Cee Cee Creative Newsletter Book Neighborhood Map Lessons
Stadtplan
Information
archive temp
loop temp
HIGH VOLTAGE ANTICIPATION: THE DEUTSCHE KINEMATHEK CELEBRATES ITS REOPENING AT THE E-WERK
,

HIGH VOLTAGE ANTICIPATION: THE DEUTSCHE KINEMATHEK CELEBRATES ITS REOPENING AT THE E-WERK

The Deutsche Kinemathek remains one of Berlin’s best-kept secrets, even after all these years. Who would have guessed that the film architect behind James Bond left his estate to Berlin? In the Kinemathek’s archives, visitors can dive into Ken Adam’s mind and process — his sketches, storyboards, and concept ideas. Born in Berlin, Adam emigrated with his family to the UK as a teenager and quickly rose through the ranks in 1960s London as a production designer. For 007, he created the playful spy gadgets that fill entire chapters of film history. While Ken Adam’s works continue to be displayed at the Marienfelde archive, others are given a new cinematic stage. The Deutsche Kinemathek has relocated from Potsdamer Platz to the E-Werk in Mitte. The striking brick complex, built in the 1920s, originally served as a power substation, and later enjoyed a 1990s renaissance as a techno club. Now, it ushers in a new era of film history, filled with scenes, voices, icons, and objects from the silver screen. To celebrate the reopening, the Kinemathek is offering free admission and special events until Sunday (25.01.2026).

Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the historic hall of the E-Werk with the installation “Screentime”. 130 years of moving-image history are made spatially tangible in an obstacle-course-like experience. That the Kinemathek is about more than just watching is also evident in its children’s program. During workshops in front of a green screen, kids and teens can film their own scenes, experiment with techniques, and design their own movie posters. During the opening weekend, the museum team leads tours into the neighborhood around Checkpoint Charlie, where films such as Octopussy and Funeral in Berlin were shot. These walking tours introduce filming locations, production sites, and landmarks of Berlin’s cinematic past. The relocation is more than just a change of scenery; it’s a statement. Film and television history belong in the heart of everyday life. At the E-Werk, it will be accessible to the whole family starting tomorrow (23.01.), and presented in a fresh, contemporary context. In February 2026, just in time for Berlin Film Month, the Berlinale Retrospective continues. This edition will focus on Berlin’s decade of awakening: the 1990s. A perfect opportunity to dive into films like Lola Rennt and Slacker. Or, as the retrospective’s title suggests, to feel truly “Lost in the 90s”.

Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Deutsche Kinemathek

Deutsche Kinemathek’s Museum of Film and Television, Mauerstr.79, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map

23.–25.01.2026 10–18h (free admission & program), 26.01.–06.02.2026 10–18h. Find the full program here.

@deutschekinemathek

Comment on this post (0) Post on Facebook
cee_cee_logo
FIND MIES AFTER MEMPHIS: TIME TO REVISIT THE MUSEUM OF DECORATIVE ARTS

FIND MIES AFTER MEMPHIS: TIME TO REVISIT THE MUSEUM OF DECORATIVE ARTS

One of the most famous architects of all time is Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. And not far from one of his most significant buildings (the Neue Nationalgalerie), the exhibition Haus Lemke – The Furniture of Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich at the Museum of Decorative Arts focuses on one of his smaller houses, and the furniture that came with it. Built in 1932/33 in Alt-Hohenschönhausen on a lakeside plot, the building is now known as the Mies van der Rohe House. The exhibition isn’t particularly large, but it gives Mies fans exactly what they came for. Veneered built-in cabinets that fit into carefully curated white niches, a bed and an impressively long sofa, Thonet cantilever chairs, and, as was proper for the time, a sleek office setup in the finest tropical hardwood. (Most of the furniture designs are actually attributed to Lilly Reich and former collaborator Friedrich Hirz. In many of the work credits, Lilly Reich’s name appears with a question mark — a familiar story for women on the sidelines of Bauhaus men back then.) Written on the walls are large quotes like, “In the white-painted, almost empty room today stands only the few pieces of furniture absolutely necessary.” The best part of the show, though, is the context. During my visit, I had to search for it… in the basement and behind the Memphis Milano furniture, I finally found Mies.

And how much more inappropriate could it be than to place austere wooden furniture behind colorful shelves and playful chairs? Mies would have hated it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Strolling through the other floors, it quickly became clear that a visit to the Museum of Decorative Arts is always worth it. Highlights include: all the quirky medieval water vessels in animal shapes, the most delicate Venetian glassworks, the full white-and-pastel glory of Rococo porcelain, and, in general, vessels in every shape and form. So come for Mies, if you like, but stay for the rest, because the visit proves one thing: art and craftsmanship intersect in far more than just austere wooden furniture.

