
Nationalgalerie: Eine Sammlung für das 21. Jahrhundert
Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin
16 June 2023 – 31 December 2025
The Hamburger Bahnhof presents a multi-layered panorama of Berlin’s art scene and the city itself, spanning from the threshold of the opening of the Berlin Wall through to the present. With the new presentation of the collection in the west wing, the Hamburger Bahnhof invites the public to reflect on the role of art and cultural institutions in fostering inclusion, engagement and social transformation.
Some 80 artworks, including paintings, works on paper, sculptures, photographs and videos, explore the sociopolitical and economic factors that have shaped the city and the artistic practices to have emerged from within it. Sibylle Bergemann, Rainer Fetting, Isa Genzken, Mona Hatoum, Emeka Ogboh, Anri Sala, Selma Selman, Isaac Chong Wai and Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt are among the 60 artists included in the display.
For the first time, the Nationalgalerie’s contemporary art holdings will enter into a long-term exchange with the art collection of the German Federal Government and the collection of the ifa – Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations. The exhibition will be further enriched by a selection of significant new acqui-sitions. Familiar major works will be shown alongside others that have rarely, if ever, been shown before.

Petrit Halilaj, Álvaro Urbano, 10th of May 2016 (Cherry), 2020; Installation view of Nationalgalerie: Eine Sammlung tur das 21. Jahrhundert, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, 2023; Stainless steel, canvas, acrylic paint, thread; Flower: 270 × 450 × 450 ø 450 cm; Courtesy of the Artists, Berlin and Nationalgalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Berlin


Annette Frick, Installation view of Nationalgalerie: Eine Sammlung tur das 21. Jahrhundert, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, 2023; Courtesy of the Artist, Berlin and Nationalgalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Berlin

Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Installation view of Nationalgalerie: Eine Sammlung tur das 21. Jahrhundert, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, 2023; Courtesy of the Artist, Berlin and Nationalgalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Berlin
Photos by Jacopo La Forgia