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.
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