For the reception marking the opening of the first Berlin Art Week, the organisers chose Stadtbad Oderberger Straße in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district. During the new public festival for contemporary art, guests gathered beside the drained swimming pool to celebrate the city and its art, but above all the success of an experiment. Fifteen years ago, in September 2012, it seemed almost sensational that representatives of the art trade, art institutions, and the Senate had come together. So many had joined forces, ventured something new, and worked collectively to strengthen Berlin as a centre for contemporary art.
Stadtbad Oderberger Straße—whose construction began in 1899, which first opened as a public bath in 1902, closed for safety reasons in 1986. It stood vacant for many years before reopening as a swimming pool only in 2016. This history of reinvention made it a fitting setting for the spirit of optimism that defined the evening. Something was GROWING, there no less than here.
In the case of Berlin Art Week, that spirit of renewal arose out of necessity, because something else had fallen away. It began with a crisis. At the end of May 2011, the closure of the Art Forum art fair was officially announced. Until then, it had secured Berlin’s autumn art season a place on the international art calendar. Negotiations over a possible merger with the younger abc – art berlin contemporary had failed. After fifteen years, Art Forum had reached the end of the road. What remained was a vacuum: creating a sense of anticlimax and raising concerns about Berlin’s standing as an art centre. The two remaining art fairs, abc – art berlin contemporary and Preview, approached the Senate Department for Economic Affairs, which in turn brought Kulturprojekte Berlin and the Senate Department for Culture into the discussions. Together, they formed the so-called circle of initiators, soon joined by the directors of what were then the city’s leading art institutions. As Berlin’s non-profit cultural agency, Kulturprojekte Berlin took responsibility for coordinating the initiative and its communications.
The idea behind Berlin Art Week came together remarkably quickly. Much had to be improvised for the first edition. There was no model to follow; instead, Berlin Art Week itself would go on to become a blueprint for other international art weeks. It grew out of Berlin’s DNA, with the aim of drawing attention to everything that defines the city as a centre for contemporary art: the complex ecosystem sustained by its many institutions, communities, and cultural figures. The guiding idea was to see the city’s decentralised structure—its many interconnected scenes—not as a weakness, but as a strength, one that could gain visibility through a concentrated moment of attention. The greatest challenge in those early years was to bring together scenes that had previously operated independently, if only for a few days, and forging a shared identity, because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The story of Berlin Art Week could also be told through the places that created, and continue to create, CONNECTIONS: Auguststraße, the creative epicentre of the post-Wall years, where Berlin Art Week hosted a major opening celebration in 2013; Haus der Statistik on Alexanderplatz; Uferhallen in Wedding, with its artists’ studios; Mariannenplatz; and many other sites animated by Berlin Art Week events.
Or through everything that was added and explored over the years. As early as 2013, a jury comprising artist Monica Bonvicini, curator Kasper König, and critic Claudia Wahjudi selected ten temporary partners: project spaces, small institutions, municipal galleries, and collectives. For many years, the Project Space Award was presented during Berlin Art Week. Private collections opened their doors. Names changed: abc became Art Berlin; Preview became Positions. Formats, content, and discourse evolved with the times. The number of participants continued to grow. The programme for the 2026 anniversary edition features more than one hundred and twenty partners, including institutions, private collections, galleries, projects, and the Positions art fair. Berlin Art Week continues to grow—above all in breadth. No one has ever managed to attend every event. Yet that has never been the point. What Berlin Art Week consistently succeeds in doing is setting scenes and audiences in motion, and encouraging them to discover new paths.
Its story could equally be told through the challenges it has repeatedly faced. When Art Berlin became the next fair to fold, Berlin Art Week had to recalibrate. The event around which its narrative had long revolved had suddenly disappeared. COVID-19 and the restrictions it imposed brought a host of organisational challenges. Yet, once again, crisis gave rise to new synergies: in the second year of the pandemic, Gallery Weekend shifted part of its programme to Berlin Art Week. Through *Discoveries, galleries presented exhibition openings by emerging artists. Gallery Night, which grew out of this initiative, together with the presentation of the VBKI-Preis Berliner Galerien and other gallery-led projects, has since embedded galleries more firmly than ever within Berlin Art Week as SUPPORTERS of art.
As with so many cultural events, securing funding was a challenge from the outset. Long-term sponsors initially included Deutsche Bank, followed by GASAG, and today Berliner Volksbank. Funding from the Senate Department for Economic Affairs was also provided regularly through public grants, while its subsequent inclusion in the culture budget provided greater planning certainty. At least for a time. However, as part of the Berlin Senate’s sweeping cuts to the 2026/27 cultural budget, Berlin Art Week’s core funding was eliminated—with only the contribution from the Senate Department for Economic Affairs remaining. The cuts have also affected Berlin Art Week’s partners, its institutions, and, above all, the independent scene. Kulturprojekte Berlin itself faced cuts on a scale that put its infrastructure at risk. Kulturprojekte Berlin’s reserves help to cover the current budget. Starting in 2028, they will not be able to continue without adequate funding from the state.
Fifteen years of Berlin Art Week offer an opportunity to look back and to THINK AHEAD. Together with people who have accompanied Berlin Art Week from the very beginning, for many years, or for just a brief stretch of its journey. What Berlin Art Week continues to achieve with every edition remains the same: bringing people together, creating connections, and activating—creating the conditions for something new to emerge.
15 YEARS BERLIN ART WEEK
To mark its 15th anniversary, a limited-edition booklet looks back at the past, present and future of Berlin Art Week. Across 128 pages, the publication brings together essays, interviews and photo features that trace the evolution of the past 15 years while also examining the current state and future prospects of Berlin as a city of art. More than 50 voices from across Berlin’s art scene share their perspectives.