Kreuzberg: Kunst und Migration seit 1960

Nowhere were the social and cultural changes in West Germany more powerfully manifested than in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighbourhood. Here, the transformations reshaping life in the Federal Republic through labour recruitment agreements with countries such as Italy, Greece and Turkey played out on a local scale. The group exhibition Kreuzberg: Kunst und Migration seit 1960 (Art and Migration since 1960) presents artistic perspectives on migration, work and life in the district that is also home to Gropius Bau.

Around 130 works address the core experiences of the so-called guest workers and subsequent generations; rarely shown historical artworks enter into dialogue with pieces created specifically for the exhibition. They explore migration, exile, housing crisis, racism and exclusion – as well as resistance, empowerment, solidarity and community.

The exhibition highlights both continuities and changes, making Kreuzberg visible as a space of artistic possibility – a place where lived experiences of migration, gender and class were transformed into images, voices and stances that continue to resonate in the present.

With works by Alexis Akrithakis, Mehmet Aksoy, Atiye Altül, Ararat‑Verlag, Eduardo Arroyo, Paolo Baratella, Akbar Behkalam, Kaya Behkalam, Cecilia Boisier, Vlassis Caniaris, Nuray Demir, Grazia Eminente, Kerem Ergün, Harun Farocki, Mathèos Florakis, Esther Friedman, Abuzer Güler, Sarah Haffner, Kim Min-ki / Lee Hye-kyung, Azade Köker, Evelyn Kuwertz, Stathis Logothetis, Colette Lumiere, Mihály Moldvay, Mehrangis Montazami-Dabui, Pınar Öğrenci, Aras Ören und Friedrich Wilhelm Zimmermann, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Eduardo Paolozzi, Minh Duc Pham, Caroline Pinger, Jannis Psychopedis, Aykan Safoğlu, Ludmila Seefried‑Matějková, Sohrab Shahid Saless, Monika Sieveking, Antonio Skármeta, Hyun-Sook Song, Metin Talayman, Filiz Taşkın, Evanthia Tsantila, Mehmet Ünal, Natascha Ungeheuer, Irena Vrkljan, Hanefi Yeter and Serpil Yeter