Plain Language
KW Institute for
Contemporary Art
Philippe Van Snick, Dag/Nacht, 1984–ongoing, Installation view entrance gate, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling, Courtesy Tatjana Pieters
Welcome to the website of KW Institute for Contemporary Art, also known as Kunst-Werke Berlin, or KW.
Here you will find information for your visit.
The information has 4 parts:
- 1. The Institution – history and background
- 2. Information for your visit
- Directions
- Opening hours
- Admission
- Tours
- Parking
3. Accessibility
- 4. The exhibitions in summer 2023
- Enrico David – Destroyed Men Come and Go
- KW Production Series: Emily Wardill – Identical
- Hervé Guibert – This and More
1. The Institution
KW is short for KunstWerke. In English that means art works.
The KW Institute for Contemporary Art opened in 1991.
It produces and shows contemporary art.
These are works of art made by artists of today.
All of the exhibitions at KW look at present-day questions.
The exhibitions consider social and political questions. This starts with the works of art and goes on to look at the artist’s views on these questions.
The director of the KW Institute for Contemporary Art is Krist Gruijthuijsen. He and his team of curators are responsible for the exhibitions.
KW does not have its own collection. This means that it is free to create very different exhibitions. It sometimes asks artists to create works of art and then shows these works of art.
The KW Institute for Contemporary Art is well-known all over the world. It works with many artists and other institutions.
For example:
- MoMA PS1 in America
- Biennale di Venezia in Italy
- Documenta in Kassel, Germany.
2. Information for your visit
Directions
Our address: Auguststraße 69, 10117 Berlin
We recommend you use public transport. Parking is very limited.
Opening hours:
- Monday: 11 am to 7pm
- Tuesday: closed
- Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: 11 am to 7 pm
- Thursday: 11 am to 9 pm
Tickets
You can only buy tickets at the ticket counter.
We only accept payment with a card.
The cards we accept are:
Girocard, Mastercard, Amex, VISA, Maestro, VISA Electron and ApplePay.
Ticket prices
10 Euros: Regular price
6 Euros: Reduced price
Visitors with disabilities (50% GdB)
Students
Visitors doing community service
BBK members
Holders of the Berlin Ehrenamtskarte
Please bring your identification with you.
6 Euros:
Berlin Welcome Card holders
Reduced Price: 4,50 €
4 Euros:
Holders of a Berechtigungsnachweis.
This permit used to be called the Berlin pass.
Free entry:
- Assistants of visitors with disabilities
- All visitors up to 18 years
- Holders of the KW Lover season ticket
- Friends of KW and Berlin Biennale
- Unemployed persons
Admission to the KW is also free for all visitors:
- Thursdays from 6 pm to 9 pm
- The first Sunday in the month (click here for more information)
With the KW Lover annual pass, you can visit all exhibitions free of charge for one year. The price for the annual pass is 35 euros, reduced 25 euros. You can purchase it in our online shop. Click here to go to the shop.
Guided Tours
There are KW Guides in our exhibitions Monday to Friday. KW Guides are staff members who provide free information about the artworks.
On weekends, we offer public tours of the exhibitions. These guided tours are not in Plain English.
The meeting point is at the KW ticket office.
The price for the guided tours is included in the exhibition ticket.
Please register for the guided tours at the ticket office in the entrance area.
Only a certain number of people can take part.
The guided tours take place in cooperation with the Museumsdienst Berlin.
Travel by public transport:
- By Train
S1, S2, S25, S26 to Oranienburger Tor.
KW is 200 metres from the train station.
The station has a lift to the exit Tucholskystraße
- By underground
Both stations have lifts
U6 to Oranienburger Tor
KW is 600 metres from the train station.
U8 to Rosenthaler Platz
KW is 750 metres from the train station.
Parking
Unfortunately, there are no parking spaces directly at KW. You can park your car in front of the main entrance of KW to get in or out.
However, there is a parking lot for people with disabilities directly in front of KW next to the bicycle racks. You can park here if you have a pass for people with disabilities and while we are open.
3. Accessibility
The building
The KW Institute for Contemporary Art is an old and protected building.
Because of this some of the building is not accessible to all visitors.
To plan your visit to KW, please email us a week before your visit at: mediation@kw-berlin.de
or call us on 030-24 34 59-132.
Spontaneous visits are also possible. Unfortunately, the lift cannot be used independently. Please allow up to 30 minutes waiting time for spontaneous visits.
Entrance to KW’s courtyard
The main entrance does not have any steps.
There is a concrete path to the courtyard. But the courtyard is made of cobblestones.
Lifts to other floors
There is a lift to the
- exhibition rooms
- Pogo Bar in the basement
- accessible toilet on the 4th floor
Unfortunately, it is not possible to use the lift independently. Please ask our staff at the ticket counter if you wish to use the lift.
The KW studio is at the front of the building.
It is not accessible to all visitors.
There are 15 steps with railings leading to the studio.
Café
Café Bravo is in the courtyard. The courtyard is made of cobblestones. The entrance to the café is at ground level.
The door does not open automatically.
There is seating available.
Ticket Counter
The ticket counter is at the back of the courtyard on the right.
There are two steps but we have a ramp for wheelchairs.
Our staff will help you.
Cloakroom
The cloakroom is on the ground floor near the ticket counter.
The cloakroom is free.
We also have lockers. You will need a 1 Euro coin to use a locker.
Wheelchairs
We have foldable stools and wheelchair.
If you wish to use a stool or wheelchair during your visit,
please reserve it before your visit.
Call us on 030-24 34 59-69.
Prams
You cannot take prams into the exhibition rooms.
Please leave prams on the ground floor near the ticket office.
Our staff will help you.
Information in Plain English
All our exhibition texts are also in Plain English. You can find the link to these texts on the pages of the exhibitions or pick up a printed version when you arrive.
Assistance during your visit
If you come alone, we are happy to offer you support.
Send us an email one week before your visit to: mediation@kw-berlin.de. You can also reach our mediation team at: 030 24 34 59 132.
If you come spontaneously, you will find a sign with a bell at the main entrance on the right. This bell is connected to the ticket office. If you use this bell, you will then be assisted to walk or drive through the courtyard and into Café Bravo.
Please be aware of possible waiting times if you come without prior registration.
Support and feedback
Please contact us and let us know how we can improve our service. You can send us
an email mediation@kw-berlin.de
or call us on 030-24 34 59-132.
4. The exhibitions in summer 2023
In summer 2024 you can visit three exhibitions at KW.
The exhibitions are:
Jimmy DeSana & Paul P. – Ruins of Rooms
The exhibitions are open from 6 July to 20 October 2024.
Luiz Roque
Estufa
6 July – 20 October 2024
Curator: Léon Kruijswijk
Curatorial assistant: Lara Scherrieble
KW is showing the exhibition called Estufa. Estufa is Portuguese and means ‘greenhouse’. This is the first survey exhibition of the artist Luiz Roque. On show are artworks from different periods of his career.
Luiz Roque was born in Brazil in 1979. His work mixes different art forms, such as video installation, sculptural elements and ceramic works. Luiz Roque is interested in many themes. These themes are also part of his art: architecture of the 1950s until the 1970s in Brazil, queer politics, and science-fiction.
Luiz Roque’s videos are filmed and shown in many ways. Some videos are projected onto screens, others are played on old television sets. In Luiz Roque’s video installations, the arrangement, or choice of material is just as important as the content. In his videos, Luiz Roque plays with time. It is often not clear when the events in the video take place.
Often, his works are about the wishes and demands of people and groups of people in Brazil, in relation to their position in society. Some of his videos seem like eerie dreams. Similar moods can also be found in his work with ceramics.
The exhibition at KW covers 20 years of Luiz Roque’s work. He made one video installation and several ceramic works especially for this exhibition. A book that shows more about Luiz Roque’s work has been published alongside the exhibition.
Pia Arke
Arctic Hysteria
6 July – 20 October 2024
Curator: Sofie Krogh Christensen
Academic Trainee and Curatorial Assistant: Aykon Süslü
Arctic Hysteria is the first solo exhibition of the artist Pia Arke outside Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) and the Nordic countries. KW organized the exhibition together with John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (UK).
Pia Arke lived from 1958 to 2007. She was the daughter of a Greenlandic mother and a Danish father. Her work looks at memories, time and places as well as her own story.
Pia Arke said her work is about the silence that surrounds the connection between Greenland and Denmark. In 1721, Denmark declared Greenland to be part of Denmark. Greenland has had its own government since 2009, but is still not independent of Denmark. This power imbalance still makes the conversation between the two countries difficult. Pia Arke said she was born into the silence between Greenland and Denmark.
Pia Arke takes on different roles in her art. She is an artist, researcher and ethnographer. She looks at the history of Greenland as well as her own family history. She always brought the conversation back to the power imbalance and colonial history between the two countries. Pia Arke looked at the discussions from a feminist point of view.
The title of the exhibition is Arctic Hysteria. Pia Arke also gave this name to an important series of her work. Arctic Hysteria looks at how Pia Arke used her body in her art to make people think. The Arctic is the area around the North Pole. The exhibition shows many works by Pia Arke: sculptures, photos, performances, texts and works on paper.
In her works, she puts places and things together in a new way. So, she tries to write her own story, in which she both felt a sense of belonging and could question herself.
A new book is published together with the exhibition.
Jimmy DeSana & Paul P.
Ruins of Rooms
6 July – 20 October 2024
Curator: Krist Gruijthuijsen
Assistant Curator: Linda Franken
The exhibition Ruins of Rooms focuses on portraits. It shows the work of two artists: Jimmy DeSana and Paul P..
Jimmy DeSana was a photographer, who lived in New York. He was interested in topics like consumer culture and focused on the human body in his work.
Jimmy DeSana started with nude photos in the suburbs. He photographed people in living rooms and in houses. Jimmy DeSana carefully composed the scenes. In his photos, he shows people posing with furniture, and close-ups of twisted arms and legs.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jimmy DeSana photographed people in the art and culture scene, and well-known musicians in New York. When he caught HIV in the late 1980s, his body and his art changed. He stopped focusing on the body and started making abstract and experimental photographs with rich colors.
Paul P. is a Canadian artist. For about 20 years, he has been known for his melancholic drawings and paintings. Recently, he has started making sculptures that look like furniture. He finds subjects for his portraits in old gay erotic magazines. He uses old pictures of young gay men and creates paintings from them. These pictures are from the late 1960s and 1970s. This was the time when gay liberation started and before the AIDS crisis began. Paul P. uses artistic methods from the past. His work looks a bit like portraits from the 19th century. The men in his pictures are shown without a background. This makes them look mysterious, timeless, and inviting.
The exhibition Ruins of Rooms helps us better understand portraits. It shows the work of two artists from different generations at the same time. The exhibition is dedicated to those lost to AIDS.