Berlin Art Institute

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Berlin Art Institute

International Artist Residency | Contemporary Art School | Innovative Arts Incubator Currently, our international team consists of about 60 guest lecturers.
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The BERLIN ART INSTITUTE promotes artistic production, discourse, mediation and research, and through educational programs is dedicated to training and further education in the contemporary context. Through international cooperation, the BAI strives for intercultural exchange and a lively, transnational dialogue, and acts as a player in the art, culture, creative, and education sector. The BERLIN

ART INSTITUTE runs an international artist residency, independent art school, innovative arts incubator, and professional production site. The studios of the institute are located in the building complex 404 at "Motorwerk Berlin" in the Berlin district of Weißensee. The BAI makes use of the large number of national and international artists in Berlin and generates its temporary and regular partners from this pool to make a broad and flexible training offer. The regular events of the BAI with alternating artists, critics, curators etc. enable all participants an artistic and cultural exchange with the actors of contemporary art in Berlin during their stay. In addition to the international Studio Program, the BAI offers a Residency Program for international art universities, art academies, embassies, agencies, institutions, organizations, associations, foundations and enterprises, Portfolio Courses, Masterclasses, a Spring Academy, an Arts Incubator for the cultural, creative & digital industries, an Online Program, a Friends Program and the presentation and exhibition display 404 | BAI.

31/08/2026

CCP Fellow at BAI: Maria Zakaryan

Maria Zakaryan is an interdisciplinary artist from Armenia working across analog photography, experimental film, video, mixed-media collage, installation, zines, and performance. Their practice explores identity, memory, the body, trauma, feminism, q***rness, ecology, and family connections.

Alongside their artistic practice, Maria is part of FemLibrary, a q***r feminist collective and library in Yerevan bringing together feminist and q***r activism, art, and academia.

During their CrossCulture Programme (CCP) Fellowship at the Berlin Art Institute, Maria is working with video materials for BAI’s social media and archive while developing an artistic project exploring the coexistence of humans and insects.

Through an experimental process, they investigate how insects – particularly parasites – are perceived in relation to humans and explore what might happen if these roles were reversed: instead of humans exploiting nature and consuming other animals, imagining the human body as one that could sustain and feed other forms of life.

As part of Maria Zakaryan’s fellowship programme, BAI hosted an artist talk with them on August 27, 2026, in which they shared insights into their artistic practice as well as q***r art and activism in Armenia.

Maria’s fellowship is part of the CrossCulture Programme, run by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.

Text & image courtesy of Maria Zakaryan / on Instagram

Kulturaustausch
ՖեմԳրադարան / FemLibrary Armenia

24/08/2026

Institutions, markets and professional networks have their own structures of access. Artistic practice does not have to begin with their approval.

At Berlin Art Institute, we create conditions for artists and creative practitioners to develop their work through experimentation, critical exchange and engagement with contemporary art — without prescribing a single route or definition of success.

Start with the work.

Discover BAI and our programs:
https://berlinartinstitute.com/

22/08/2026

Join us for the annual BAI Open House, featuring the BAI Open Studios and BAI Fellows Exhibition.

On September 09, 2026, from 6:00–9:00 pm, BAI opens its doors to the public. Explore the studios, meet participating artists, and discover selected works developed by BAI Fellows over the past 12 months during their participation in the Studio Program.

BAI Open Studios
With works by Debjani Bhattacharya, Karen Dolev, Rylan Friday, Madhav Ashok Menon (Bamboo), Cassandra Renzullo, Rotem Ritov, Nora Suárez and Adam Sumner, including ifa CCP Fellows Rokaya Abdelhafez, Mariam Zakaryan and Ruslan Zhubanysh.

BAI Fellows Exhibition
With works by Alexander Aburanem, Nina Bennardo, Giel Brouwer, Edwin Choi, Kfir Goldenberg, Leslie Grollman, Pawel Jankiewicz, Jijo Kuriakose, Ella Ogan, Sophia op ten Berg, Michal Rubens, Elinor Sahm, Noa Simhayof Shahaf, Richard Sund Jr., Katja Toporski, Simge Uzkurt, Danielle + Astrid van Drie (das.art), Beatrix Villiers, Karen Wood, among others, and participants of the Master Class Out of Line: Drawing With and Beyond the Self by Dagmara Genda.

The evening also marks the opening of correct me if i’m foreign, a multimedia exhibition presented by BAI and ART PROJECT REVOLUTION exploring how language shapes belonging, visibility and exclusion in migrant experience.

Opening Reception & BAI Open Studios
September 09, 2026 | 6:00–9:00 pm

Exhibition Dates
September 10–18, 2026 | 12:00–6:00 pm
Closed Monday, September 14

📍 Berlin Art Institute
An der Industriebahn 12–16
Building 404 | Top Floor
13088 Berlin

Free admission & open to the public.

More information:
https://berlinartinstitute.com/bai-open-house-2026/

Photo courtesy of Leslie Grollman.

21/08/2026

Who gets to participate shapes what art can become.

At Berlin Art Institute, we believe that opening access means opening art to different experiences, positions and possibilities. Artists and creative practitioners from different backgrounds and stages come together to develop their practice through exchange, experimentation and engagement with contemporary art.

Discover BAI and our programs:
https://berlinartinstitute.com/

20/08/2026

Next Thursday at BAI – join us for an evening of artistic exchange and conversation.

