31 October – 2 November 2025
Neue Nationalgalerie
Potsdamer Str. 50
10785 Berlin
The Neue Nationalgalerie is pleased to host the return of the Festival of Future Nows in the museum’s iconic Mies van der Rohe building. Ten years after its debut, the festival once again transforms both the interior and exterior of the museum into a dynamic field of artistic encounters, experiments, and visions for the future.
The Festival of Future Nows 2025 brings together around 100 international artistic positions – ranging from emerging voices to established practitioners. In a densely packed program, performative, experimental, and participatory works open up diverse and unexpected encounters throughout the museum’s indoor and outdoor spaces. Performances, happenings, sound and audio works, choreographies, dance, workshops, and both subtle and large-scale interventions invite active engagement.
Visitors are invited to enter into an open dialogue with artists and fellow guests. Through works that inspire participation, reflection, and shared experience, a space emerges for addressing urgent social and ecological issues, fostering collective agency, and imagining new forms of coexistence. At the heart of the festival is the exchange of ideas and an exploration of the role art can play in this process – ultimately aiming to foster cooperation and articulate visions for and of the future.
The first Festival of Future Nows was held in 2014 to mark the conclusion of the Institut für Raumexperimente (Institute for Spatial Experiments), an experimental education and research project, led by Olafur Eliasson at the Berlin University of the Arts from 2009 to 2014. Co-directed by Eric Ellingsen and Christina Werner, the Institute explored new approaches to artistic education and research, shaping a generation of artists through an interdisciplinary and experimental practice.
The festival’s inaugural edition took place at Neue Nationalgalerie, prior to the building’s extensive renovation. A second edition Festival of Future Nows → ∞ 2017 followed at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. Now, the third edition returns to its original location. Building on its founding vision, the festival presents art as a space for collective thinking, acting, and imagination—exploring how art can raise questions about the future and stimulate imagination for new ways of being.
Festival of Future Nows 2025 is a collaboration of the Neue Nationalgalerie – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and the Institut für Raumexperimente e. V. on initiative of Klaus Biesenbach and Olafur Eliasson.
Several performances by Sound Practice Research Kollektiv
Exhibition participants: Adrian Herzig Alica Siegele Aliou Diack Ally Bisshop Álvaro Urbano Amos Blanton Ana Lessing Menjibar Andreas Greiner Andrew Amondson Anika Frank Anne Duk Hee Jordan Anushka Chkheidze Arnold Dreyblatt Atefeh Ghasemi Nia Atvola Bureaucracy Studies Carole Anaïs Flammang Clara Jo Coy Chap Daiki Kimoto Dan Stockholm Dominic Laurin Kruschwitz Dorte Bjerre Jensen Dry Ocean Ece Pazarbaşi Elaine W. Ho Elise Eeraerts Elizabeth McTernan Eric Ellingsen Etienne Kirchhoff Fabian Knecht Fabian Thüroff Farhang Rafiee Felix Kiessling Fernanda von Trevellin Florian Huber Forty Five Degrees Frank Oehring Freya Stoermer Gabrielle Mainguy Giulia Ottavia Frattini Gonzalez Haase AAS Hannah Lansburgh Hannah W. Wetzel Hans-Henning Korb Helen Zeru Helene Nymann Hongzhu Chen Ivana Franke Jan Jelinek Jan St. Werner Jeewi Lee Jeremias Holliger Jesper Dyrehauge Joe Dumit Jona Wolf Jonas Wendelin Jorge Miñano Julian Charrière Julius von Bismarck Kai Litke Karsten Olsen Kat Heimann Kat Válastur Katinka Theuerkauf Katja Aufleger Klaas Weirauch Kyoco Taniyama Laleh Khabbazy Laura McLardy Lena Krüger Lena Muley Leon Eixenberger Linn Johanna Johannsen Linus Hüsam Lisa Friedrichs-Dachale Livyj Bereh Lucas Buschfeld Lucas Gutierrez Lutz Henke Macarena Ruiz-Tagle Malihe Nemati Nikou Malin Müller Malte Bartsch Maresa Anna Fiege Markus Hoffmann Maxim Lewandowski Melina Julie Sieverling Merlin Carter Nahum Nina Schuiki Norgard Kröger Olafur Eliasson Pascale Espinosa Pauline Doutreluingne Phillip C. Reiner Phivos Theodotou Pixelated Realities Quynh Vantu Rafael Ibarra Ramona Kortyka Raul Walch Reza Arabgari Rica Mosco Rike Horb Rike Scheffler Robert Lippok Roberto Aparicio Ronda Rodrigo Maltez Novaes Rosemary Hannon Roxana Olympia Seehof Rudyard Schmidt Rune Bosse Saleh Shaweesh Sarah Rechberger Seiji Morimoto Seoyeong Choi Simen Musæus (aeaeaeae) Sophia Pompéry Sophie Erlund Sound Practice Research Kollectiv (SPRK) Susanne Bosch Temporary Landing Zones Thieme-Williams Tímea Anita Oravecz Ulrike Zimmermann Upcoming Collective Viktoria Dergunova Vinzenz Reinecke Violeta Burckhardt XXylem Yeil Joo Yuichiro Tamura Yves Mettler
Photos: Harry Schnitger, Victoria Tomaschko, Fin Sammy Hart, Ivan Erofeev
