The Next Day #156: Berlin Weekend Guide
Must-see events in Berlin: June 11-14, 2026
After a weekend of birthday celebrations, I’m scraping the last of my energy from the bottom of the drawer. The good news: the program this week makes it worth it.
Tonight (Wednesday), the Kyiv Biennial opens at KW, occupying the whole building. Work made under wartime conditions, with a live program all weekend. And Hošek Contemporary turns ten with a concert and book launch on the MS Heimatland. Ten years and still the most consistent experimental venue in the city.
Our highlights for this weekend: Paradise Must Be Nice across three nights and three venues. ouch and Nyege Nyege take over OHM. Aria Dean one night only at HKW. And Grupo MEXA is back in Berlin with Reality Show, two nights only at Sophiensaele, after a world premiere that’s had people talking across Europe.
If you’re a fan of outdoor cinemas, they are open. Thursday, Rosebush Pruning; and Friday, Rose, Markus Schleinzer’s Berlinale Silver Bear with Sandra Hüller. Both at Freiluftkino Friedrichshain.
Pick your priorities.
Lalai & Mateus
IF YOU DO TWO THINGS THIS WEEKEND
Paradise Must Be Nice [frequency]
Thu–Sat 11–13.06 · Zwingli Kirche / Gedächtniskirche / Neue Zukunft · €15–30.
Three venues, three nights, one arc. If you can only go once, Saturday at Neue Zukunft is the most intense, with eight acts spanning punk, noise, and experimental electronics, Slikback closing live. Friday at Gedächtniskirche is the most beautiful, with Maria W Horn and Mats Erlandsson's The Spectral Organ deconstructing religious musical language through non-conventional harmonics and electronics. Thursday at Zwingli Kirche is the most conceptually sharp with Rosaceae and Solomon Garçon examining structures of military dominance through noise and vocal improvisation, using the church's reverb as an instrument.
MEXA: Reality Show [watch]
Fri-Sat 12-13.06 · 7 pm · Sophiensaele, Sophienstraße 18 · €10-25
German premiere of a live elimination game: the audience votes characters out one by one until only one remains. MEXA builds a piece about participation, complicity, and how quickly collective logic overrides individual judgment. One of the most discussed theater pieces in Berlin this month. We saw the world premiere at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels two weeks ago, and we strongly encourage you to go.
THURSDAY — 11.06
The weekend begins in a church with noise, the Kyiv Biennial already open across town, and the best free concert of the season at a museum garden.
Paradise Must Be Nice — Night 1: see above. 7:30 pm · Zwingli Kirche
Berlin Beats: Kikelomo [sweat]
Thursday 11.06 · 7 pm · Hamburger Bahnhof garden, Invalidenstraße 50–51 · free Kikelomo opens Berlin Beats’ summer season in a free open-air DJ series in the museum garden. Bar, street food, no door.
Sound and Fluids: Marina Rosenfeld, Max Eilbacher & Marcus Pal [frequency]
Thursday 11.06 · 8 - 10 pm · Julia Stoschek Foundation, Leipziger Str. 60 · €15
Marina Rosenfeld is one of the most interesting American composers working at the intersection of electroacoustic music, performance and installation. Alongside Max Eilbacher and Marcus Pal, this should approach listening as a physical event
We Are Making a Film About Mark Fisher [watch]
Thursday 11.06 · 7:30 pm · Hopscotch pop-up at Laden2Berlin, Brunnenstraße 65
Screening with writer Lindsay Lerman, followed by a conversation. Fisher’s thinking on hauntology, capitalist realism and popular culture filtered through a new documentary in progress.
MORE ON THURSDAY →
↳ Éric Baudelaire: When Night Falls: Five-channel video weaving seven sites in France into a meditation on social life, alienation and the forms of collective existence still possible. Opening 11.06, 6 - 9 pm. CCA Berlin, Breitscheidplatz [look]
↳ Kyiv Biennial: A Bird That Cannot Land: Second day open. Full building, through Sept 13. Wed–Mon 11am–7pm · KW, Auguststraße 69 · €10/6 [look]
↳ Deep Listening Session: Jeena: Live ambient electroacoustic set at Atemporal. Designed for lying on the floor. Bring a mat. 6 - 8:30 pm · Atemporal, Boxhagener Str. 96 · €15 [frequency]
FRIDAY — 12.06
Paradise Must Be Nice - Night 2: see above. 7:30 pm · Gedächtniskirche
MEXA: Reality Show: see above 7 pm · Sophiensaele
ouch invites Nyege Nyege - 3 Nights [sweat]
Fri–Sun 12–14.06 · OHM, Köpenicker Str. 70 · €18-50 / weekend pass
ouch takes over OHM for three nights with Nyege Nyege, THF Radio and Sonar Berlin, exploring translocal club culture and nightlife as collective memory across Africa, Latin America and Europe. Night 1: Hibotep, Sami (1432r), Lush Lata, Assyouti. The program moves between dancefloor and listening space, with afternoon talks each day.
