In Ruin, curated by Kathleen Reinhardt, Henrike Naumann and Sung Tieu explore both the ideological ruptures and material traces of post-reunification Germany. With formal vocabularies ranging from maximalist opulence to minimalist clarity, they examine the enduring legacy of a once divided Germany and the socio-political upheavals of the 1990s transformation period and beyond.

Already in its 22nd edition, Gallery Weekend Berlin continues to reflect a city as multifaceted as ever. At the beginning of May, 50 galleries across 66 locations will open their doors, showcasing over 80 established and emerging artists from more than 30 countries. This year also sees the launch of Perspectives, a new sector featuring a rotating annual selection of galleries.

What’s going on? is the opening exhibition of the program by Dennis Brzek as new director of the Mies van der Rohe Haus in Berlin. The group exhibition is showing both existing works and new pieces created in dialogue with the site. The works on display raise questions about time, absence, and personal histories, using both private and shared memories as their material. 

 Multispecies Members Club develops a forward-looking model of coexistence: an inclusive alliance in which humans, animals, plants and machines act as equal members. The exhibition at MGGU sees itself as a living experiment: it shows how technology can enable communication between different species and how democratic participation can be rethought – beyond a purely human-centered view of the world. 

Hella Jongerius: Whispering Things is the first retrospective to present the full scope of the Dutch designer’s oeuvre and offers insights into Jongerius’ working methods, multi-layered thinking, passion for craft processes and deep engagement with materiality and the symbolism of objects. Her interest in craftsmanship and colour is always accompanied by critical reflection on her own practice and on the role of design in today’s society.

Basel Social Club returns in June 2026 for its 5th edition, continuing its nomadic tradition of transforming unexpected sites into temporary social spaces for art during the week of Art Basel. This year, the office becomes both subject and stage and brings together exhibitions, performances, music, gastronomy and informal encounters and will take place in a vacant office building designed by the architecture office Diener & Diener, just a few steps from Basel SBB train station.

For the first time in its history, the Fondation Beyeler is dedicating a solo exhibition to Paul Cezanne; pioneer of modern art and one of the most important artists in its own collection. The exhibition focuses on the last and most significant phase of the Frenchman’s work, highlighting key themes from his later years, including still lifes, portraits, landscapes and bathing scenes. 

Spanning the 1980s to the present, The China Moment. Contextualizing Individualism in Chinese Contemporary Art by the documenta institut at the Kasseler Kunstverein functions as both a research project and an exhibition, blending historical and narrative approaches. Drawing on archival materials, paintings, photographs, videos, installations, sound and performance, it presents artworks alongside the social contexts that shaped them — from spontaneous apartment shows and underground gatherings to experimental club and performance scenes.

Under the motto There Is No Art Without Criticism, TEXTE ZUR KUNST celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2025–26. Since its founding in 1990, the magazine has established itself as a critical, theoretically grounded medium within the international art world. Alongside special editions, the anniversary issue System Change: Art Market and Criticism examines the current upheavals in the global art market.

Engaging with the past decade of Cauleen Smith’s career, the Kestner Gesellschaft will present The Volcano Manifesto in December 2025. The title refers to her three film works My Caldera (2022), Mines to Caves (2023), and The Deep West Assembly (2024), which together open up complex meditations on geological and cinematic time, the abyss of volcanoes and the depths of mines and caves in the form of large-scale video installations, new textile works, a facade project, drawings, and a space for collective exchange and reflection.

The 2026 Preis der Nationalgalerie has been awarded to Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. His iconic gestures, oscillating between exaggeration, irony and pain, challenge the rituals of commemoration, evoke both history and its narratives, and open new vantage points on contemporary social debates.The exhibition accompanying the award will open at the Neue Nationalgalerie in September 2026.

The Public Art Art Passage is a new format for art in public space in Munich. It consists of 11 monitors in historic display cases from the 1950s and features works by international artists. Inaugurating this format is artist Karimah Ashadu, whose work addresses the themes of labour and self-determination practices in the social, economic and cultural context of West Africa and its diaspora. 

The Doshi Retreat is a new architectural addition to the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. Designed as a place of contemplation, it was created by Prtizker Prize winner Balkrishna Doshi in collaboration with his granddaughter Khushnu Panthaki Hoof and her husband Sönke Hoof. The retreat is Doshi’s first project to be completed outside of India and the last design he worked on prior to his death in 2023. 

The inaugural edition of the CONCEPTUAL Biennale introduces the first transdisciplinary platform to place contemporary conceptual practices in design, architecture, and art at its center, critically engaging with the societal questions they raise while recognizing the cultural significance of these practices. It presents itself as a prototype event, realised at short notice through self-initiative, self-funding and community support at a moment when Berlin is experiencing a renewed dynamic in community building while simultaneously connecting internationally.

They last barely fifteen minutes, yet their images circle the globe: fashion shows are media spectacles, social rituals and cultural statements all at once. With Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show the Vitra Design Museum presents a major exhibition dedicated to the phenomenon of the fashion show. Film clips, photographs, original couture creations, stage props and numerous documents create a vivid picture of more than one hundred years of catwalk history. From Sixties subcultures to Punk to fashion in a digital age, fashion shows emerge as complex works of art that engage with the human form, myths and ideals, realities and social change. _­­