The Disappearance of Music

“Traditional” instruments are losing their importance; tracks can be made digitally and easily on laptops and smartphones. How does this change music, how does it change the live experience? And how are musicians dealing with the disappearance of concerts during the pandemic? In November and December, the digital festival revolves around these questions with concert videos, talks and an interactive streaming platform.

Aby Warburg: Bilderatlas Mnemosyne

From the ancient world to the Renaissance until contemporary culture: Aby Warburg’s Bilderatlas Mnemosyne traces visual themes across entire eras. His approach pushed the boundaries of disciplines and is still an inspiration for today’s visually and digitally dominated world. An exhibition almost completely reproduces the last documented version of his unfinished magnum opus of 1929 with the original images.

The Broken Archive: Visual Politics of (Im-)Mobility

The vacation snapshot of a Renaissance city square and the newspaper photo of refugees on a beach: the images of Italy spread by the media could hardly be more irreconcilable. In an interview, the art historian Costanza Caraffa, the photographers Massimo Ricciardo and Mohamed Keita, and the photographer and filmmaker Armin Linke analyze visual politics and how they are instrumentalized for national narratives.

The Whole Life Academy Berlin

How can archives be decolonialized to reveal marginalized narratives? In April 2021, The Whole Life Academy will test collaborative forms of knowledge production in archives. Students and doctoral candidates from the arts, humanities and natural sciences as well as artists, activists and experts from collections can now apply to take part in workshops.

The Current – Mississippi. An Anthropocene River

The Mississippi river landscape is a textbook example of how geological and settlement history, politics and economics, the bio- and technosphere interlock in the Anthropocene. As part of The Shape of a Practice, an installation shows field research by artists, scientists and activists who are developing local approaches to today’s planetary crises along the river.

shape.anthropocene-curriculum.org

Pixels, shapes and structures show connecting paths in Anthropocene research: In a virtual landscape specially developed for The Shape of a Practice, visitors can access research materials, interactively walk through the installation and follow presentations, screenings and talks with artists.

Aby Warburg: Bilderatlas Mnemosyne

View the Atlas from home: Warburg’s chief work can now be explored in a virtual 3D tour. Remote visitors can click their way through the exhibitions at HKW and the Gemäldegalerie, access research about the encyclopedic picture collection via films with the curators and forge their own pathways through art history.

Interrogating the Atlas

Aby Warburg’s life’s work is a legend that may be contradicted. In a video series on the exhibition, curators Roberto Ohrt and Axel Heil and scholars such as Claudia Wedepohl and Erhard Schüttpelz interrogate his Bilderatlas and offer a kaleidoscope of interpretations.

HKW Friends

Free admission to exhibitions, discounted tickets for selected events, previews and looks behind the scenes: HKW Friends explore the present together and get up close to contemporary art production. Become part of the community or gift a membership!

Sustainable Culture

How can cultural production be made more sustainable? HKW considers ecological aspects in all its processes, both in planning and implementing events and in use of the building. The Haus has been EMAS certified since 2013 and successfully fulfills the criteria of the system of sustainable environmental management.

Dictionary of Now

Democracy Lectures

The New Alphabet

The Anthropocene at HKW

Gezeitendenken

Edited by Katrin Klingan, Nanna Heidenreich and Rana Dasgupta, 2020
What forms of political organization are possible beyond national structures? The final volume of the 100 Years of Now Library questions the nation state system, investigates how its mechanisms structure today’s world order and encourages looking beyond its boundaries.

Aby Warburg: Bilderatlas Mnemosyne – The Original

In the 1920s, Aby Warburg created his Bilderatlas Mnemosyne which in the modern art and visual studies has taken on mythical status. The volume gathers the 63 plates – newly photographed from the original images, along with essays by Roberto Ohrt, Axel Heil, Bernd Scherer, Bill Sherman and Claudia Wedepohl.

New Alphabet School

How does language influence thought? How can we develop other forms of learning and acting? From the politics of translation to practices of weaving: Speakers and workshop participants from the New Alphabet School share their questions, observations and studies on solidary practices of knowledge production on the blog.

Wörterbuch der Gegenwart

Ed. by Bernd Scherer, Olga von Schubert and Stefan Aue, 2019
What comes after universalism? The volume uses key words such as Thing, Justice and Body to ask about ways to redesign the world linguistically and visually. With new and historical contributions by, among others, Philippe Descola, Nikita Dhawan, Liz Johnson Artur, Achille Mbembe, Sarah Sharma and Wole Soyinka.