GUIDED TOURS

Most Dismal Swamp, Scraper, Video still, detail, 2023. Courtesy the artist.

Poetics of Encryption
17.02.24–26.05.24

The continuum between digital and physical domains is a key issue today. Contemporary art registers this fact—with much new work exploring the interface between computation and the ‘real’ world. But tech is often hidden, or encrypted. As a result, commentaries on the interface appear defined by speculation, if not suspicion. Poetics of Encryption explores this phenomenon and is dedicated to the hidden dimensions of our technological landscape.
The group exhibition spans across the three floors of KW, elaborating imaginaries of the Black Site, Black Hole and Black Box, within an architectural scheme by Jürgen Mayer H. spanning analogue and digital media, this exhibition will unfold a poetic of encryption through historic and newly commissioned works by more than thirty international artists, amongst others: Nora Al-Badri, Emile Brout & Maxime Marion, Gillian Brett, Simone C. Niquille, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Julian Charrière, Joshua Citarella, Juan Covelli, Kate Crawford & Vladan Joler, Sterling Crispin, Clusterduck, Simon Denny, Most Dismal Swamp, Ênore, Tilman Hornig, Andrea Khôra, Jonna Kina, Egor Kraft, Eva & Franco Mattes, Carsten Nicolai, Trevor Paglen, Jon Rafman, Sebastian Schmieg, Charles Stankievech, Troika, Ubermorgen Nico Vascellari, Zheng Mahler.

  • Guided Tour for groups
    in German & English
    60 min, 70 €
    plus admission
  • Guided Tour for school groups
    in English and German
    60 min, 55 €
    plus admission, free up to 18 years of age


  • Booking
    > (+49) 30 247 49 888
    > museumsdienst@kulturprojekte.berlin

  • Public Guided Tour
    Saturdays in English & Sundays in German 4pm
    60 min, free


Zuschnitt: KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2023. Foto: Frank Sperling

KW, a hike
Tour through the streets into the past of KW

In the early 1990s, KW Institute for Contemporary Art was founded in a former margarine factory. Their history is inseparably linked to that of their neighborhood, the surrounding streets and its buildings. To understand KW’s historical entanglements, we embark on a walking tour of boarded-up buildings, underground garages, distant domes over burial chambers, communist clubhouses, and the courtyard of a collector who lives in a former nationalized factory. A view of a distant skyscraper overshadowing Soviet-era relics on Alexanderplatz marks the end of our tour of KW’s neighboring streets.

  • Guided Tour for groups
    in English & German
    90 min, 95 €
    no entry to the exhibitions
  • Guided Tour for school groups
    in English & German
    90 Min, 85 €
    no entry to the exhibitions

  • Booking
    > +49 (0)30 247 49 888
    > museumsdienst@kulturprojekte.berlin

  • Public Tour
    in English Sunday 17.12. & 14.01. 11am
    in German Sunday 19.11. & 11.02. 11am
    90 min, free
    Online-Booking required in advance > here