The Kyiv Biennial is a nomadic project. Since its founding, it has linked art, politics, and social questions across national borders. In recent years, traveling between locations such as Kyiv, Warsaw, Linz, Antwerp, and Berlin has increasingly become part of its working reality. With A Bird That Cannot Land, the biennial now moves into KW and occupies the entire building with exhibitions, concerts, performances, and talks. A bird that cannot land remains suspended in the air. Exile appears as a state of suspension, exhaustion, and persistence. The exhibition follows the experiences of people whose lives are shaped by war, migration, and political upheaval. Its starting point is the idea of a “Middle-East-Europe” — a broad region between post-Soviet Eastern Europe, Central and Southwest Asia, and the Mediterranean. Historical connections, colonial violence, imperialism, and ongoing wars cut across national borders and continue to shape the present. On the ground floor, the gaze is directed upwards. In times of war, meanings shift. Where the sky once symbolized hope and freedom, it becomes a site of threat through missiles, drones, and surveillance. On the first floor, Hito Steyerl’s large-scale installation examines the history of the Nord Stream pipelines. Massive pipes coil through the space as sculptural furniture, interwoven with documentary films, archival material, and a timeline tracing the political, economic, and ecological entanglements of the pipeline. One floor above, several works engage with archives and the question of how history is constructed.
Fabric panels peel away from the walls and extend through the space. Documents are added to, shifted, and rearranged. The floor proposes history as something that is never fully written. On the top level, things begin to fall apart. The works dissolve, asking what remains after destruction, how relationships persist through absence, and what role poetry can play in this process — forming an intimate register of repair and care. Sound connects the different layers of the biennial. The accompanying live program in July 2026 brings together musicians, artists, and thinkers from various regions. Listening sessions, concerts, and performances expand the exhibition through voices, narratives, and musical traditions that move across borders. At a time when national interests are growing louder everywhere, the Kyiv Biennial insists on international connections. This is where its urgency lies.
Text: Inga Krumme / Credits: Lida Abdul, In Transit, video still, 2008 © Lida Abdul / Courtesy Giorgio Persano Gallery; Aykan Safoğlu, 1991, 2026. Courtesy der Künstler. Installationsansicht der Ausstellung Kyiv Biennial – A Bird That Cannot Land in den KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2026, Foto: Frank Sperling; Oleksiy Radynski, Where Russia Ends, 2024. Courtesy der Künstler (links) und Hito Steyerl, Leak, 2024. Courtesy die Künstlerin, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York und Esther Schipper, Berlin/ Paris/Seoul (rechts). Installationsansicht der Ausstellung Kyiv Biennial – A Bird That Cannot Land in den KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2026 / Photos: Frank Sperling
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststr.69, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
Kyiv Biennial – A Bird That Cannot Land 11.06.–13.09.2026
@kwinstituteforcontemporaryart