Text: Inga Krumme / Credits: Stephan Klonk; Haus Lemke, Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich (?), 1934/35, Photo: Max Krajewsky, Berlin, 1937

Museum of Decorative Arts, Matthäikirchplatz, 10785 Berlin–Tiergarten; map
Haus Lemke – The Furniture of Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich

@kunstgewerbemuseum_berlin

Comment on this post (0) Post on Facebook
cee_cee_logo
NOT THE LAST UNICORN — A FABULOUS EXHIBITION AT MUSEUM BARBERINI

NOT THE LAST UNICORN — A FABULOUS EXHIBITION AT MUSEUM BARBERINI

My little sister’s favorite was “The Last Unicorn”, the animated film based on Peter S. Beagle’s novel. For weeks, she performed her own interpretation of the title song in her bedroom, and my parents had to put the VHS tape in the VCR again and again. The enchanting story of the mythical creature had completely captivated us. We weren’t the only ones back then, and we certainly aren’t today (in fact, we haven’t been for centuries). Unicorns have always enchanted those who pay attention to them, feeding the stories woven around them. The exhibition “Unicorn. The Mythical Beast in Art” at the Museum Barberini takes this remarkable career seriously, tracing the unicorn’s path through culture. Around 150 works and objects are on display, from travelogues describing unicorn sightings to medieval altarpieces and contemporary positions.

The unicorn appears as a Christian symbol of purity and chosenness, as a miracle cure, or as a wild, untameable animal. Paintings by Maerten de Vos (imposing), Titian (classical), and Arnold Böcklin (creepy) meet works by Magritte (domestic), Marie Cécile Thijs (realistic), and Olaf Nicolai (emo). My personal favorite is Wild Man on a Unicorn from 1473–1477 (wonderfully eccentric). Manuscripts, tapestries, sculptures, video works, and cabinet-of-curiosities objects show how the unicorn has oscillated between belief, science, and projection. Even the famous “unicorn horn” exposed as a narwhal tooth in the 17th century did nothing to diminish its fascination. What remains, ultimately, is a creature that never existed. Hovering somewhere between myth, pop culture, and longing, the exhibition presents the unicorn not as a fairy-tale figure, but as a mirror of cultural fantasies. The film from my childhood is just one version of this. This exhibition offers many others.

Text: Inga Krumme / Credit: Italian (Veneto) Virgin with Unicorn, ca. 1510, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet (Master of the Housebook), Wild Man on a Unicorn, 1473–77, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Olaf Nicolai La Lotta, 2006, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025

Museum Barberini, Humboldtstr. 5-6, 14467 Potsdam; map
“Unicorn. The Mythical Beast in Art” until 01.02.2026

@museumbarberini

Comment on this post (0) Post on Facebook
cee_cee_logo
DESIGN IN A NUTSHELL: THE DOMESTIC UNDERSTATEMENT OF DIETER RAMS AT DEUTSCHES DESIGN MUSEUM

DESIGN IN A NUTSHELL: THE DOMESTIC UNDERSTATEMENT OF DIETER RAMS AT DEUTSCHES DESIGN MUSEUM

In recent years, an increasing number of people have embraced a love and commitment to minimalism, especially when it comes to designing their own homes. How much curve, color, and texture does good design need? And how little? “As little design as possible” is one of the most well-known principles in product design over the past decades. It’s also a phrase that serves as a guiding thread through the exhibition at the Deutsches Design Museum, which runs until 14.03.2026 and is dedicated to one of the most influential designers of the 20th and 21st centuries: Dieter Rams. The furniture is evenly spaced throughout the room, and the curatorial concept sits somewhere between a mid-sized furniture store and the painfully familiar, long-outdated aesthetics of office spaces. And it works. The master of understated functionality, the wunderkind of clean lines, the muse of tech designers, and the fetish of architecture students. It only makes sense that someone like Rafael Horzon, whose entire brand is built on the foundation of extremely simple shelving, would bring this design to his museum. The exhibition guides visitors through all of Rams’ key phases and showcases works for Braun and Vitsœ that have made their mark on international design history. This comprehensive overview is made possible through collaboration with the world’s largest private collection of Dieter Rams’ work and Rams expert Dr. Bujar Aruqai.

