Save Land. United for Land
6 December 2024 to 1 June 2025
Our soils take up to hundreds of years to form. But one extreme event is enough to deplete soil in a matter of minutes. We are degrading 100 million hectares of healthy and productive lands each year; an area roughly three times the size of Germany. Land restoration is of the utmost urgency not only for ourselves, but also for biodiversity and the world’s climate. Land is of existential importance for our lives, and it is a treasure of immeasurable value that must be preserved.
The immersive exhibition Save Land was developed in partnership with the UNCCD-G20 Global Land Initiative. It brings together insightful contemporary art positions with exhibits from the natural sciences and uses the latest media technologies to understand the global situation of land. What is the state of our soils in cities and on agricultural and industrial land? And is there any untouched nature left on Earth? What can we do to protect our soils? The exhibition aims to inspire action for the common good.
An exhibition organised by the Bundeskunsthalle and the UNCCD-G20 Global Land Initiative to mark the 30th anniversary of the UNCCD
Dance Worlds
27 September 2024 to 16 February 2025
Even in the earliest cultures, dance was an important part of rituals, ceremonies, festivals and entertainment. It may also have played a central role in the transmission of stories before they were recorded in writing.
The exhibition presents dance as a global form of representation and expression. It does not tell the history of dance, but shows multi-perspective interweaving stories. It does not follow a chronological line, but highlights dance as an essential part of our existence under thematic aspects. This means a concept that transcends time and space and the inclusion of many dance forms.
Since dance rarely stands alone, the exhibition also looks at its many connections to other art forms. The exhibits range from dance representations in early cultures to modern visual arts and examples of contemporary dance.
Mark Dion. Delirious Toys
A Wunderkammer of Toys
8 September 2024 to 9 February 2025
For the 2023 art autumn, the US artist Mark Dion has created a work of art from objects in the toy collection of the Stadtmuseum Berlin, which was first on display at the Museum Nikolaikirche in Berlin. With hundreds of exhibits, his installations not only transcend space and time, but also take a critical look at children's toys themselves.
For the exhibition, Mark Dion spent months researching the collection of around 70,000 objects, one of the largest in Germany. The result is a kind of labyrinth of board games; a pyramid of animals, a circuit with an imaginary race between vehicles of all kinds and other installations. Dolls, military toys and a “poison cabinet” with borderline or cross-border toys are also on display in the exhibition.
Interactions 2024
1 May to 27 October 2024
Admission free
In 2023, the Bundeskunsthalle has organised a summer programme of interactions, play and visual and acoustic impulses around the building, complementing the existing artworks in the outdoor space: the Circular Appearing Rooms water pavilion by Jeppe Hein, which presents itself in the square every summer, the Bonn Slide by Carsten Höller, which winds around its own axis up the façade, and The Curve by Bettina Pousttchi, which is also dedicated to movement.
Interactions 2024 will once again occupy various places in the public space of the Bundeskunsthalle: from the roof to the foyer to the inner courtyard and the forecourt, selected artworks, performances or workshops will be offered that invite interactive play, but also deal with visual languages, music or sound as a cross-border and universal form of communication. This year, works by Gabriel Lester, Temitayo Ogunbiyi and Esra Gülmen, among others, will be added.
Artists
FAMED, Esra Gülmen, Jeppe Hein, Carsten Höller, Tomas Kleiner, Gabriel Lester, LIGNA, Jonas Lund, Linda Nadji, Olaf Nicolai, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Finnegan Shannon, Clare Strand
All in! Re-Designing Democracy
30 May to 13 October 2024
Does democracy need an update? Have we relied too long on the notion that nothing can shake it? The thing about democracy is that it only exists if we keep working at it. In a world that changes every day, it needs to be kept fit. It is thus high time to strengthen our democratic muscles!
Visitors will experience first-hand what it means to be empathetic, to show perseverance, or to negotiate compromises. All In! Re-Designing Democracy explores the current social desire for greater participation and inclusion as well as traditional forms of democracy. How has democracy been fought for in the past, how has equality and freedom been fought for? In addition to art and design, the exhibition will feature exhibits from the history of political culture, as well as from architecture, film, and photography.
The exhibition in cooperation with the Kunstgewerbemuseum/Design Campus, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, will be an excursion to the turning points of history, to the beginnings and landmarks of democracy, as well as a bold speculation towards the future: What will the democracy of tomorrow look like?
Kengo Kuma. Onomatopoeia Architecture
8 March to 1 September 2024
In Japanese, onomatopoeia often consist of double syllables, the doubling of which in turn makes the language sound. The internationally renowned architect uses onomatopoeia to categorise his projects, and as a design language from early conception: from the selection of the materials to the construction of the entire buidling. In doing so, he is guided less by rational decisions than by working from the substance of the material.
The exhibition presents around two dozen models of some of the Japanese architect's most important buildings. Starting from onomatopoeia, the invention or use of words that contain sounds associated with what is named, Kengo Kuma gives a physical sensation a form that expresses his idea of sustainable architecture, in which materials are reused and people and physical things are reconnected.
„Images in Mind, Bodies in Space“ – Franz Erhard Walther
22 March to 28 July 2024
Due to its continuing actuality and relevance for contemporary art and also in honour of his 85th birthday, the Bundeskunsthalle is planning a major survey exhibition on the work of Franz Erhard Walther (*1939) for the year 2024. The art-historical significance of his work is undisputed.
The exhibition in cooperation with the Franz Erhard Walther Foundation will present a concentrated, representative selection of action-based works as well as drawings "as an interior view" from different periods. Film documents, including new recordings on site, also document the temporality of the various actions / activations by the artist and the participants. Some exhibits in the exhibition, as well as specially made 'exhibition copies', can be activated. Through the interaction between body and object, each person becomes part of the artwork.
