Gorki

A new artistic direction will begin at the Maxim Gorki Theater with the 2026—2027 season. Artistic Director Çağla İlk is developing the Gorki as an open, transdisciplinary space at the intersection of theatre, contemporary art, performance, dance, music, sound, discourse, and the city.

The Gorki has always been a place where central questions of our time have been posed: Who speaks? Who is heard? Who is given space? The new Gorki builds on this legacy. It operates at the intersections between stage and exhibition, drama and visual art, local and international. Artistic forms encounter one another, overlap, and transform the way the venue is used.

The new Gorki sees itself as an open venue: open from noon until late at night, open to artists, guests, neighborhoods, and new audiences. In addition to the stages, the Palais am Festungsgraben, facades, passageways, courtyards, and adjacent public spaces will also become part of the artistic programme.

As part of Berlin Art Week, a new wall at Platz der Märzrevolution will be activated for the first time as a publicly accessible exhibition and performance space for contemporary art.

The event kicks off with ›The Only Way‹ by Tadeusz Kantor. A photograph by Eustachy Kossakowski documents Kantor’s ›Panoramic Sea Happening‹ from 1967. In the ›Sea Concert,‹ Edward Krasiński, standing on a platform in the water, conducted the waves of the sea before an audience seated in orderly rows of chairs.

The projection brings this historic moment into the public space of the Gorki. Kantor liberated the theatre from its institutional constraints and made the beach, the sea, the wind, the audience, and passersby integral parts of a shared experience. Kossakowski’s photograph is understood not merely as a document, but as the starting point for a renewed activation.

The presentation is accompanied by discussions, performative interpretations by the Gorki ensemble, and a screening of the film ›Kantor ist da‹ by Günter Mahlow. Concurrently, an exhibition by Sarkis will open at the Gorki Theater on 4 SEP 2026. Both projects will engage in an ongoing dialogue throughout Berlin Art Week.