
Exhibition preview·Berlin
Gropius Bau's 'Kreuzberg' frames guest-worker history as art history
Review by Mia Butter (18 September 2026): 'Kreuzberg: Kunst und Migration seit 1960' (10 September 2026–17 January 2027) gathers more than 40 artistic positions on migration, family, politics and identity across 11 themed rooms.
Across 11 rooms, the show presents underrepresented voices in German art: video works, paintings, sculptures and audio installations unfold through themes such as letter-writing, political engagement, the streets as playground, and persistent far-right sentiment. Reviewer Mia Butter highlights Mehrangis Montazami-Dabui's 1975 film 'Analphabeten in zwei Sprachen' on the children of guest workers fluent in neither Turkish nor German, and Esther Friedman's 1978/2026 photographs of Kreuzberg street life. Against today's hostile immigration rhetoric, she finds the exhibition's achievement in depicting the immigrant as artist rather than merely evidence of labour policy.

