Caught in a Landslide
n.b.k. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin
1 March – 4 May 2025

With the exhibition Caught in a Landslide, n.b.k. and the KINDL present recent works by international artists based in Berlin who received the Berlin Senate’s 2024 visual arts work stipend. Spanning two venues, the exhibition showcases current developments in Berlin’s art scene and explores contemporary artistic themes through video, sound, painting, sculpture, installation, and performance. Central to many of the works is an engagement with states of ambivalence and uncertainty – both societal and personal. The artists explore internal processes, emotional landscapes, and imaginations sparked by radical change – be it migration, the collapse of a political system, or the onset of puberty.

Several artists render these unconscious and hidden processes perceptible through speculative visualizations or by activating alternative sensory modalities, such as touch and hearing. Fragile moments of contact and transference emerge in the representation and staging of bodies and body parts. Incorporating themes of individual and collective memory or repression, several works investigate and reinterpret places of transit and encounter, as well as historical architecture in Berlin. With sensitivity to the details and nuances of societal processes, the artists create new forms of expression and visual languages that emphasize ambiguity and transformation.

The title Caught in a Landslide reflects the exploration of psychological, physical, and social thresholds that unify the works in the exhibition. Borrowed from a line in the song Bohemian Rhapsody (1975) by the British rock band Queen, it also alludes to the landslide-like restructuring of Berlin’s cultural landscape and the uncertainty facing many artists as they look to the future.