August 27, 2026 | 7 pm

Artist Talk: q***r bodies, art and activism in armenia by Maria Zakaryan

Maria will introduce their artistic practice and share insights into q***r art and activism in Armenia – its initiatives, projects, and forms of resistance.

What does it mean to have a q***r body? Is having a q***r body a crime? What does it mean to exist in a reality that refuses to believe that you exist?

Through art, activism, and personal experience, the presentation considers how having a q***r body can be both a vulnerable and rebellious act.

Maria Zakaryan is an interdisciplinary artist from Armenia working across photography, film, video, collage, installation, zines, and performance. Their practice explores identity, memory, the body, feminism, q***rness, and ecology. They are also part ՖեմԳրադարան, a q***r feminist collective and library in Yerevan.

Maria Zakaryan is currently a CCP Fellow at BAI as part of the CrossCulture Programme run by Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.
ifa.visualarts Kulturaustausch

📍 Berlin Art Institute
An der Industriebahn 12–16 | 13088 Berlin

Image courtesy of Maria Zakaryan

17/08/2026

There is no single route into art — and no single way forward.

At Berlin Art Institute, different backgrounds, experiences and approaches meet in a shared commitment to artistic practice. What matters is not following a prescribed trajectory, but creating the conditions to question, develop and position your work.

With BAI THE WAY, we begin a new series of perspectives on artistic practice, access, exchange, experimentation and navigating the contemporary art world.

Discover BAI and our programs:
https://berlinartinstitute.com/

15/08/2026

What is evil? Why do we still use the term — and how do we represent something that seems to defy explanation or understanding?

In STAGING EVIL, Steven Warwick takes his book-length essay Notes on Evil as a point of departure for a five-day Master Class connecting different islands of possibility across q***r, cinematic and critical contemporary theory and artistic practice.

Through experimental electronic music, theatrical performance, creative writing, video, sculpture and installation, participants will explore how we create meaning, construct narratives and stage ideas for the public realm of appearances and representation.

Bridging research and artistic practice, the course moves through storytelling and fairytale, conspiracy and the shadow self, grotesques and rhetoric, masks, cinema, performance and contemporary media — questioning preconceptions and dismantling familiar socio-political taxonomies, binaries and systems.

An intensive, experiential and experimental Master Class for artists interested in expanding their artistic vocabulary and developing new ways of moving between theory and praxis.

STAGING EVIL: Folk Devils, Social Dramaturgy, Performance and Object Making
with Steven Warwick

November 23–27, 2026
Berlin Art Institute
Language: English | Limited seats

Video courtesy of & the participating artists · Edited by

ArtPractice ArtEducation Berlin

10/08/2026

Under construction: our September program during Berlin Art Week 2026.

Something is taking shape at Berlin Art Institute.

On September 9, we open our annual BAI Open House, featuring the BAI Open Studios and BAI Fellows Exhibition, alongside "correct me if I'm foreign" – a multimedia exhibition presented with ART PROJECT REVOLUTION exploring language, migration, belonging, visibility, and exclusion.

Across video, photography, painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, "correct me if I'm foreign" examines what is altered, lost, or made visible in translation – across languages, institutions, and media systems.

September 9, 2026 | 6 – 9 pm
Opening Reception + BAI Open House
BAI Open Studios & BAI Fellows Exhibition

September 10–18, 2026
correct me if I’m foreign + BAI Fellows Exhibition
12–6 pm | closed September 14

September 11, 2026 | 6 – 10 pm
Performance Night
Soliloquy by Monika Błaszczak

Berlin Art Institute
An der Industriebahn 12–16, 13088 Berlin
Building 404 | Top Floor

Free admission.

BERLIN ART INSTITUTE (BAI)
FUNDACJA ART PROJECT REVOLUTION

04/08/2026

Only 3️⃣ days to go – RSVP now!

Join us at the Berlin Art Institute for Navigating Homophobia – One Frame at a Time by writer, artist, photographer, and filmmaker Jijo Kuriakose from India.

The evening will include an artist talk, film screening, and Q&A exploring q***r visibility, self-representation, cinema, and resistance.

📅 August 7, 2026
🕖 7–9 pm
📍 Berlin Art Institute
An der Industriebahn 12–16
13088 Berlin

Jijo Kuriakose is currently a CCP Fellow at BAI as part of the CrossCulture Programme run by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.

RSVP via the link in our bio.

Image: He and Him Series, 2018
Watercolour and micron pen on paper
29.7 × 21 cm
Courtesy of Jijo Kuriakose

Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen ifa.visualarts Kulturaustausch

31/07/2026

Artist In Residence: Elinor Sahm

Elinor Sahm (1986, Jerusalem) is a multidisciplinary Berlin based artist working across drawing, painting, sound and installation, Sahm explores the ways personal and collective histories are constructed, remembered, and transformed. Her work often draws upon her family history, situated between Sephardic-Jewish and German narratives, and moves along the shifting boundaries between documentation, memory, and fiction.

During her participation in the Studio Program Art Residency at the BERLIN ART INSTITUTE, Sahm has been developing a new body of work emerging from the extensive photographic archive of her late mother, the photographer Varda Polak-Sahm. Working with photographs taken throughout her childhood, she revisits an intimate visual history shaped simultaneously by the gaze of a mother and that of an artist. She explores the distance between Israeli and German perceptions of the body, particularly their contrasting attitudes toward nudity, intimacy, exposure, and shame. (Text & image courtesy of the artist)

Adresse

An Der Industriebahn 12-16
Berlin
13088

Telefon

+493023573530

Webseite

http://www.BerlinArtInstitute.com/

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