C.B. Evans: Reality or Not [look]
Friday 12.06 · 6–10 pm, artist talk 6:30 pm · Schinkel Pavillon, Oberwallstraße 32
A group of teenagers in Saint-Denis form a collective called the Realitarians and join a reality show — the premise Evans uses to pull apart how reality gets constructed, who narrates it, and what gets discarded. The institutional voice is played by Alexandra Stewart, the English-language narrator of Chris Marker's Sans Soleil.
Aria Dean: The Color Scheme [watch]
Friday 12.06 · 8 pm · HKW, Miriam Makeba Auditorium · €10/5
Two African American expatriates argue in the Tiergarten, 1923 - loosely Alain Locke and Claude McKay, unnamed, debating what art owes to politics. The set is a 3D reconstruction of the Siegesallee, actors filmed live inside the virtual landscape and projected onto the stage in real time. Score with Russolo’s Intonarumori. European premiere, one night only.
MORE ON FRIDAY →
↳ Babette Semmer: Gentle Parenting: Opening. Paintings at the threshold between threat and empathy. 6–9 pm · Klemm’s Downstairs, Leipziger Str. 57/58 · free [look]
↳ Quiet Sequence - Théo Metais: Drawings, ink on paper and paintings shaped by repetition and quiet variations of gesture. 6 pm. PR55, Naunynstraße 55 · free [look]
↳ The Handover - album release: Oud, violin and Korg/Farfisa releasing their second album on Sublime Frequencies. Classical Arabic and shaabi pressed against krautrock and psychedelic improv. 8 pm · km28, Karl-Marx-Str. 28 · donation-based [frequency]
↳ Call me Paris: A young woman finds eerie parallels with Paris Hilton’s story. Identity, consent, early internet misogyny. 7:30 pm · Schaubühne, Kurfürstendamm 153 · €14–48 [watch]
↳ Goodbye Berlin by Constanza Macras: Surreal cabaret between Weimar Germany and now. 7:30 pm · Volksbühne · €11–35 · EN surtitles [watch]
SATURDAY — 13.06
Slikback closes Paradise. Eris Drew and Octo Octa go until morning at Prince Charles. Kaneko Ayano plays Frannz to whoever shows up.
Paradise Must Be Nice - Night 3: see above. 6 pm · Neue Zukunft
MEXA: Reality Show: see above 7 pm · Sophiensaele
Gezellig Sessions: 5-Year Anniversary [gather/live]
Saturday 13.06 · Doors 7:30 pm · Berlin-Mitte (address with ticket) · €10 door / €80 with dinner. Discount with code TNW1306 - We have 2 pairs of main show tickets - the first two to email us get them.
Started as a birthday party in a living room, 80 shows and 6,000 people later. Undiscovered indie artists, three rooms, live music, dinner, and an afterparty.
kanekoayano (JP — live) [watch]
Saturday 13.06 · Doors 7 pm, Show 8 pm · Frannz Club, Schönhauser Allee 36 · €24
Kaneko Ayano fits no category: sells out Budokan and plays fully unplugged in 1,500-seat halls, or makes noise at My Bloody Valentine density - Berlin appearance by Crunch Tapes and Positive Transmitter.
Garage Girls: Eris Drew b2b Octo Octa PT.II [sweat]
Saturday 13.06 · 10 pm - 9 am · Prince Charles, Prinzenstr. 85 · €25
Second edition of last year’s partnership. Eris Drew and Octo Octa play an extended morning set with acid house and emotional trance from two people who built T4T with genuine intent.
