For Berlin Art Week 2025, more than 100 exhibition venues, museums, private collections, galleries, and project spaces invite you to explore contemporary art across the city.
Alongside the major museums and exhibition halls, numerous smaller galleries will be showcasing fresh and exciting exhibitions. A diverse supporting programme of guided tours, performances, music, talks, and much more also awaits you.
And because the choice can be overwhelming, we’ve selected 11 highlights you won’t want to miss.
Tip: Many of the exhibitions will remain on view beyond the official Berlin Art Week dates of 10–14 September 2025.
Tip 1: Plan your tour in the BAW Garden at Hamburger Bahnhof
This year, Hamburger Bahnhof will serve as the central meeting point of Berlin Art Week—free and open to all! With its vibrant open-air programme featuring DJ sets, talks, film screenings, hands-on workshops, and culinary highlights, the Berlin Art Week Garden (BAW) is a true festival highlight. It’s the perfect place to kick off your art week, meet friends, and map out your personal route through the events and exhibitions.
At Hamburger Bahnho, you can also experience the first major solo exhibition of Petrit Halilaj. Deeply shaped by his experiences during the war in Kosovo, Halilaj’s artistic practice explores themes of collective memory and resistance. At the heart of the exhibition is his opera, created in collaboration with the Kosovo Philharmonic Orchestra, complemented by striking installations and sculptures from earlier phases of his career.
When:
Festival garden: 11-15 September, all day
Petrit Halilaj exhibition: 11 September 2025 - 31 May 2026
Guided tours & talk:
10. September, 12-13 pm (In Conversation with Petrit Halilaj)
13. September, 3-4 pm (Guided tour of the restoration of the works at Hamburger Bahnhof, in German)
Where: Invalidenstraße 50-51, Mitte
Tip 2: Celebrate new spaces for art at the Featured Night
For Featured Night on Friday, Berlin will become a city-wide stage for art, culture and experiments: many independent, small initiatives, project spaces and special projects will open their doors for you late into the evening. The somewhat different art and free spaces in the city will be featured. Look forward to performances, talks, installations, parties and guided tours - in backyards, studios and unusual places, such as the Falscher Fisch city laboratory (Ziegrastraße 1), the unrenovated Remise in the Wrangelkiez neighbourhood (Wrangelstraße 52) or the Alte Feuerwache at Tempelhof Airport.
When: Friday, 12 September 2025, 6pm-10pm
Where: Venues all over the city - from Mitte to the districts (exact programmes will be communicated via the Berlin Art Week platform from August)
Tip 3: Question power and aesthetics at Global Fascism
Global Fascisms is a combined exhibition and research project that scrutinises the aesthetic, social and political dynamics of fascism and calls for an intensive examination of one of the most pressing issues of our time. Around fifty international artists present new perspectives on the rise of fascist ways of thinking in painting, film, performance and digital formats - and place historical works in exciting dialogues with the present.
The exhibition opens our eyes to how seductive the visual language and authoritarian aesthetics can be. At the same time, the mechanisms behind them are exposed and art is positioned as an active counterforce.
When: 13 September to 7 December 2025; opening 12 September 2025 6 pm
Where: House of World Cultures (HKW), John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, Mitte
Tip 4: Become part of the artwork at Perform! 2025 and become part of the artwork
With the fourth edition of PERFORM!, the Neue Nationalgalerie is bringing international performance art to life in the centre of Berlin. To this end, well-known and new performance pieces will be staged on the freely accessible terrace of the Neue Nationalgalerie. Participation in all performances is free of charge:
Joan Jonas - Mirror Piece I & II: This work by the US-American performance pioneer from 1969 is about perception, identity and gender roles. You, the audience, are taken into the mirror and become part of the performance.
When: 10-13 September, 17:15-17:45; 14 September, 16:15-16:45
Isaac Chong Wai - Falling Reversely was last shown at the Venice Biennale. By letting themselves fall backwards together, the performers stage a ritual that transforms vulnerability into collective strength.
When: Saturday, 13 September, from 3 pm (tbc)
vAL: Bellied is a new commissioned work in which the performer moves through the audience with mirror pieces in search of fragments of thought.
When: Saturday, 13 September, from 3pm (tbc)
Yoko Ono's Bells for Peace campaign invites you all to ring the bells for peace together on"Tag im Grünen". The collective sound action follows the public performance in Manchester in 2019 and aims to set an example of solidarity and community. Bring your own bell or borrow one on site.
When: Sunday, 14 September, 16:45-17:15
Where: Terrace Neue Nationalgalerie
When: 10 to 14 September
Where: Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, Mitte
Tip 5: Buy & discover art at the Positions Berlin Art Fair
Ready for great art in an extraordinary setting? Then head to the POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair in Hangar 7 of the former Tempelhof Airport. From 11 to 14 September, 75 galleries from 19 countries will present their most exciting positions in modern and contemporary art - this year with a special focus on Japan. The light-flooded halls with 16 metre high ceilings create space for inspiring encounters with art, artists and collectors. Once again this year, selected Berlin fashion designers will be presenting their work. and you can delve deeper into the art and collector scene in the daily changing supporting programme with special exhibitions, award ceremonies and talks.
Tip: For the opening on Thursday, 11 September 2025, there will be a big opening party from 9 pm.