Many of the pieces on display are being exhibited in Berlin for the first time. The front room is dominated by the iconic Vitsœ 606 shelving system in every conceivable variation and finish, with Horzon casually placing his own publications here and there. Scattered among them are seating options — you want to try them out, and you may. In the back room, primarily dedicated to the electronics side of Rams’ industrial design, two men sit in front of a Rams turntable, listening to John Lee Hooker and discussing their design god. They clearly have more to say about him than what can be summed up in his ten Spartan principles. So much has already been written, said, and discussed about Rams. What can an exhibition still give us? Probably something quite unspectacular: that good design doesn’t need an explanation. Even on the carpet of the Deutsches Design Museum, its warm grey so reminiscent of the slushy snow we track onto our doormats, Rams works. “Well done, Dieter,” I think, and “Go see this exhibition,” I write. As little design as possible has rarely done any harm.

Text: Inga Krumme / Photos: Deutsches Design Museum

Deutsches Design Museum, Uhlandstr.185, 10623 Berlin–Charlottenburg; map
Dieter Rams Exhibition until 14.03.2026

@deutschesdesignmuseum

Comment on this post (0) Post on Facebook
cee_cee_logo
THE KINDL AS A SPACE OF RESONANCE: CONTEMPORARY ART IN THE HEART OF NEUKÖLLN
,

THE KINDL AS A SPACE OF RESONANCE: CONTEMPORARY ART IN THE HEART OF NEUKÖLLN

Once, enormous brewing vats filled this space with beer. Today, ideas and artworks inhabit the halls of the former Neukölln brewery. Since its careful renovation in 2016, the Kindl has established itself as a hub for contemporary Berlin art, and not just because of its 20-meter-high boiler house. Here, British artist Cornelia Parker realized Stolen Thunder (A Storm Gathering), an immersive installation that can be experienced until 24.05.2026. Sound, light, and shadow create a fictional, physically tangible event that recalls expressionist cinema while reflecting on climate disasters and political instability. Minimalist in gesture but monumental in effect are the works of Phoebe Collings-James. Until 15.02., the Maschinenhaus M1 hosts the British-Jamaican artist’s first institutional solo exhibition in Germany. Ceramic sculptures and a newly created sound work merge personal and collective experience, making the engagement with body, desire, and anti-colonial practices spatially perceptible. In the M1 VideoSpace, Cihad Caner presents hybrid, animated monsters inspired by historical and pop-cultural figures. Born in Istanbul in 1990, the artist gives them voices, exploring — both abstractly and directly — questions of integration and hospitality. On 04.02., Cihad Caner will discuss the exhibition’s themes in conversation with Çaǧla Ilk, the Designated Artistic Director of the Maxim Gorki Theatre.

Urban life and coexistence are also central to Erik Schmidt, whose retrospective The Rise and Fall of Erik Schmidt is on view until 01.02. in Maschinenhaus M2. Through a narrative parcours of painting, drawing, and video, he constructs a layered self-portrait that encompasses queer identity and a sense of community. On 29.01., Schmidt will provide further insight into his practice in conversation with Krist Gruijthuijsen, the new Director of the Espoo Museum of Modern Art. All of these exhibitions reveal what the Kindl is at its very core: not a quiet display case, but a vibrant kaleidoscope. A place of exchange that responds to (and engages with) its audience. For ten years, the Kindl has proven itself as an institution where art can be reflexive, conversational, and at times challenging. It is a space that connects and sparks discussion. The impressive building, where the industrial pulse of the past is still palpable, has reinvented itself as a dynamic forum for discourse. Under the direction of Kathrin Becker, art is not simply exhibited; it is negotiated as an expression of feeling, power relations, and uncertainty in our globalized world.

Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Fabian Brennecke, Jens Ziehe, Marco Funke

Kindl – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Am Sudhaus 3, 12053 Berlin–Neukölln; map

Cornelia Parker: Stolen Thunder (A Storm Gathering) until 24.05.2026

Phoebe Collings-James: The subtle rules the dense until 15.02.2026 
Landing / Bodies – Lecture by Kathryn Yusoff (Professor of Inhuman Geography, Queen Mary University of London), followed by a conversation with Maïa Beyrouti (artist, material research, Berlin) and Kathryn Yusoff, as part of the Phoebe Collings-James exhibition. 21.01.2026 19h, in English.

Cihad Caner, Demonst(e)rating the Untamable Monster until 15.02.2026
Çaǧla Ilk (Designated Artistic Director of the Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin) in conversation with Cihad Caner, as part of the exhibition Cihad Caner. Demonst(e)rating the Untamable Monster. 04.02.2026 19h, in English.

The Rise and Fall of Erik Schmidt until 01.02.2026
Krist Gruijthuijsen (Director, EMMA | Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland) in conversation with Erik Schmidt, as part of the exhibition The Rise and Fall of Erik Schmidt. 29.01.2026 19h, in English.

@kindlberlin

Comment on this post (0) Post on Facebook
cee_cee_logo
BackNext