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.
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.
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
Programme 2025 – Preview
“Sustainability is a central issue of our time and at the same time one of the greatest challenges of our future. With and through art and culture, the most important questions of the moment can be asked, visualized and negotiated. The task of creating a world worth living in for future generations can only be achieved by society as a whole.” (Intendant Eva Kraus)
Not only science, but also numerous artists and designers are increasingly dedicating themselves to the transformative potential of their work with regard to sustainable future strategies. As a federal institution, the Bundeskunsthalle has joined the concerns of the United Nations 2030 Agenda with its 17 sustainability goals. We are working increasingly on our in-house operational ecology, but also on a programmatic orientation on the topic of sustainability for the 2025/26 exhibition years. In 2025 we will manifest the topic through numerous exhibition projects in the fields of arts & science, cultural history and architecture. For example, we deal with land renaturation, historical ways of life, building the future or exploring the world's oceans. These themes accompany many varied artistic, interactive and immersive installations in and around the house.
