Since opening in 1996 within the former terminal station of the Berlin-Hamburg railway, Hamburger Bahnhof has grow to be one of many main museums of up to date artwork in Berlin in addition to throughout Europe. Below the path of Sam Bardaouil and Until Fellrath, who took over in January 2022, the museum has embraced a dynamic, inclusive and forward-looking strategy, staging formidable exhibitions and commissions whereas increasing its position as a platform for in depth public programming. Throughout Berlin Artwork Week final month, Observer spoke with Bardaouil in regards to the museum’s evolution, its imaginative and prescient and the challenges of navigating a shifting cultural local weather in each the town and the nation as an entire, in addition to the alternatives to discover new fashions that will emerge from this second.
Bardaouil describes the programming at Hamburger Bahnhof as a “steady state of changing into”—by no means static, all the time porous. “It’s formed by artists who confront the urgencies of our time with the braveness of their creativeness,” he stated, pointing to the museum’s current exhibitions: Toyin Ojih Odutola, whose intimate explorations of displacement and belonging unfolded in an city setting impressed by the town, complicating notions of id and historical past; Korean artist Ayoung Kim, who examined fractured futures via time-based media and video game-inspired installations; Petrit Halilaj, who reworked private reminiscence into monumental sculpture and fragile poetry; and Delcy Morelos, whose visceral use of earth introduced ritual and resonance into modern debates. “These aren’t ornamental gestures,” Bardaouil emphasised, “however propositions for a way artwork can increase what we all know and the way we stay collectively.”
Since taking up the establishment, Bardaouil and Fellrath’s curatorial imaginative and prescient has been guided by a number of key priorities. First, they sought to create dialogues throughout time and geography—bringing collectively established figures and rising voices in ways in which dismantle hierarchies of canon and place. Second, they aimed to make use of the dimensions and structure of the historic constructing as a language, staging exhibitions that engulf, encompass and reconfigure how our bodies transfer via house. Third, they centered on constructing long-term relationships with numerous communities, growing packages centered on deep listening, sustained engagement and types of participation embedded within the establishment’s DNA. “If there may be one precept, it’s this: the museum should be stressed sufficient to stay alive to its second and dedicated sufficient to nurture lasting resonance past it,” Bardaouil said.
Whereas twin management and co-direction have gotten extra frequent in museums, it stays uncommon for a curatorial duo to guide an establishment as Bardaouil and Fellrath do. The 2 had already labored collectively for a few years via their multidisciplinary platform Artwork Reoriented, curating exhibitions throughout the globe earlier than this appointment. For Bardaouil, the best energy of the mannequin lies within the depth of collaboration but in addition within the variety between them. “Until and I come from completely different cultures, languages and formal coaching. That distinction just isn’t a legal responsibility however an asset. It signifies that for each exhibition, each program, a wider lens shapes each strategic resolution—the work turns into richer, the arguments deeper, the museum stronger.”
“When folks see two administrators working in dialogue, it units a precedent for non-hierarchical collaboration throughout departments,” Bardaouil added. “It fosters a tradition of humility and belief, slightly than ego and authority.” Right here, he quotes James Baldwin: “The world adjustments in response to the best way folks see it, and for those who can alter, even by a millimeter, the best way folks have a look at actuality, then you’ll be able to change it.” This mannequin, he believes, has allowed him and Fellrath to guide Berlin’s establishment by seeing otherwise, collectively, and by shaping a museum the place plurality just isn’t an afterthought however the basis of its energy.
A museum in a “steady state of changing into”
Below Bardaouil and Fellrath’s path, the museum launched a significant rehang titled “Museum in Movement: A Assortment for the twenty first Century,” reactivating the gathering as a residing, evolving presentation. “The title alerts the conviction {that a} museum should all the time be in flux, responding to and scary its atmosphere,” Bardaouil defined, stressing that museums ought to by no means be static repositories however integral components of society that should evolve alongside it. “To maintain the gathering alive is to maintain it shifting—via rotations, commissions that intersect with its holdings, and public packages that open the works to recent dialogue. Solely then does the gathering breathe as modern.”
Presenting ten large-scale works from the previous 25 years, together with a number of new acquisitions proven for the primary time, the exhibition not solely sparks new dialogues with modern audiences in regards to the historical past of artwork, but in addition invitations reflection and confrontation with the current historical past of each the nation and the continent. It brings collectively seminal works by Anne Imhof, Elmgreen & Dragset, Cevdet Erek, Manaf Halbouni, Maurizio Nannucci, Jasmin Werner, Ricarda Roggan, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Jeremy Shaw and David Zink Yi. “These works increase questions on the way forward for a museum for modern artwork: how should it adapt, what position can it play, and what challenges does it confront in an period of shifting demographics and technological acceleration,” stated Bardaouil.
On the identical time, Bardaouil and Fellrath staged crucial dialogues between modern artists and historic figures akin to Joseph Beuys, the place artists Naama Tsabar, Andrea Pichl and Delcy Morelos have already engaged his legacy in conceptual and formal methods. Subsequent 12 months, Shilpa Gupta will be part of that dialog, addressing questions of borders and language.
