VOM SEHEN UND GESEHEN WERDEN 30 Jahre Karneval der Kulturen

In the organizer's words:

OF SEEING AND BEING SEEN 30 years of the Carnival of Cultures
A group exhibition with 14 artistic positions

May 13-26, 2026 | Studio 1, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin

Mon-Fri 2pm-8pm (day off 18.05)
Sat-Sun 12-20 h
Admission free of charge

The starting point of the exhibition is a central paradox: since its beginnings in 1996, the Carnival of Cultures has been a place of liberation in which the street is transformed into the city's largest stage. Bodies take up space and are allowed to be loud, and the community becomes the center of public life. At the same time, the carnival has established itself as a mirror of an exoticizing desire: a festival in which "cultures" or, worse still, nations present themselves, and which stages an idea of authenticity that is nothing more than the reflection of what is considered foreign and desirable. The Carnival of Cultures is an ambivalent event that serves two projection logics simultaneously: it is a space for self-expression and a space for the projection of the other. This ambivalence, with all its poles and contradictions, is what the exhibition deals with.

14 artists from different generations and with different experiences of the Carnival of Cultures were invited to present their artistic work in and outside the context of the KdK. They were invited as individual positions, not because they represent larger groups. It would be impossible to represent the thousands of artists who went through the carnival. These 14 positions speak in completely different artistic languages and formats: We are witnessing a boom in high culture and popular culture, the conceptual and the extravagant, the intimate and the spectacular. Together, these voices question regimes of the gaze and the slow, continuous work of existing and acting as a multidimensional diaspora.

Artistic positions: Bimal Fabbri, Coco Fusco, Guillermo Gómez-Peña & Paula Heredia, Mohamad Halbouni, Ikuku Berlin, Daniela Incoronato, Melissa Kurt, Joaquin La Habana, Fred Plassmann & Erika Martínez, Bassirou Sarr, Su-Ran Sichling, Murah Soares, Edmundo Torres, Nancy Torres, Luisa Ungar. Exhibition anteroom: Van Bo Le-Mentzel & Werkstatt für Alles. Curator: Juana Awad. Curatorial assistance: Mehtap Avci. Organizer: Piranha Arts AG.

Program: Come As You Are: a day of open practices
Sunday, May 17, 12:00 - 20:00, admission free of charge & possible at any time

The exhibition is funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion