Sometimes you don’t need a new place, just a fresh perspective on an old one. The Georg Kolbe Museum is celebrating its 75th anniversary and showing exactly why this place continues to resonate. Originally built in the 1920s as a radically modern live-work space for sculptor Georg Kolbe, the house was transformed into a museum in 1950, becoming the first new museum in post-war West Berlin. Today, it’s a space that not only preserves the history of sculpture but also connects contemporary art to the human body, to architecture, and nature. To mark its birthday, the museum presents a rich program. Under the title Tea and Dry Biscuits, the exhibition toasts memory and reexamines it, with contributions from artists such as Álvaro Urbano, Cao Fei, Laure Prouvost, Danh Vo, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, and, of course, Georg Kolbe himself. The show looks both back and ahead, asking how history is told and by whom. Between personal connections that have shaped the house and the institutional routines of preservation and curation, a critical reflection on memory emerges. This year’s garden installation is by David Hartt, whose work explores architecture, urbanism, and the ways spaces shape identity. His video piece Metabolic Rift examines the relationship between bodies, nature, and capitalism — a timely intervention in Kolbe’s former studio. And whether you come for the critique of capitalism, the dry biscuits, or simply a slice of apricot cake at Café Benjamine, there are plenty of good reasons to visit the Georg Kolbe Museum.
Text: Inga Krumme / Photos: Enric Duch & Nicolas Brasseur / Credit: VG Bild-Kunst; Georg Kolbe Museum
Georg-Kolbe-Museum, Sensburger Allee 25, 14055 Berlin–Westend; map
Tea and Dry Biscuits. An Anniversary Exhibition (until 28.09.2025)
David Hartt. Metabolic Rift (until 28.09.2025)
@georgkolbemuseum
