BERLIN.- In Kreuzberg: Kunst und Migration seit 1960 (Art and Migration since 1960), Gropius Bau showcases artistic responses to labour migration in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district since the 1960s. Bringing together some 130 works past and present, the exhibition explores experiences of migration, exile, housing crisis, racism and exclusion – as well as resistance, empowerment, solidarity and community.
Nowhere were the social and cultural changes in West Germany more powerfully manifested than in Kreuzberg. Here, the transformations reshaping life in the Federal Republic through labour recruitment agreements with countries such as Italy, Greece and Turkey played out on a local scale.
The exhibition focuses on artists who came to West Berlin in the 1970s and 1980s – whether on grants, to study or for political, economic or personal reasons. Their works address the core experiences of the so-called Gastarbeiter, or guest workers. Historical artworks – many long unseen or rarely exhibited – enter into dialogue with pieces created specifically for the exhibition, shedding new light on the history of labour migration and connecting it to contemporary debates.
Kreuzberg: Kunst und Migration seit 1960 is on view on the first floor of the Gropius Bau, spread across eleven thematically organised rooms. The exhibition comprises approximately 130 works by more than 40 artists, including paintings, prints, photography, sculpture and installation, as well as film, video and sound works. The show explores experiences of migration, exile, racism, neighbourhood change, housing crisis and the bureaucracy of so-called guest worker schemes – the systematic recruitment of labour, particularly from Turkey, but also from countries such as Greece, Italy, South Korea and the former Yugoslavia. Perspectives on labour migration are presented alongside stories of diaspora, flight and exile stemming from political persecution, dictatorship or war in countries such as Chile, Iran and Greece. At the same time, the exhibition celebrates stories of empowerment, resistance, solidarity and community, illustrating how artists challenge stereotypes through their own creative output.
The exhibition is grounded in extensive research across archives, estates and private collections, as well as numerous conversations with artists, their families and figures from the West Berlin cultural scene. On this basis, it brings to light works that have been previously overlooked or partially forgotten, both within Germany and internationally. A digital publication accompanying the show will permanently document the artworks and include short interviews with the artists, ensuring long-term access and enabling ongoing engagement with a hitherto marginalised chapter of art history.
“I am delighted to present Kreuzberg: Kunst und Migration seit 1960, an exhibition exploring the history of migration in the district that Gropius Bau calls home. We have long sought to give greater visibility to our institution’s unique location and immediate surroundings with our exhibition programme. Centring transnational perspectives, this group show sheds light on a largely neglected chapter of German art history.” — Jenny Schlenzka, Director, Gropius Bau
Following the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, Kreuzberg and Gropius Bau sat directly on the border to East Berlin – and thus at the very outer edge of West Berlin. Vacant properties, low rents and limited interest from municipal authorities attracted migrant workers, students, squatters and artists to the area, which became a convergence point for diverse lived realities that found little room elsewhere. Many of the works brought together in the exhibition respond directly to this environment, exploring the social, economic and political conditions of migrant life in the district.
Issues such as work, housing, belonging and political agency continue to shape the city today. In new works, many commissioned specifically for the exhibition, artists Kaya Behkalam, Nuray Demir, Pınar ğrenci, Minh Duc Pham, Aykan Safoğlu and Evanthia Tsantila – several of whom work in Gropius Bau studios – examine history and its omissions, reflecting on their significance for the present. By juxtaposing historical and contemporary works, the exhibition offers a perspective on Kreuzberg that weaves together past and present.
“For these artists, Kreuzberg was never merely a subject, but a site of production: they photographed neighbourhoods, assembled archives and organised festivals, publications and exhibitions, thereby forging connections between artists, workers and activists that were never recorded by any institution. The fact that younger artists are continuing these practices demonstrates not the enduring nature of a theme, but rather the persistence of inequality in the distribution of studios, acquisitions and interpretive power.” — Grsoy Doğtaş, Curator
Organised thematically, the exhibition’s galleries examine core facets of migrant and transnational life in Kreuzberg. These include the challenges posed by German administrative structures, the hardships of factory work and the situation of the children of so-called guest workers – a generation unaccounted for by German policymakers. One room is dedicated to historical continuities stemming from National Socialism, while another focuses on the experience of isolation and loneliness of being severed from friends and family in countries of origin. The show also explores urban infrastructures, acts of resistance and collective struggles against displacement alongside the squatter movement. Equally central are forms of empowerment through music and community, as well as feminist self-assertion through the reclamation of one’s own image.
“I can remember scenes from my childhood, when these streets were still right at the Berlin Wall and it was rare for children’s play to be interrupted by cars.” — Kaya Behkalam
The exhibition opens with works focusing on the everyday realities of migrant children in 1970s Kreuzberg, a hitherto overlooked aspect of migrant history in Germany. During the research process, this subject emerged as a recurring point of reference across many of the paintings, films, photographs, prints and installations in the show.
