every month we compile a list of exciting international openings and events in our Worldwide Exhibition Hitlist. For February, openings we’ve selected include Salah Elmur’s exhibition ‘The Land of the Sun’ at Mariane Ibrahim in Mexico City, Laure Prouvost’s exhibition ‘We Felt A Star Dying’ at LAS Art Foundation in Berlin, exhibition ‘Leigh Bowery!’ at Tate Modern in London, Sharjah Biennial 16 at various venues across Sharjah including works by Arthur Jafa, Rajni Perera, Aziz Hazara, and Aluaiy Kaumakan, Shu Lea Cheang’s exhibition ‘KI$$ KI$$’ at Haus der Kunst in Munich, and Billie Zangewa’s exhibition ‘Breeding Ground: the care we give becomes our breeding ground for life’ at Norval Foundation in Cape Town. See our full list of international openings:

“What do you do with all this data? It’s similar to when we think about junk: do you dump it, or recycle it or burn it? There is a certain line of thinking that it’s still useful in some way, so I applied that same thinking to digital data: that there could be compost.” As part of our feature topic ‘Cycles’, William Kherbek interviews ground-breaking Taiwanese artist Shu Lea Cheang in relation to her exhibition ‘KI$$ KI$$’ opening February 14th at Haus der Kunst. They discussed dumping waste, cyborg theory, and data surveillance. Read the full interview:

This week in Berlin there are a number of exciting openings and events, including the opening of exhibition ‘SWALLOWED BULLETS’ by Monty Richthofen at DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, tour of Rineke Dijkstra’s exhibition ‘Still — Moving. Portraits 1992 – 2024’ at Berlinische Galerie with PD Dr. Elisabeth Fritz (German Forum for Art History, Paris) and Sophie Angelov (Curatorial Assistant), Nicole Heinzel’s exhibition ‘frgmntd lmnts / lmntl frgmnts’ at kajetan, performance ‘daniel’s destruction’ by Unbestimmte Bewegung at Sophiensæle, and Thomas Bayrle’s exhibition ‘Faule Stellen’ at neugerriemschneider. See the full list of events:

This weekend in Berlin, there are a number of must-see openings and events, including the opening of Silvina Der Meguerditchian’s exhibition ‘Those who take care of us’ tonight at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien addressing themes of memory, identity, migration, and language, performance ‘Synthesis 2’ by ZULI, Hulubalang, and Brandon Tay as part of transmediale 2025 & CTM festival tomorrow evening at HKW, and program ‘Dance makes Berlin – An event by and for dance’ taking place tomorrow afternoon at Akademie der Künste considering the impact and potential of dance in Berlin and beyond. ⁠ See the full list of events:

The group show ‘Echt?! – Young 3-Dimensional Art from Norway,’ hosted by the Nordic Embassies in Berlin, presents works from the contemporary art scene in Norway. Opening on January 30th, artists Andrea Scholze, Einar Grinde, Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard, Zayne Armstrong and Lin Wang show work interested in questioning authenticity, materiality and perception, from Grinde’s faded grandeur deflating horse sculpture ‘A Borrowed Horse One Must Soon Dismount,’ to installation ‘The Grind’ by Aasgaard and Armstrong commenting on neoliberal work practices. Read the full preview article:

“The quiet radiance found within Dijkstra’s oeuvre pushes us to consider the frictions within ourselves, ones which, albeit difficult to reconcile, are what make us human.” Photographer Rineke Dijkstra’s major retrospective ‘Still — Moving: Portraits 1992 – 2024’ is on show at Berlinische Galerie, presenting over 80 works of photo and film. In her review, Oliva Noss discusses Dijkstra’s slight in depicting transitions; from youth to adulthood, from one career to another or from self-inhibition to self-possession. Read the full review: