Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin Celebrates 25th Anniversary

18.11.2021
Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart

In marking its 25th anniversary, Hamburger Bahnhof will open two major exhibition projects on Sunday, 25 November 2021 that address its collecting mission as a museum of contemporary art. The former terminal station of the Hamburg–Berlin railway line was inaugurated in 1996 as a Nationalgalerie venue for art after 1960. In conjunction with the anniversary, the monthly, admission-free Thursday afternoons will continue as part of the Volkswagen Art4All initiative as of 2 December 2021.

On 1 November 1996, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart opened as a new Nationalgalerie location dedicated specifically to art after 1960. In 2004 the museum was able to almost double its exhibition space with the addition of the Rieckhallen, with the aim of presenting not only special exhibitions and the Nationalgalerie’s extensive holdings but also private collections such as the Marx Collection, the Marzona Collection, the Haubrok Foundation and the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection. The building went into operation as the terminus of the railway line between Hamburg and Berlin in December 1846 and now represents the only historical station structure to have been preserved from that period.

Church for Sale: Works from the Haubrok Foundation and the Nationalgalerie Collection

28 November 2021 – 19 June 2022

The artists represented in the exhibition Church For Sale approach art as a political activity against ubiquitous violence and aggression, marginalisation and the lack of protection of common goods essential to life. In their works, the artists address the vulnerability of human existence in its social and cultural contexts and examine power structures in the private and public sphere.

Nation, Narration, Narcosis: Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories

28 November 2021 – 3 July 2022

The exhibition Nation, Narration, Narcosis addresses art’s relationship to political protest, historical trauma and social narratives from the 19th century to the present. At a time when icebergs are melting faster than societies are reacting to this new reality, and the end of the world is more conceivable than the end of capitalism, the exhibition considers the climate and environment not only from an ecological standpoint but also from a social one.

Volkswagen Art4All: Free Admission on Thursday Afternoons Beginning in December

Monthy, admission-free Thursdays (1st Thursday of the month, 4 – 8 pm) continue with the 25th anniversary as part of the Volkswagen Art4All programme, beginning on 2 December 2021. From 16 December the practice will also be introduced for the first time at the Neue Nationalgalerie, where admission is free on the 3rd Thursday of the month (4 – 8 pm).