Greek artist Vlassis Caniaris – who began exhibiting in West Berlin in 1972 and became a guest of the DAAD’s Artists-in-Berlin Program in 1973 – used assemblages of recycled materials and everyday objects to explore the precarious lives of migrant families in Germany. He was particularly interested in the lived realities of the children of so-called guest workers. His 1980 sculpture Kind (Child) – consisting of a tricycle, children’s clothing, a pinwheel, wood and metal – signals a shift away from the rigid, fragmented figures of his earlier work, replacing them with a broad, expansive gesture that reads as a call for change.
In the late 1970s, Ahmet Doğan launched the bilingual book series Texte in zwei Sprachen (Texts in Two Languages) through his publishing house Ararat, with the goal of fostering multilingualism among migrant children. To that end, Turkish-language stories were translated into German and accompanied by illustrations, including contributions by Hanefi Yeter, who is represented in the exhibition by several works. His 1978 painting Analphabeten in zwei Sprachen (Illiterate in Two Languages) tackles questions of education and social inclusion, depicting two schoolchildren in front of a blackboard filled with German and Turkish writing exercises. The work highlights the challenges faced by a generation that grew up navigating different languages and cultures.
Black-and-white photograph of a classroom. Several students sit around tables while facing the front of the room. At the front, two people stand beneath a display board with photographs and handwritten signs.
Also titled Analphabeten in zwei Sprachen (Illiterate in Two Languages), a 1975 film by Mehrangis Montazami-Dabui leverages the medium to explore the lives of children of Turkish “guest workers” attending school in Kreuzberg. Montazami-Dabui, who arrived in West Berlin in 1969 and began studying at the DFFB (German Film and Television Academy) in 1972, weaves together footage of dilapidated urban infrastructure, statistical data and debates on education policy with personal testimonies from teachers, students and parents. Beyond capturing feelings of overload, anxiety and lack of prospects, the film exposes the overcrowded, often segregated Auslnderregelklassen (special “classes for foreigners”), thereby directly challenging the prevailing racist discourse that blamed high dropout rates and unemployment on the youth themselves.
The blatant presence of racist stereotypes is also reflected in Sarah Haffner’s 1982 painting 1938/1983. Created for the exhibition 1933 – Wege zur Diktatur (1933 – Paths to Dictatorship) at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Berlin, the work traces ideological continuities from National Socialism and the era of “guest work.” By placing the Nazi phrase “For Aryans Only” alongside the 1980s slogan “Turks Out,” the artist highlights xenophobia aimed at Turkish workers, the city’s largest migrant population at the time. Both inscriptions make clear who was deemed welcome in German society at different moments in history – and who was not.
Artistic counter-narratives also responded to West German debates on migration that focused not just on origins, but on visible markers such as clothing, physical appearance, demeanour and gender expression. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kreuzberg provided an experimental stage where questions of identity could be continually renegotiated. Nuray Demir’s mixed-media installation Gossip Girls (2026) honours the spaces where diverse groups defied rigid societal expectations, recounting queer-migrant histories of art and culture across Kreuzberg and West Berlin. Composed of banners, stackable white Monobloc chairs – the world’s most ubiquitous seating element – and ephemeral objects like withered roses, the installation evokes the “morning after” of a fictional event. Visitors hear stories and anecdotes from key cultural figures reflecting across generations on 1990s queer-migrant party series like Gayhane and Salon Oriental. At the same time, these voices point to the persistent lack of institutional funding for queer-migrant spaces, despite their profound influence on Kreuzberg’s cultural life.
Until now, the women who came to West Germany as part of recruitment agreements have been largely overlooked, though by the early 1970s, they accounted for 40 percent of West Berlin’s migrant workforce. Credited with exceptional fine motor skills, they were actively recruited by electronics giants like Siemens and AEG-Telefunken. Their diverse languages, biographies, professions and knowledge were routinely flattened under the single label of “female guest worker,” a reductive categorisation this exhibition actively counters.
Human and machine-like elements merge into a single bronze figure in Azade Kker’s 1987 sculpture Akkordarbeiterin (The Pieceworker). The title refers to a form of remuneration in which wages depend on the number of units produced on an assembly line. Under this scheme, female workers were paid a lower piece-rate than their male counterparts, earning less despite equal productivity. Kker’s sculpture depicts the female worker’s body as an extension of the industrial machinery, bound to its relentless pace. Yet through the figure’s defiant posture, the artist also evokes the women’s solidarity strikes of the 1970s, when migrant and non-migrant female workers joined forces to oppose discriminatory pay practices.
“Social norms ‘mummify’ the woman within the concept of femininity.” — Azade Kker Drawing of a person with dark hair, serious expression, and shirt.
Female artists frequently turned to self-portraiture to counter the identities imposed on them. In depicting themselves, they were able to determine their own posture and gaze – in other words, the terms of their own representation. Atiye Altl’s series Selbstportrt 1–4 (Self-Portrait 1–4) (1984–1990) offers a compelling example. In delicate pencil drawings, the tension between empowerment and exhaustion is palpable. Though the artist’s gaze is confident and direct, subtle shading hints at fatigue; in later self-portraits, bold contours and sharp contrasts lend her features a hardened edge.
