Invitation

‚TimeSculpture Ruin of the Arts Berlin 1985-2025‘


(ZeitSkulptur Ruine der Künste Berlin 1985-2025)





The Ruine der Künste Berlin celebrates its 40th anniversary. In the 
retrospective exhibition, the avant-garde institution exhibits its spectacular 
architecture as well as traces of hundreds of its artists' activities over the 
four decades. Curator Timo Kahlen and founder Wolf Kahlen bring the art stories 
to life in conversation with visitors.

The Ruine der Künste Berlin is a private space for material and immaterial 
arts. It’s 'recycled', sculptural architectural volume manifests an 
extraordinary architectural approach (with international acclaim since its 
opening in 1985), as the building is characterized by the careful handling and 
the simultaneity of found substance, traces of history (the ruinous 
architectural skeleton, the bombarded outer skin) and the avant-garde 'open' 
interior space 'floating' in the ephemeral shell.

The Ruine der Künste Berlin has made intermedia art history since 1985. 
Presenting site-specific, in situ and intermedia, time-based works, in more 
than 130 individual and 20 themed exhibitions (*) from 1985 to the present day. 
Encompassing the scope of all media: photography, video, film, printed media, 
the internet, telephone, language, drawing, radio, architecture, sculpture, 
sound, Artificial Intelligence, etc. Providing for installations, performances, 
concerts and lectures. Surprising with lawnmower drawings, the Ruin’s own radio 
station, the Sender Ruine der Künste Berlin, with 365 works of art via 
telephone, with interactive works of net art, with thought photography and with 
ceramic ash glazes extracted from the debris and ashes of the ruined building 
itself. Installing themed exhibitions on ‚intermedia‘ in the arts: e.g. in 'Die 
Ruine möbliert', 'handschreiben', 'Multiples', 'Out of Context', 'Gute Worte', 
'Sehen und Gesehen Werden', '200 Mal Neuauflegen' and 'DreamHouse Ruine'. 
Appearing off-site and abroad at: 'Die Ruine der Künste Berlin am Bauhaus 
Dessau', 'Die Ruine der Künste Berlin in der Kunsthalle Palazzo Basel', 'Die 
Ruine der Künste Berlin an der Kunstakademie in Peking'. Archiving the photo 
and video documents of all activities, video portraits of the artists, an oral 
history collection as well as numerous catalogs and books published by the 
in-house Edition Ruine der Künste Berlin. Providing traces of its activities to 
renowned archives: Archiv der Avantgarden ADA, Dresden, Stiftung Bauhaus 
Dessau, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Institut für moderne Kunst Nürnberg and 
others. 

In the current retrospective exhibition, we (that is: Timo Kahlen and Wolf 
Kahlen) can only show traces of our activities here. Ask us, we will tell you 
the art stories. 


(*) Presenting innovative experiments with sound art (La Monte Young, Julius, 
Bernhard Leitner, Timo Kahlen), ruin pollen (Wolfgang Laib), AI-generated image 
sequences; conceptual works such as Fluxus installations (Robert Filliou, 
Margaret Raspé), chance-controlled radio art (Wojciech Bruszewski) and film art 
(Michael Snow, Roland Steckel), art via telephone (365 Zeit-An-Sagen), video 
sculptures (Song Dong, Wolf Kahlen), thematic exhibitions on art of books and 
of handwriting (85 artists), lawnmower drawings (Yuan Shun), Tibet research 
(Eva Siao, Wolf Kahlen, Josef Vanis, Vladimír Sís), poetry and literature 
(Gerhard Rühm, Walter Aue), photography (Dieter Appelt, Evgen Bavcar, 
Gedankenphotographien, Phosphor-Photographien), ash-glaze ceramics (Barbara 
Kahlen), typography and editions (Gerd Fleischmann), philosophy (Wilhelm 
Gauger, Akong Rinpoche), experimental music and concerts (Erik Satie, 
Shakuhachi, Oberton), multiples (S.M.S. 1968) and interactive net art (Ian 
Andrews, Timo Kahlen, WolfKahlen), Chinese contemporary arts (as early as 1991: 
Yin Yufen, Zhu Jinshi, Yang Lian, Xin Yuzhen, Bei Dao), links between art and 
science (John Latham, Burkhard Heim), etc. etc.

This is your invitation to the
exhibition opening on
Sunday, May 4, 2025 at 3 pm

Duration of the exhibition
every Sunday until July 20, 2025 from 3 - 6 p.m.
and by appointment

Free admission

RUINE DER KÜNSTE BERLIN
Hittorfstr. 5
D 14195 Berlin-Dahlem
U 3 Free University
Bus M11 Hittorfstr.



press contact
wolfkah...@berlin.de <mailto:wolfkah...@berlin.de>
photos: upon request

Timo Kahlen http://www.timo-kahlen.de <http://www.timo-kahlen.de/>
Wolf Kahlen https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Kahlen 
<https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Kahlen>



The retrospective project is funded by the decentralized cultural fund
of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district office of Berlin, Department of Culture.






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