The Next Day #67: Berlin Weekend Guide

Must-go events in Berlin: September 11th to 15th

Hi,

This week is a real treat for those who love art. There’s so much happening around the city, from exhibitions to parties celebrating the openings of Berlin Art Week. The best part? Lots of free, must-see events. The hard part is deciding where to go! Today, we’ll be at Gropius Bau and then heading over to Julia Stoschek.

Thursday is for wandering through galleries, catching Lydia Lunch’s performance at Hamburger Bahnhof, checking out the “La Part Maudite” exhibition opening, and closing the night at silent green with “Cory Arcangel: AUDMCRS. Performed by Lena Willikens.”

We’re back to gallery hopping on Friday —don’t miss our special guide! Swing by Hallen 5, which always features a great mix of local galleries, and then head to Sophiensaele to see the performance of INNOCENCE. Saturday, we’ll check out the performances at Neue Nationalgalerie and catch Bendik Giske’s show at Sound in the Garden. Later, we’ll split between “Los días afuera” by Lola Arias and “Vortex” by MXM. If there’s still energy, we might end up at the Toy Tonics or 1_06 party.

Sunday will be spent browsing the markets at Uferhallen and the one hosted by Blue Lobster at Soho House. And if we still have any energy left, we’ll wrap up the day at Berghain because the line-up is top-notch.

Have a nice weekend,

Lalai & Mateus

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Maple Glider by Bridgette Winten

La Luz
Thursday, 12.09, 8 pm. Badehaus, Revaler Str. 99, 10245 Berlin. Ticket: 23,57€.
For those who appreciate a mix of dark, beautiful psychedelia, surf rock, and poignant personal stories. 🎧 News of the Universe

Cory Arcangel: AUDMCRS. Performed by Lena Willikens
Thursday, 12.09, 8 pm. silent green, Gerichtstrasse 35, 13347 Wedding. Free admission. If the tickets are sold out, contact info@michelmajerus.com to be notified if more tickets become available.
This event will showcase Lena Willikens performing a special set using underground dance music records from the 1990s and early 2000s. Hosted by artist Cory Arcangel, it’s a cool way to hear these classic tracks in a new light, mixing old and modern sounds.

Tengger + Spiritczualic Enhancement Center
Friday, 13.09, 8 pm. Lark, Holzmarktstrasse 15-18, 10179 Berlin. Ticket: 15,30€.
🎧 Tengger, a musical family from South Korea and Japan, combines psychedelic drone with voice, harmonium, and electronics. Their concerts, inspired by travel and spirituality, create a relaxing and contemplative sound.

Maple Glider
Friday, 13.09, 8 pm. Privatclub, Skalitzer Str. 85-86, 10997 Kreuzberg. Ticket:
If you like deeply emotional folk rock with intimate, personal storytelling, you’ll love Maple Glider. 🎧 I Get Into Trouble

Schöne Töne Live by Sven Helbig and DSO
Friday, 13.09, 8 pm. Haus des Rundfunks (Großer Sendesaal), Masurenallee 8-14, 14057 Charlottenburg. Ticket: 35€.
Hosted by Sven Helbig, this concert combines everything from Bach to modern electronica, played by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and some renowned guest artists.

Sound in the Garden: Bendik Giske - Edge
Saturday, 14.09, 6 pm. Neue Nationalgalerie - Sculpture garden and Terrace, Potsdamer Str. 50, 10785 Berlin. Free admission.
The new concert performance by Giske, conceived especially for the Neue Nationalgalerie, is about personal and social borderline experiences. He's one of my favorite experimental jazz musicians. The way he plays his saxophone makes his concerts always cathartic. I won’t miss this opportunity.

Unsettling Sounds – Iran & Afghanistan
Saturday, 14.09, 8 - 9:15 pm. ACUD Theater Berlin, Veteranenstrasse 21, 10119 Berlin, Mitte. Ticket: 5€.
“Unsettling Sounds” blends contemporary music with poetry from Iran and Afghanistan. Featuring the 🎧 Trickster Orchestra and works by five female poets, the event explores themes of freedom and exile from a female perspective.

