7th Berliner Herbstsalon: RE:IMAGINE: THE RED HOUSE

The 7th Berliner Herbstsalon at the Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin/Germany, will take place from October 2 until November 30, 2025 under the title of RE:IMAGINE: THE RED HOUSE – INVENTORIES/INTERVENTIONS/INVENTIONS featuring an exhibition with works by over 100 artists, performances and several world premieres on stage, e.g. by Ersan Mondtag and Lola Arias.

For the exhibition, Shermin Langhoff, artistic director of the Gorki and curator of the Herbstsalon, has invited both long-time Gorki collaborators and contemporary artists with new and site-specific works.

Some artists are exhibiting works commissioned by the Herbstsalon, including Züli Aladağ, Danica Dakić, Daniel Knorr, Damian James Le Bas and Serpil Yeter. Some artists are represented with multiple works, for example, Zehra Doğan, Cana Bilir-Meier and Hiwa K. Award-winning author Emine Sevgi Özdamar is presenting her early self-portraits in an art exhibition for the first time.

The ongoing collective research process into the first generation of women who immigrated to Germany to work in the 1960s and 70s, including Emine Sevgi Özdamar and the other residents of the Berlin company Telefunken women’s dormitory at Stresemannstraße 30, and their stories comprises the centrepiece of and the gateway for the Herbstsalon. Furthermore, the spotlight is also on the second and third generations of immigrants, who invite us to take history personally and reflect on our here and now.

Many of the works in the Herbstsalon search for biographical traces and examine spaces of gathering and community, those chosen and those forced, their destruction as well as their power, from the theatre to prison, from home to school, from shisha bar to train compartment, from factory to dormitory. It’s about community, which can be temporary and ephemeral, like the audience at a performance in the theatre; lived in solidarity, such as the women in political prisons in Zehra Doğan’s works or the choir as polis in Marta Górnicka’s work, such as the power of the Le Bas family of artists or Danica Dakić’s new community.

An intervention by Nevin Aladağ at the entrance to the Maxim Gorki Theatre greets the audience during the Herbstsalon. From the roof of the building hangs an oversized carpet runner whose pattern can be read as “oriental”, thus addressing the ongoing discussions in Germany about the diversification of society and whether it is possible to live together with our differences. 

The Herbstsalon begins on October 2 with multiple events: the performance TAKDİR. DIE ANERKENNUNG by Ülkü Süngün  starts the opening to the public of the exhibition (5pm, admission free) located throughout the Gorki, in the Palais am Festungsgraben, the Gorki Kiosk and outdoor spaces, followed by the world premiere of Ersan Mondtag’s production of DAS ROTE HAUS on the Gorki mainstage (6:30pm). At 8:30pm, TO BE IN A TIME OF WAR by Etel Adnan will premiere in Studio Я, before Delaine Le Bas presents her performance Z-SAUCE.

The 7th Berliner Herbstsalon 2025, curated by Shermin Langhoff, combines the visual and performing arts in the format of an interdisciplinary biennial. It examines hegemonic constructions of identity, unity, origins and nation, contrasting them with a historical narrative of the many and the productive conflict of perspectives. One hundred years after Herwarth Walden’s first and last Deutscher Herbstsalon in 1913, Shermin Langhoff began her tenure as artistic director of the Maxim Gorki Theatre with the first Berliner Herbstsalon in 2013. Her last season at the Gorki will end in 2026.

The Herbstsalon magazine can be found here. Visit our website for the complete programme.

Exhibition
In total, more than 100 works by around 60 artists will be on display in the exhibition. The invited artists include Nevin Aladağ, Züli Aladağ, bankleer, Mehtap Baydu, Miraz Bezar, Cana Bilir-Meier, Zühal Bilir-Meier, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Timur Çelik, Danica Dakić, Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Nihan Devecioğlu, Zehra Doğan, Can Dündar, Ahu Dural, Atom Egoyan, Semra Ertan, Harun Farocki & Antje Ehmann, Eleftheria Gerofoka, Marta Górnicka, Manaf Halbouni, Imaginary Collective, Hiwa K, Gülsün Karamustafa, Miro Kaygalak, Piruza Khalapyan, Rola Khayyat, Daniel Knorr, Davit Kochunts, Omer Krieger, Shermin Langhoff & Ensemble, Damian Le Bas, Damian James Le Bas, Delaine Le Bas, Jazgul Madazimova, Maria Paula Maldonado, Khoren Matevosyan, Astghik Melkonyan, Hakan Savaş Mican, Karen Mirzoyan, Ersan Mondtag, Lousineh Navasartian, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Sasapin Siriwanij, Ülkü Süngün, Filiz Taşkın, Hale Tenger, Nasan Tur, Melek Konukman-Tulgan, Laura Uribe & Sabina Aldana, Serpil Yeter, Zentrum für Politische Schönheit and Želimir Žilnik.