MORE ON SATURDAY →
↳ Éric Baudelaire & Erika Balsom — conversation: Baudelaire in conversation with film scholar Erika Balsom on documentary, AI imagery and what it means to affirm reality with care. 3 pm · Gedächtniskirche Chapel, Breitscheidplatz · free [watch]
↳ Haus am Waldsee: Wo ich wohne: Group show opening in a villa in Zehlendorf with a proper garden. Worth the trip. Opening from 5 pm · Argentinische Allee 30 [look]
↳ Kyiv Biennial talk - Oleksiy Radynski, Hito Steyerl, Tjan Zaochnaja: Leak. The Other Side of the Pipeline (7 pm) + Radynski’s Special Operation screening (8:30 pm). KW · free with RSVP [watch]
↳ Grey Scale Festival Berlin: IC3PEAK and Aigel, both Russian acts in exile, alongside TR/ST, Curses live, Qual (William Maybelline) and Karin Park. Industrial, darkwave, noise-pop. Sat 13.06 · Columbiahalle · €69 [watch]
↳ Toy Tonics Jam: 18 hours across four floors with house and disco on the main floor, Hello Sasy and Fernanda on the Emotion Powerhouse, karaoke and Planet Bitchy live in the Zen Garden. Barbara Boeing (she plays at midnight), Stump Valley, Harari. 2 pm - 8 am · ÆDEN · Schleusenufer 2 · €17-23 [sweat]
↳ Cashmere Radio 11th Birthday: Eleven years of experimental radio with a fundraiser at Panke with six residents. 11 pm · Gerichtstraße 23 [gather]
↳ Unkompress: Cafe 1001 Takeover: London’s Cafe 1001 (25 years) plays Balearic, Boogie and electronic on the hi-fi. Free, limited capacity. 8 pm - 1 am · Fichtestraße 23 · free [gather]
SUNDAY — 14.06
Quieter, but the KW live program makes it worth planning around: Bulgarian Voices at 4, Anna Ehrenstein and Yara Mekawei at 6.
Kyiv Biennial: Live Program [frequency/watch/look]
Sunday 14.06 · 2–7 pm · KW, Auguststraße 69 · €10/6 - Bulgarian Voices and Ehrenstein/Mekawei included in ticket
Three events, one afternoon: Madina Tlostanova on exile and unsettlement as a generative condition (2 pm, free with rsvp), Bulgarian Voices Berlin's dense polyphonic practice (4 pm), Anna Ehrenstein and Yara Mekawei's The Cloud Is Still Balkanized (6 pm with RSVP). Stay through all three.
Adam Winchester (live) [frequency]
Sunday 14.06 · 8:30 pm · Donau115, Donaustraße 115 · donation-based
Winchester uses the mixer as an instrument - applying dub techniques to experimental electronics, modular synthesis, and manipulated samples in real time. Roots in Bristol dubstep (Wedge), collaborations with Amon Düül II and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
MORE ON SUNDAY →
↳ Co-Making Matters: Soil Temporalities: Workshops and talk on soil, time and collective practice. Haus der Statistik. 2–8 pm · Karl-Marx-Allee 1 · free with RSVP [gather]
↳ Berlin Sommer Weinfest: 350+ wines from 70+ independent winemakers across Europe and the Middle East, wine talks, food stalls and music. from 1:30 pm · Haus der Visionäre, Eichenstraße 4A · €27 online / €10 after party only [gather]
↳ Else x Zack Fox, DJ Fuckoff, Yung Singh, Tash LC: Zack Fox’s sideways music taste, Yung Singh’s bhangra rave, Tash LC on groove. 2 pm · Else · €25 [sweat]
↳ Spooky Paradise by Philippe Quesne: A fading circus family in a haunted fairground. Politics entering sideways. 7:30 pm · Volksbühne · €12–45 · EN surtitles [watch]
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SAVE THE DATE
Hania Rani -Non Fiction: The Polish pianist brings her piano concerto to the Philharmonie. Minimalism, song and electronics, no fuss about any of it. 8 pm · Philharmonie · €45–65
Bella Wakame / Joasihno: Umor Rex debut live with Andi Haberl (The Notwist) and Florian Zimmer (Driftmachine). Joasihno closes. 20.06 · Galiläakirche · €15
Gaswerk Music Days 2026: Six themed nights across two weekends: modular live, Nyege Nyege ecosystem, desert blues, krautrock, dub. NSI., Jay Mitta, Mc Yallah & Scotch Rolex, Tissilawen, Kampire among the names. 24.07–02.08 · Gaswerksiedlung, Blockdammweg 1 · €30-135
Max Cooper Live A/V: Feeling Is Structure album tour. Algorithmic music meeting visual architecture, live. 24.07 · 10 pm · Haus der Visionäre · €38
Satzwechsel: Kang Han reads at the Berliner Philharmoniker, members perform chamber works in dialogue with the text. 07.09, 8 pm · Herbert-von-Karajan-Str. 1 · €18–41 [reading/live]