These self-portraits are an expression of ongoing self-exploration and, at the same time, a record of her life in West Berlin. Altl arrived in the city in 1970, under the recruitment agreement with Turkey, to work at Siemens and AEG-Telefunken. Alongside her factory work, she studied at the Hochschule der Knste (University of the Arts) and later became active in the women’s project at Nachbarschaftsheim Schneberg e.V., a local community centre. Her drawings reflect both the visceral reality of physical labour and the drive for self-determination and political agency. “Once you become a worker,” the artist explains, “you see things differently. You experience exploitation firsthand. That politicises you.”
Monika Sieveking’s paintings also cast a critical eye on labour conditions. Driven by her political activism, Sieveking has portrayed migrant workers across various walks of life since the 1960s. After making sketches in the Siemens factory halls, she invited workers and fellow artists – including Mehmet Aksoy – to sit for portraits at her home. Out of these sessions emerged works including Gruppenbild mit Siemensarbeiter*innen (Group Portrait with Siemens Workers) (1973), painted in the style of West Berlin Critical Realism.
“In 1972, I was at the Immigration Office. I looked at my passport, red stamp covering the whole page: ‘exit enforcement order’. The official didn’t say anything and walked away. It crushed me.” — Hanefi Yeter
At the mercy of German bureaucracy, the migrant workers’ right to remain was always conditional. Life was governed by administrative timeframes: between government offices, forms and deadlines, a stamp in a passport determined who could stay and for how long. In Hanefi Yeter’s 1976 painting Zurck (Return), a police expulsion order covers a woman’s face, stamping a one-month deadline on her existence in West Germany. Heavily influenced by the Berlin realist movements of the 1970s, Yeter used montage to highlight how administrative procedures dictated and fractured everyday lives. During periods of economic downturn, losing employment meant losing one’s right to stay, throwing families into sudden exile.
Vlassis Caniaris’ installation Hopscotch (1974) also takes as its theme the ongoing subjugation to bureaucratic procedures and the precarious reality of living out of a suitcase. The work takes its title from the children’s game in which players hop on one leg across marked squares while attempting to keep their balance. Instead of numbers, Caniaris labels each square with a West German state regulation of the “guest worker” system – the Arbeitskommission (Labour Commission), for example, or the Auslnderpolizei (Foreigners’ Police). By turning bureaucracy into a game of balance, the artist illustrates the precarity of migrant life, where a single misstep could derail everything. Surrounding the grid, headless figures assembled from simple materials and second-hand clothing reflect the dehumanising impact of the institutions controlling labour migration.
“You were constantly deliberating, striving: How can I assert my rights? It was a constant struggle.” — Atiye Altl
Protest movements and political activism in Kreuzberg continue to shape public perception of the district to this day. Yet the positions, perspectives and experiences of migrants and exiles are often overlooked. One room of the exhibition is dedicated to works that explore struggles over housing, urban development and political agency – in short, the right to the city. Many of the participating artists were themselves actively involved in these movements.
Akbar Behkalam’s work from the early 1980s captures the intense political friction surrounding Kreuzberg’s housing activism. His 1981 paintings Zerstrter Lebensraum (Destroyed Habitat) and Staatsgewalt (State Power) were created against the backdrop of the squatters’ movement, which opposed demolition, property speculation and displacement. Behkalam depicts the people of Kreuzberg as a collective of migrant and non-migrant activists standing together against the police. By incorporating the frame into the pictorial space, he underscores both the ubiquity of police violence and the inherent dangers of political resistance.
Addressing migration, exile, social inclusion and equality, Kreuzberg: Kunst und Migration seit 1960 tackles questions that have lost none of their relevance today. By bringing together historical and contemporary perspectives, the exhibition highlights both continuities and changes, making Kreuzberg visible as a space of artistic possibility – a place where lived experiences of migration, gender and class were transformed into images, voices and stances that continue to resonate in the present. In doing so, it frames the history of migration as the history of art, filling a gap and expanding our understanding of both German art and migrant histories through perspectives that have long been marginalised.
With works by Alexis Akrithakis, Mehmet Aksoy, Atiye Altl, Ararat‑Verlag, Eduardo Arroyo, Paolo Baratella, Akbar Behkalam, Kaya Behkalam, Cecilia Boisier, Vlassis Caniaris, Nuray Demir, Grazia Eminente, Kerem Ergn, Harun Farocki, Mathos Florakis, Esther Friedman, Abuzer Gler, Sarah Haffner, Kim Min-ki / Lee Hye-kyung, Azade Kker, Evelyn Kuwertz, Stathis Logothetis, Colette Lumiere, Mihly Moldvay, Mehrangis Montazami-Dabui, Pınar ğrenci, Aras ren and Friedrich Wilhelm Zimmermann, Emine Sevgi zdamar, Eduardo Paolozzi, Minh Duc Pham, Caroline Pinger, Jannis Psychopedis, Aykan Safoğlu, Sohrab Shahid Saless, Ludmila Seefried‑Matějkov, Antonio Skrmeta, Monika Sieveking, Hyun-Sook Song, Metin Talayman, Filiz Taşkın, Evanthia Tsantila, Mehmet nal, Natascha Ungeheuer, Irena Vrkljan, Hanefi Yeter and Serpil Yeter
