Artistic Research Festival

This inaugural edition of the Artistic Reseach Festival presents contributions that have emerged from the artistic research community of the Berliner Programm Künstlerische Forschung. Over several days and across various venues, the festival unfolds as a series of acts—installations, performances, readings, scores, sounds, screenings, dialogues, disruptions, and fugitive forms—shaped by the distinct research practices of each participating artist.

The contributions by Anton Kats, Luise Schröder, İz Öztat, Mykola Ridnyi, Dan Lie, Jessica Ekomane, Anta Helena Recke, Henrike Naumann, Anna Zett, Pary El-Qalqili, Murat Adash, Marta Popivoda and Holly Herndon intertwine the methodologies, trajectories, and artistic forms that constitute the fellows’ research projects. Together, they form a constellation of practices that intersect, diverge, and coexist—a porous, many-voiced proposal for being alongside, where artistic research is not a fixed discipline or a method to be mastered, but a living inquiry into how we know, sense, imagine, and relate.

Thought takes form—not only in language, but in movement, image, sound, material, and relation. The festival claims space for research to emerge in its transformative capacity: as a communal act, driven by the desire to shift the inner mechanisms of knowing by artistic means.

Sunday, November 2, 3–5pm
Anton Kats at S A V V Y Contemporary
An afternoon in Anton Kats’ solo exhibition with a conversation between the artist and Rike Frank, interwoven with a listening session of his new album Sudnozavod.
Language: English / Details

Wednesday, November 5, 5:30–6.30pm 
Luise Schröder at alpha nova & galerie futura
Guided tour of the exhibition Die Antwort lautet: NEIN by the artist, centering on histories of women’s and lesbian resistance in the GDR.
Language: German with English live-translation / Details 

Wednesday, November 5, 8–9:30pm
İz Öztat, Mykola Ridnyi at SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA
Screening of two video works employing performative strategies—puppetry and a time-traveling walk—to explore tensions between individual agency and systemic violence, followed by a conversation between the artists.
Language: English / Tickets

Thursday, November 6, 6-7:30pm
Dan Lie, Jessica Ekomane at Cashmere Radio
Dan Lie facilitates a participatory reflection on the term “Artistic Research,” Jessica Ekomane a DJ set and listening session that blends sonic curation with archival excerpts.
Language: English / Limited capacity. To join at Cashmere Radio, registration is mandatory. Registration / The show will also be streamed online.

Friday, November 7, 7–10pm
Anta Helena Recke, Henrike Naumann, Anna Zett, Pary El-Qalqili, Murat Adash, Marta Popivoda, Holly Herndon at Sophiensæle
The closing night, a mosaic of formats, includes performative approaches to artistic research as well as sound and moving image interventions. In their manifoldness they navigate sensory and material layers of interrelatedness.
Language: English, German / Tickets

The festival also marks the fifth anniversary of the Berlin Artistic Research Programme, which, despite its international recognition, is threatened with closure. Currently, no further funding is allocated by the Berlin CDU/SPD in the 2026/27 culture budget draft. This would mean the end of the programme, which was initiated and has been funded by the Berlin Senate Department since 2020. A decision that directly contradicts the significance of artistic research practices—both within today’s art and cultural landscape and in their critical engagement with social issues.

Fellows & team: Bini Adamczak, Murat Adash, Jessica Ekomane, Pary El-Qalqili (Weltoffenes Berlin), Daniel Falb, Holly Herndon, Anton Kats, Dan Lie, Henrike Naumann, İz Öztat, Marta Popivoda, Anta Helena Recke, Konstanze Schmitt, Luise Schröder

Executive Direction: Rike Frank
Coordination & Production: Mihaela Chiriac
Communication & PR: Philicia Kraatz
Graphic Design: Giacomo Moroso
gkfd: Kathrin Busch

In collaboration with: Sophiensæle, Cashmere Radio, S A V V Y Contemporary, ŠINEMA TRANSTOPIA, alpha nova & galerie futura.

Parts of the festival are supported by “Terms & Conditions”, a collaboration between the programme and the Harun Farocki Institut.

The programme is funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.