Xiaolin (Olivia Mok) - Photo Source Facebook

Portals
Thursday, 12.09, 8 pm - 2 am. Kwia, Maybachufer 16, 12047 Berlin. Ticket: 12€.
"Portals" is an ode to the romance of emotionally charged live sets and experimental listening sessions. 🎧 Gabrielle Rose

17 Years Renate - 7 Floors - 60 Hours Birthday Party
Fri-Mon, 13-16.09, 5 pm - 8 am. Renate, Alt Stralau 70; Friedrichshain. Tickets: 11/38,50€.
One of Berlin’s most iconic clubs is throwing a weekend party for its 17th anniversary. With the sad news that Renate is closing next year, it’s the perfect time to celebrate its almost 20-year history. 🎧 Vio PRG

Sound Metaphors 9th Anniversary
Friday, 13.09, 10 pm - 8 am. Berghain/Panorama Bar, 70 Am Wriezener Bahnhof; Friedrichshain.
Sound Metaphors is celebrating 9 years with a big party taking over the dance floors at Berghain and Panorama Bar. 🎧 Xiaolin

1-06 Art Week Secret After Party
Saturday, 14.09, 6 pm - 3 am. Wilhelminenhofstr. 66, 12459 Berlin. Ticket: 17€.
Secret, but not too secret. A techno and electro party to celebrate Berlin Art Week, with exhibitions and performances throughout the night.

Toy Tonics Metro Jam
Saturday, 14.09, 11 pm - 8 am. U-Bahnhof Schlesisches Tor. Tickets: 16,95/22,60€.
We’re more curious about the venue than the party itself, but we always have a great time at Toy Tonics. If you’re into house and disco, this party is for you. 🎧 Anna Schreit

Los Días Afuera/ The Days Out There by Lola Arias

Vortex by MXM – Mirella Brandi and Muep Etmo
Fri-Sat, 13-14.09, 8 pm. English Theatre Berlin, Fidicinstrasse 40, 10965 Berlin. Ticket: 17,60€.
The MXM Duo takes us on a journey through Mirella Brandi’s stunning light art and Muep Etmo’s music. Their new piece reimagines contemporary compositions for piano and light, creating a true sensory masterpiece you won’t want to miss!

Los días afuera / The Days Out There by Lola Arias
Berlin Premiere: Saturday 14.09; Sunday 15.09 7:30 pm. In Spanish with German & English surtitles, Maxim-Gorki-Theater, Am Festungsgraben 2 10117 Berlin. Tickets: 12€-40€.
Lola Arias, winner of the prestigious International Ibsen Prize in 2024, blends voguing and cumbia melodies in an ode to freedom. She is one of the most important directors of documentary theater today. This play is the second part of a diptych, following the film REAS, which premiered at this year’s Berlinale.

Kleiner Mann - was nun? (Little Man, What Now?) by Hans Fallada Directed by Frank Castorf
Premiere: Saturday, 14.09, 7 pm, Sunday; 15.09, 6 pm. In German. Berliner Ensemble. Bertolt-Brecht-Platz 1, 10117 Berlin. Tickets: 16€ to 50€.
Marriage and woes of Johannes Pinneberg, employee, loses his job, gets a new job, and becomes permanently unemployed. One among six million, a nothing, and what this nothing feels, thinks, and experiences." The question "What now?" from the novel's title "Little Man, What Now?" was historically answered by National Socialists' seizure of power. Fallada's answer to the question of how much impact humaneness can have in a mass society is a utopian notion.

Gisèle Vienne - This Causes Consciousness to Fracture – A Puppet Play

Berlin Art Week Special

This week marks the beginning of Berlin Art Week, this year's most important art event in the city. With more than 30 exhibition openings, galleries opening their doors until 10 pm on Friday, and a diverse program of activities, it’s hard to choose where to begin. You can check out our Berlin Art Week Special here.

If you enjoy visiting private collections, here’s a list of collectors who are opening their collections to the public.

Gisèle Vienne - This Causes Consciousness to Fracture – A Puppet Play
Wednesday, 11.09, 7 - 10 pm. 12-14-15.09, 11 am - 6 pm. 13.09, 11 am - 8 pm. Exhibition until 12.01.2025. Haus am Waldsee, Argentinische Allee, 30, 14163 Berlin. Ticket: 5/8€.
Gisèle Vienne’s exhibition showcases her unique exploration of adolescence, counterculture, and childhood fears using puppets, masks, and mixed media, blending theatre and visual art. The program extends to the Georg Kolbe Museum and includes a film screening and artist talk “Gisèle Vienne with Florentina Holzinger” at Sophiensæle.

Sarah Ancelle Schönfeld: Labor Lab
Wednesday, 11.09, 6 - 10 pm. 12-13.09, 1 - 7 pm; 14-15.09, 11 am - 7 pm. Schering Stiftung, Unter den Linden 32—34, 10117 Berlin. Free admission.
Sarah Ancelle Schönfeld’s solo exhibition features an experimental photo series using hormones, breast milk, and other substances on film negatives to explore themes of female reproduction and control mechanisms through striking visual forms.

50 Für Bad
Wednesday, 11.09, 6 - 9 pm. 12.09, 12 - 5 pm; 13-15.09, 12 - 8 pm. Fluss Bad Berlin at Bauakademie, Schinkelplatz 1, 10117 Berlin. Free admission.
"50 Für Bad Berlin" will present works by mostly Berlin-based artists and architects who show solidarity with the objectives of the Fluss Bad Berlin project and the team behind it. The artists and architects involved in the exhibition include Rosa Barba, Elmgreen Dragset, Simon Fujiwara, Katharina Grosse, Raumlabor, Shirin Sabahi, Karin Sander, Wolfgang Tillmans, Haegue Yang, and others.