When: 11 to 14 September 2025
Where: Tempelhof Airport - Hangar 7, Tempelhofer Damm 45, Tempelhof
Positions
Tip 6: Experience visionary sound art at Cank with "Dead God Flow" & "Foundations"
Following the successful large-scale installation "We felt a star dying" at Berlin's Kraftwerk, the LAS Art Foundation will be performing at Neukölln's Cank during Berlin Art Week. The former department stores' from the 1950s in Neukölln will become a spectacular backdrop for "Dead God Flow". Christelle Oyiri takes you on a journey to Memphis, Tennessee in this expansive Gesamtkunstwerk of video, sound and atmospheric staging. Central to this is the film"Hauntology of an OG" (picture), in which reflections and memories of resistance and trauma become a comprehensible experience - accompanied by a soundtrack of selected Memphis rap.
Parallel to this, the CEL collective invites you to performances, DJ nights and discourse formats with the "Foundations" event series.
When: from 11 September, Opening Christelle Oyiri's Dead God Flow: 10 September 18-22 h (admission free), opening party Foundations: 11 September, 9 pm
Where: Anzengruberstraße 25, Neukölln
Tip 7: Celebrate 25 years of C/O and find out where art takes you
The exhibition "Nothing is Original" sheds light on 30 years of Julian Rosefeldt's artistic work. His works move between narrative film and video art, between fiction and documentary. He likes to quote from cultural and film history, plays with media stereotypes and thus provides insights behind the scenes of the myth machine that is cinema. In addition to his iconic video installations, unpublished storyboards, sketches and making-of material can also be seen for the first time. The title, borrowed from Jim Jarmusch, summarises Rosefeldt's way of working: "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to."
Tip: Admission is free to the Open House on Saturday, 13 September. You can enjoy the summer evening with music and drinks until 10 pm. The highlight is the Sneak Peak at 6.30 pm, where Julian Rosefeldt will present his new film project together with curator Sophia Greiff. Registration required.
When:
Exhibition: 24 May - 16 September 2025
Open House: Saturday, 13 September 2025, 3-10 pm (sneak preview: 6:30 pm)
Where: Hardenbergstraße 22-24, Charlottenburg
Tip 8: "Soft Power" at Haus der Visionäre redefines the concept of the gallery
With "Soft Power", gallery owner and curator Anahita Sadighi invites you to engage with the topic of the Iranian women's rights movement. The Tehran-born Berliner combines sound art, feminist remembrance culture and ritual practice to create a sensual and political space of experience. The scenarios, performances and rituals develop around the centrally exhibited Persian amphorae (clay jars) from the 16th to 19th centuries. Music and floral installations become symbols of "soft power", i.e. feminine resistance and resilience.
The Haus der Visionäre at the Arena (picture: outdoor area and bathing boat) was deliberately chosen as a venue from the Berlin club scene .
Tip: On Friday, the exhibition invites you to an artistic club night with music and performances until 4am with "The Loft". The aim is to inspire exchange through a shared experience. Admission: 20 euros
When: 10-14 September 2025, 12 - 7 pm, Friday 12 - 4 am
Where: House of Visionaries, Eichenstraße 4A, Kreuzberg
Tip 9: Toast at openings on Gallery Night
As part of Berlin Art Week, the organisers of Gallery Weekend invite you to a Gallery Night. On Thursday, around 50 of the most important galleries throughout Berlin will open their doors for a long night. You can discover new exhibitions on your tour across the city until 10 pm and talk directly to artists and gallery owners at openings and parties. Some galleries combine their openings with DJs and drinks, making Gallery Night a mixture of art tour and party.
When: Thursday, 11 September 6 - 10 pm
Where: Around 50 galleries in Berlin
Tip 10: Lockdownbeats documents the clubs going silent
Since 2024, Berlin’s clubs have been recognized as UNESCO cultural heritage. Yet just one year later, many are facing closure or fighting for survival. With Lockdownbeats, Berlin photographer Carsten Schulz captures the sudden silencing of a city whose nightlife once pulsed without pause. The series began with images of clubs closed during the pandemic—rendered through Schulz’s lens as lost, almost forgotten spaces. Complementing these are portraits of resident DJs, depicted in solitude, absent of the crowds that once celebrated them.
Set against the backdrop of mounting economic pressure on the cultural scene, Schulz’s work emerges as a haunting testament to the fragility of this ecosystem.
Note: The image above is not by Carsten Schulz but shows SchwuZ in Berlin. For 50 years one of Europe’s largest queer clubs, SchwuZ has now filed for insolvency. Learn how you can support the club at schwuz.de.
When: 10 September to 1 November 2025, vernissage: 10 September 6-10 pm
Where: Janine Bean Gallery, Torstraße 154, Mitte
Tip 11: Take an art trip to Reinickendorf to the Wilhelm Hallen
The impressive Wilhelm Hallen in Reinickendorf are opening their doors again for Berlin Art Week 2025. Under the title "Hallen 06", over 50 artists from Berlin galleries and collections will present their works on a huge 9,000 square metre space. Contemporary art in all its facets will be presented against the historic backdrop of the industrial halls - from painting and installation to performance. Works from a wide range of Berlin galleries and collections will be brought together, from Alexander Levy, the Berlinische Galerie, ChertLüdde and Mehdi Chouakri to works from the Kunsthalle Giessen and the Kunsthalle Praha.
When: 6-14 September 2025, all day
Where: Wilhelm Hallen, Kopenhagener Straße 60-68, Reinickendorf
