With the exhibition ‘A Home for Something Unknown’, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) and Haus am Lützowplatz present works by 27 international artists living in Berlin who were awarded the Berlin Senate 2023 visual arts work stipend.
© Emeka Okereke
The twofold increase in the number of artists receiving this scholarship, as well as the heightened international representation of recipients compared to previous years, underscore Berlin’s deep commitment to fostering and celebrating the visual arts within its vibrant cultural landscape. For the first time, the group show is spread across two exhibition venues, offering a diverse range of individual approaches to social phenomena and providing insight into Berlin’s contemporary art scene. Working with mediums such as video, sound, painting, sculpture, installation and performance, the artists reflect on various forms of coexistence, examining the underlying structures and narratives.
The collection of traces and signs – employing poetic, documentary, or archive-based practices – stands out as one of the exhibition’s overarching themes. It illustrates a shared desire to reveal fissures, ambivalences, and power imbalances in everyday life. The question of self-image holds central importance, as artists take on the role of historian, archaeologist, or mediator, shaping their reference systems through diverse disciplines and perspectives. What unites these artistic contributions is their deliberate unveiling of suppressed forms of knowledge, overlooked places, or marginalised voices. As the title ‘A Home for Something Unknown’ suggests, the term “home” represents less a division between inside and outside or familiarity and otherness, but rather a longing to discover a space for sensations and ideas that might otherwise remain unnoticed.
Artists: Yalda Afsah, Taslima Ahmed, Douglas Boatwright, Yvon Chabrowski, Beth Collar, Armin Lorenz Gerold, Rosanna Graf, Line Skywalker Karlström, Mazen Kerbaj, Dina Khouri, Bob Kil, Bitsy Knox, Vera Lutz, Katharina Mercedes Marszewski, José Montealegre, Marcela Moraga, Christophe Ndabananiye, Lucas Odahara, Emeka Okereke, Mooni Perry, Shirin Sabahi, Romana Schmalisch & Robert Schlicht, Mohammad Shawky Hassan, Paola Yacoub, Bassem Yousri, Sati Zech.
The exhibition is on view until the 28th of April, 2024. For more information, please visit n.b.k.