Theater/performance
The opening production, DAS ROTE HAUS by Ersan Mondtag, is dedicated to Berlin’s Stresemannstraße 30 and the stories and histories of its inhabitants. This was once the Telefunken company dormitory for women who came from Turkey in the 1960s and 70s to start their new lives in Berlin. A documentary exhibition and a series of related events complement the production. The 7th Herbstsalon will also feature world-premiere productions from Lola Arias (with ANDROGYNOUS. PORTRAIT OF A NAKED DANCER.), BERLIN KARL-MARX-PLATZ by Hakan Savaş Mican, EINE NEBENSACHE by Adania Shibli and Oliver Frljić, as well as many other premieres, lectures and performances by Etel Adnan, Nazanin Noori and Rhola Khayyat, among many other artists.

In search of new forms of communities for the future, Danica Dakić has initiated the KIOSK FOR A MAGIC FUTURE. This is where the Imaginary Collective is being founded; artists such as Farzane Vartizibar, Isaac Chong Wai and many more are also represented in this performative exhibition in the Gorki Kiosk. With LIKE A PRAYER, Omer Krieger offers another participatory place of gathering.

Talks
The discussion series Leben, Liebe, Arbeit & Widerstand (Life, Love, Work & Resistance) brings the pioneers of the Telefunken company's women's dormitory together with their daughters and granddaughters, takes a look at the company's history between consumer electronics and arms production, examines the legendary wildcat strikes of the 1970s, discusses the visibility of female immigrant workers in film and art and, last but not least, follows the traces of (post)migrant art and cultural practice from 1960 to the present day.

Literature
Based on Emine Sevgi Özdamar's Die Brücke vom Goldenen Horn (1998), the literature series Was will Sevgi in der Stresemannstr.? (What does Sevgi want in Stresemannstr.?) is dedicated to a path of memory that leads to the Telefunken company's women's dormitory on Stresemannstraße. Join us for insights from Fatma Aydemir, Zehra Çırak, Şehnaz Dost, Dinçer Güçyeter, Dilek Güngör, Lütfiye Güzel, Deniz Ohde, José F. A. Oliver, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Sasha Salzmann, Saliha Scheinhardt, Zafer Şenocak, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Necati Öziri, Deniz Utlu and many more.

Film
Die Arbeiterinnen verlassen die Fabrik (The Workers Are Leaving the Factory) is a series of screenings bringing together selected works about former dormitory residents, their daughters, other guest workers from the first generation and those who witnessed that era. Discover films, documentaries and works for television by Cem Kaya, Edith Marcello, Jeanine Meerapfel, Sema Poyraz, Özlem Sarıyıldız, Hannelore Schäfer, Sofoklis Adamidis, Merlyn Solakhan, David Wittenberg. All screenings will also feature members of the cast and crew, as well as special guests. In addition, as part of the exhibition, a programme of other rare films made between 1969 and 2023 by Hakan Savaş Mican, Ayşe Polat, Sema Poyraz, Helma Sanders-Brahms and Ayhan Salar, will be shown in a loop on the screen in the Roter Salon every day during opening hours.

7th Berliner Herbstsalon at Maxim Gorki Theater
Curated by Shermin Langhoff / Dramaturgy Erden Kosova (Exhibition), Johannes Kirsten (Theater), Ong Keng Sen (Performance & Lecture) / Assistants to the Curator Thalia Hertel (Lead), Maral Müdok (Exhibition), Paula Rave (Exhibition & Performance), Helen Waeder (Theater & Literature), Theresa Welge (Theater), Asya Yaghmurian (Artist Liaison) / Research Team Stresemannstraße 30—Eine Inventur 2025 Hülya Karci, Erden Kosova, Tunçay Kulaoğlu, Maral Müdok, Gari Vanisian, Mürtüz Yolcu / Co-Curators Programming Roter Salon Tunçay Kulaoğlu, Gari Vanisian (Film) Deniz Utlu, Endre Malcolm Holéczy (Literature) / Scenography Exhibition Alice Faucher / Stage Design Assistance Martha Bamberg, Lucy Loeb, Wanda Prawitt, Paola Schubert, Ruby Wisdom.

The 7th Berliner Herbstsalon is funded by the State of Berlin, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt (Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion). In collaboration with Theater findet Stadt e.V.