Reimagining monumental artwork for the current
The duo of administrators has additionally launched an annual Historic Corridor fee, leading to formidable site-specific installations and immersive environments, akin to the present venture by Berlin-based artist Klára Hosnedlová, on view via January 4, 2026. The fee was made potential via a partnership with the Chanel Tradition Fund, one among many initiatives style homes have just lately launched with artwork establishments to help inventive and inventive manufacturing. “It units a brand new benchmark for what public establishments can provide, giving artists the prospect to appreciate initiatives at a scale that might in any other case be inconceivable,” defined Bardaouil.
For the inaugural version, Klára Hosnedlová has created her most formidable set up to this point: an immersive utopian—or dystopian—multisensorial panorama of flax fibers, monumental embroideries, forged glass, sandstone and iron. Dense with archetypal symbols and references to historic folklore and fable, the work resonates universally via its cryptic language and layered sensorial atmosphere. “The venture marks her largest institutional solo exhibition thus far, reworking the Historic Corridor right into a website of fabric depth and speculative futures,” Bardaouil identified. The set up has proved so profitable with audiences that the museum prolonged it till January 2026.
In choosing collaborating artists, Bardaouil and Fellrath deal with practices that inhabit the monumental scale of the Corridor with out dropping intimacy or the power to attach with modern audiences on a number of ranges. They search artists who assume throughout disciplines and whose work engages the complexities of present-day life. “The CHANEL Fee is about turning the museum’s most iconic house into a spot of transformation,” Bardaouil stated. “Every fee is a world in itself, however collectively they kind a sequence that redefines what monumental artwork can imply in the present day.”
Trying forward, Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelytė will tackle the subsequent version, with a choreography of participation unfolding in an evolving panorama. Expectations are excessive after she captivated audiences of all ages along with her opera efficiency Solar & Sea (Marina), staged in Lithuania’s pavilion on the 2019 Venice Biennale. The work, which received the Golden Lion for finest nationwide participation, turned a cultural touchstone for its symbolically potent and narratively compelling metaphor for the local weather emergency dealing with our planet.
Bardaouil and Fellrath envision Hamburger Bahnhof as “a vibrant house the place artwork and audiences work together dynamically.” Notably placing is the museum’s embrace of experimental codecs, even internet hosting raves to have fun exhibition openings or citywide occasions just like the Berlin Biennale. When requested what a museum wants to have interaction a broader public and stay related to its neighborhood, Bardaouil responded with out hesitation: belief should come first. “Which means shifting past the concept of audiences as shoppers, and embracing them as co-constituents,” he mirrored. This precept drives Hamburger Bahnhof’s sturdy public programming—greater than 100 days of occasions designed to offer voice to numerous communities.
“A museum should be porous, permitting in codecs and voices as soon as excluded, and sustaining that openness constantly, not as a gimmick. A museum isn’t a nightclub nor a church; it’s a civic stage. If folks don’t see themselves mirrored and revered on that stage, they received’t come. And so they shouldn’t should.”
Programming just like the Open Home Weekends, which drew almost 40,000 guests in simply three days this 12 months—a lot of them new to the establishment—present how highly effective a museum will be when it proves open and accessible to its neighborhood. “Berlin Beats,” with summer season DJ units within the museum backyard, has attracted greater than 200,000 guests over the previous three summers. “These occasions remodel our house right into a civic commons,” famous Bardaouil—one thing that’s central to the museum’s mission.
Equally essential, Bardaouil burdened, is how the museum mediates its content material and messages. “We’ve got labored arduous to shed the didactic tone of conventional wall texts and to develop a brand new language of mediation that opens up potentialities with out dictating that means,” he defined. It comes all the way down to trusting audiences to assume and really feel for themselves.
New challenges, new fashions
Hamburger Bahnhof advantages from a extremely educated viewers in a metropolis like Berlin, lengthy accustomed to residing with artwork and tradition. But whereas Germany was as soon as thought-about one among Europe’s strongest and best-funded artwork techniques, its cultural panorama has just lately confronted mounting challenges—from funding cuts to threats of political interference and censorship.
Germany nonetheless has one of the vital sturdy artwork infrastructures on the planet, Bardaouil asserted, however robustness doesn’t imply immunity. Cuts are actual, political strain is mounting and tradition is more and more instrumentalized for exclusion. “The cutting-edge scene in Germany is advanced. There may be strain—to align, to evolve, to keep away from friction. And there are additionally highly effective narratives of cultural decline that some want to weaponize,” he noticed. “However within the face of this, artists and establishments have discovered renewed urgency to face collectively to withstand all types of exclusion, meddling or political strain.” What Germany’s cultural system wants now, in response to Bardaouil, is real solidarity throughout museums, with artists and with the general public.
“We can not depend on public funding alone, nor ought to we wish to,” he famous. For this reason they based the Hamburger Bahnhof Worldwide Companions: a gaggle of extremely engaged international supporters already energetic within the cultural area. “They aren’t drawn by perks or privileges however by values—variety, inclusion, illustration—and by the prospect to work with us, on shaping initiatives that matter.” Their help brings not solely monetary stability but in addition variety of perspective, which is simply as precious. “The challenges are actual: shrinking budgets, polarized politics and skepticism towards establishments. However the alternatives are additionally actual: to rethink fashions of help, to increase who participates in shaping establishments and to show that museums aren’t symbols of decline however brokers of risk.”
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