What is worth fighting for in the face of current crises and a democracy that is increasingly under pressure? What themes characterize the history of social democracy and how are these reflected in the extensive art collection of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung?

These questions form the starting point of the two-part exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) at Künstlerhaus Bethanien and the FES. Based on thematic focuses such as war, repression and expulsion, portraiture and representation, identity and self-determination and many more, a curated selection from the collection will be shown in dialog with contemporary positions of (former) art scholarship holders. Historically determined gaps, such as a small number of female artists or female portraits, are reflected and filled by current artistic works.

The exhibition is part of the European Month of Photography (EMOP) 2025.

With The Practical Guide to Gardening, Esvin Alarcón Lam directs attention to the painful stories of transplantation and transformation—both in relation to his own body and to bamboo. He shows how personal and cultural interventions leave traces that speak of both loss and resistance. Like bamboo, which was transplanted into foreign landscapes through colonial practices, his body tells a story of adaptation and overcoming, of vulnerability and the possibility of putting down new roots. The artist invites us to understand identity, the body, and culture as processes shaped by rupture, migration, and renewal.

In her exhibition Liminal State(less), Tini Aliman explores the state of ambiguity, disorientation and transition. The artist considers socio-topographical borders and transit zones as deeply political sites and actions. She examines the turbulent coexistence of social infrastructures and various ecosystems that surround urban space. The artist contemplates the feeling of displacement and homesickness – a state of “liminality” and in-between spaces when one’s own body seeks to find balance in a new urban or social ecosystem.

In 2024, Künstlerhaus Bethanien is celebrating its 50-year anniversary. It has always been a place of experimentation and innovation, and artists who work with sound have been among its guests from the very beginning. Its program has always been shaped by public exhibitions, concerts, performances, and discussion-based events. Guests working in the studios as part of the residency program have collaborated with artists from the city in many different fields. It is precisely such experimental and genre-transcending projects that have cemented Künstlerhaus Bethanien’s place as one of the most extraordinary art spaces in Berlin—and beyond.

Douglas Kolk (1963, Newark—2014, Boston) was a USA-born and based artist whose life and practice were closely intertwined with Berlin’s artistic milieu of the 1990s. Kolk’s work revolved around questions of identity, initially through small-format drawings and later through large-format collages combined with painting. The exhibition at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, featuring Douglas Kolk’s works from the collections in Berlin, marks his first retrospective in more than a decade, inviting us to rethink the current image of the 1990s pop culture. Kolk delved into processes of self-loss and self-recognition through identification with youth subcultures, to which he was particularly sensitive in terms of their visual dialects.