Pier Paolo Pasolini. Porcili
Wednesday 11.09 6 pm. Until 10.11Tue–Sun 12–6 pm, Thu 12–6 pm  Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) Chausseestrasse 128 / 129 10115 Berlin. Free Admission.
The exhibition Pier Paolo Pasolini. Porcili at explores the “corpo” (body) of Pasolini through a rich array of original materials, including photographs, films, newspapers, books, and film costumes. It traces his work and ideas, highlighting the visionary life and career of the director, poet, and thinker.

Lydia Lunch. Sounds: Connecting Sound and Space
Thursday, 12.09, 6 - 7 pm. Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum Garden. Free admission.
Lydia Lunch performs live at Marianna Simnett’s “WINNER” exhibition, merging punk vocals with dance and football themes.​

Candida Höfer - Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2024
Friday 13.09 6 pm. Until 24.11 Tue – Fri 2 – 7 pm, Sat, Sun 11 am – 7 pm. Akademie der Künste Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin. Tickets: 10€
Candida Höfer’s oeuvre has developed over five decades and is part of today’s photographic avant-garde. Her large-format works depict public and semi-public spaces like historical libraries, archives, storage facilities, palaces, museums, opera houses, zoos, and other buildings – places where people meet and communicate, places of memory and knowledge, relaxation, and recreation. 

Ghost Image - curated by Krist Gruijthuijsen
Until 02.11 Tue – Sat 11 am – 6 pm. Galerie Judin, Potsdamer Strasse, 83, 10785 Berlin.
Group exhibition curated by parting KW director Krist Gruijthuijsen. The exhibition Ghost Image takes the example of Hervé Guibert’s intimacy with his mother as a starting point to question the representation of the self beyond the grasp of an image, one that is fueled by the depiction of memory and loss and rendered through the lens of painting. 

Other:
'Ξὑλͻgяάφ: The Post-Human Condition' Vernissage
Thursday, 12.09, 7 - 10 pm. Galerie Sara Lily Perez, Budapester Str. 48 10787 Berlin -Bikini Berlin 1.OG.
I'm curious about this exhibition because I enjoy exploring how art can push the boundaries of human perception by blending light, sound, and technology to create an immersive experience. With Hans Kotter, Ralf Baecker, Christoph Bauer, Robert Henke.

La Part Maudite – Collective Exhibition
Thursday, 12.09, 6 pm. Until 22.09. Fri-Sat, 2 - 6 pm. We Are Village, Kurfürstenstrasse 31/32, 10785 Berlin. Free Admission. 
La Part Maudite (The Accursed Share), by Georges Bataille, explores how excess and spending impact society. This exhibition examines these themes—eroticism, waste, power, and rituals—through queer identities. Curated by Nicholé Velásquez and Eric Le Rouge.

filmPOLSKA Berlin 2024
From 11.09 until 18.09. Various locations.
filmPOLSKA is Germany’s leading Polish film festival. Discover new and classic Polish films, watch short films like HER Docs, and enjoy an exhibition by Oscar winner Allan Starski, plus masterclasses and a festival party.

Reading & book signing featuring Lydia Lunch and Travis Jeppesen
Friday, 13.09, 7:30 pm. Ivallan’s Books, Schönleinstrasse 32, 10967 Berlin.
Lydia will be reading from Paradoxia: A Predator’s Diary; Travis will read from The Suiciders. Limited copies of both authors’ books will be available for purchase on a first-come, first-serve basis. The bookstore has limited capacity – please arrive early to secure a seat.  

Flohmarkt & Open Studios
Sunday, 15.09, 10 am - 6 pm. Uferhallen, Uferstrasse, 8-11, Wedding. Free admission.
Uferhallen artists invite you to the neighborhood flea market on the forecourt this Sunday, as part of Berlin Art Week and Open Studios. Bring your table or blanket to participate for free; limited tables are available for a small fee. No stand fees!

Blue Lobster Art Market
Sunday, 15.09, 1 - 7 pm. Soho House, Torstrasse, 1, Mitte. RSVP here - free admission.
Bluelobster Art transforms Soho House Berlin into an exclusive market, showcasing diverse works by top Berlin-based artists, music, and drinks. Non-members are welcome.

Queer Ping Pong 
Sunday, 15.09, 1 - 8 pm. Gropius Bau. Free admission.
As part of Rirkrit Tiravanija’s solo exhibition, eight table tennis tables are set up in the atrium. Rackets and balls are provided so that everyone can play. #BerlinArtWeek