On any given evening during 48 Hours Neukölln – beer in one hand, bike in the other – you might pass a hairdresser’s window filled with solemn portraits, a half-nude dance performance happening next door, and all the while across the street, a giant Super Mario Kart tournament flickers across the side of a building. You never know what’s waiting for you around the corner, but that’s part of the appeal, says Zoe Matt-Williams from the festival’s communication team: “The fun is just in floating around and seeing what comes up next.”
With over 1000 exhibiting artists and somewhere around 300 venues open for the weekend-long art festival, it can be difficult to know where to start. We put together this guide of interesting places to start with, but make sure you wander around and discover new things! This year’s theme is OUT/SIDE/IN, so expect more boundary bending than ever before.
KINDL- Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst
KINDL is one of Neukölln’s largest art spaces with regular programming and this year, they’ve put together an exhibition especially for 48 Hours Neukölln: 50 Gramm Kunst – OUT/SIDE/IN. 50 Gramm Kunst is a yearly summer project dedicated to creating a collaborative artwork in the KINDL Kesselhaus and this year, the artwork created by school classes, children, young people and adults from Neukölln it will be displayed for the festival. Just around the corner on the steps leading down to Neckarstraße, there will also be a full program of installations and performances on Friday evening.
- KINDL- Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Jul 3-5, details
- KINDL Staircase, Jul 3, 19:00-23:00, details
Heimathafen
Heimathafen Neukölln is opening its doors for a whole range of art forms for the festival weekend. On view during the weekend is RED TABLE, an installation by artists Malisa Zymberi and Phil Göttsching, based on a couple raised in different spaces now sharing a life in Berlin. Saturday evening there’s a packed schedule with lectures, video screenings and performances from both the season’s artists and guest performers taking place from 18:00-21:00.
- Heimathafen, July 3-5, details
Arts of the Working Class Community Space
You’ve probably seen or read Arts of the Working Class magazine at some point. The cultural organisation, founded in 2018, publishes a multilingual street newspaper on art, literature and journalism five times per year. For 48 Hours Neukölln, their community space will host an exhibition called A Vulnerable Place from artist Marina Merkulova in conversation with Miguel Angel Espinoza exploring memory, data and different forms of boundaries, both material and immaterial.
- Arts of the Working Class Community Space, Jul 4, 14:00, details
Atelier Gardens
The project and event space overlooking Tempelhof, Atelier Gardens, is showing a dance and theatre performance, FIRST CLASS EXPERIENCE, choreographed and performed by Tina Streich Camera, on Sunday evening. The autofictional performance will interrogate the effects capitalism has on bodies.
- Atelier Gardens, Jul 5, 18:00, details
crazylegz
Neukölln’s colourful rollerskating shop is presenting a performative ‘rolling tour’ entitled Roll & Reveal: Mapping Neukölln. The idea behind the event is to blur the boundaries between outside and in through mapping skating spaces throughout the neighbourhood. Their doors will be open all weekend for sound and skating performances, creating a meeting point where movement, music and community come together.
- crazylegz, Jul 3-5, details
Neuköllner Oper Passage
Saturday and Sunday, the passage in front of the kino and Neuköllner Oper will host a mini festival within a festival called WO IST UMM KULTHUM? Neukölln Sings Along. A Festival for UMM in the Passage of the Neukölln Opera. For the weekend, the passage is positioning itself as an outdoor living room for the Kiez. The events are curated and moderated by
Fatima Çalışkan and Leila Ey from Sister*Queens (Saturday) and Yousra (Sunday) will be performing. Live music, listening sessions, and moderated discussions will take place celebrating the musical legacy of Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. Visitors are also invited to bring their own records, cassettes, CDs, digital files and objects that they associate with Umm. The organisers claim, “Things may get loud. We use microphones.”
- Passage in front of the Neuköllner Opera, Jul 4-5, details
Körnerpark
Things are poppin’ off in Körnerpark for 48 Hours Neukölln. In the Kreativraum in the Körnerpark gallery next to the park, a mixed media group exhibition from artists Anna Ivchenko, Dani Hasrouni, Razan Sabbagh and Vitalii Shupliak entitled Atlas / Атлас / أطلس will be on all weekend, while a full programme of performance, processual visual art and even karaoke on Sunday is scheduled.
Rixdorf
Breaking the boundaries of typical art and performance work, artist Alina Strelkovskaia will lead two sessions in Rixdorf over the course of the weekend. The collective performance art piece Deconstructed Neukölln: a Psychotopographic Walk is designed to bring participants together in an attempt to map the invisible. In this participatory walking tour, typical landmarks are bypassed in favour of exploring the underlying tensions in the neighbourhood. Participants will be carrying pens and notebooks and will be prompted to investigate remnants of invisible forces at work, such as gentrification, decay, cultural enmeshments and traces of collective trauma, creating a collective sociological map of data.
- Richardplatz, Jul 4, 15:00 and Jul 5, 11:00, details
U8 Haus
U8 Haus is a relatively new community and art space in Schillerkiez dedicated to showing Berlin-based artists and bringing the artists community together in dialogue. For 48 Hours Neukölln, a group show, Excessive romanticism curated by Zuzanna Tetera, will be on view. The works of six invited artists will reflect on memory, identity, and everyday experiences as seen through a female lens.
- U8 Haus, Jul 3-5, details
The Pool
If you’re looking for the widest breadth of formats and content, check out The Pool. With an impressive programme spanning formats and mediums across the entire weekend, you’re absolutely going to discover an artist or performance you love. There’s a huge lineup of artists exhibiting all weekend, plus plenty of events and side exhibits. Some of our top picks from their programming include The Kiosk of Curiosities curated by Mario Steinbuch. It’s on all weekend and features playful art objects that serve as starting points for thought and discussion. On Saturday night, there’s the Bouquet Soirée, a talent show positioned as “a blissful night of small wonders”. Check out the full programme for all of the events and artists participating.
- The Pool, Jul 3-5, details
Polymedialer Ponyhof
Constantly full of surprises, Polymedialer Ponyhof is one of those hidden gems you find during 48 Hours Neukölln that you keep on going back to year after year. The location is a space for audiovisual experiments, performance and community. We could try to describe it, but you really just have to go there to get it.
- Polymedialer Ponyhof, Jul 3-5, details
