Memory Is a Strange Bell

In the organizer's words:

The Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) and Künstlerhaus Bethanien are jointly presenting works by artists who were awarded the Berlin Senate's 2025 Visual Arts Scholarship. The exhibition will be realized in parallel in both houses and brings together international artistic positions by artists living and working in Berlin. It once again highlights the central role that reliable funding structures play in the production and communication of contemporary art.

The positions on display combine an examination of social, political and historical issues with a critical reflection on power relations, norms and ideologies. Using a broad spectrum of aesthetic approaches and media - including video, sound, photography, painting, drawing, installation and performance - the works negotiate different, sometimes contradictory spaces of experience and reality. They address visible and invisible power structures that determine individual and collective perception in both physical and digital space and shape the canonization of knowledge and cultural forms.

Other works revolve around the phenomena of memory - its processual nature, fragility and inherent ambivalence. The title of the exhibition also refers to this, inspired by a line from a letter from the American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) to her sister: "Memory is a strange Bell -Jubilee, and Knell". In the metaphor of the bell ringing, which marks both joy and loss, memory becomes legible as an ambivalent, dynamic process - not as a strategic fixation, but as an ongoing, complex movement. At the same time, the quote alludes to a present characterized by paradoxical tensions, a constant oscillation between multiple crises and the pursuit of progress and growth.

exhibitions

Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Kottbusser Str. 10, 10999 Berlin
Opening: March 19, 2026, 7 pm
Duration: March 20 - May 17, 2026
Artists: İpek Burçak, Olga Monina, Ania Nowak, Niclas Riepshoff, Max Schaffer, Alina Schmuch, Antje Taubert, Sergio Zevallos
Curator: Antje Weitzel

Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Chausseestraße 128/129, 10115 Berlin
Opening: March 13, 2026, 7 pm
Duration: March 14-May 3, 2026
Artists: Nadja Buttendorf, Markus Draper, Martin Eberle, Noi Fuhrer, Shaun Motsi, Leonie Nagel
Curator: Lidiya Anastasova
www.nbk.org

A project by Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) in cooperation with Künstlerhaus Bethanien.

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