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What’s on in 2027: Highlights at the museums of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Press release from 08/31/2026
Thomas Gainsborough: 300th anniversary, Ai Weiwei at the Bode Museum, Arnold Böcklin beyond the myth, international abstraction, artist’s books by Jonathan Meese and pharaohs you can touch, a children’s biennial making its debut, and the reopening of the Pergamon Museum as the crowning glory.
SPK President Marion Ackermann, together with the museum directors and curators, presented a selection of special exhibitions from the 2027 programme and explained: “The SPK’s museums are enjoying a particularly successful year for exhibitions. The Neue Nationalgalerie and the Hamburger Bahnhof, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode Museum and the Neues Museum are all recording rising visitor numbers, in some cases in double figures. We are also seeing a significant increase of 30 per cent in annual pass sales. This gives us cause for optimism for 2027 as well, a year that will not only celebrate the reopening of the Pergamon Museum but will also offer many opportunities to see familiar works in a new light and to discover something new – from outstanding works of art history to international perspectives on contemporary art. Particularly in these times, we want to create spaces that showcase diversity, forge connections and bring together different perspectives. That is what the SPK stands for.”
In the ‘Engländer-Raum’ of the Gemäldegalerie, the programme presentation already offered a preview of the special exhibition to be held there to mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of the painter Thomas Gainsborough. Thanks to his lively style, Gainsborough is today arguably the most popular English painter of his era. Berlin’s unique collection of British painting, established by Wilhelm von Bode, will be supplemented for the exhibition by outstanding international loans. – How does photography engage with the paintings of the Old Masters and the museum as a venue for presentation? This, too, is a focus of interest for the Gemäldegalerie in the coming year. In around 90 photographic installations, international photographers such as Jeff Wall, Candida Höfer, Carrie Mae Weems and Martin Parr engage in a dialogue with the collection’s masterpieces as part of the exhibition ‘The Art of Seeing’.
The Alte Nationalgalerie is also celebrating a great master: to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth, it is dedicating an exhibition to Arnold Böcklin, thereby turning the spotlight on one of Symbolism’s most significant artistic figures. ‘Böcklin. Beyond the Myth’ brings together for the first time the four surviving versions of his most famous motif, ‘The Isle of the Dead’, which are now held in Basel, Berlin, Leipzig and New York. A sensation! In the second half of the year, this will be followed by the rediscovery of the Lithuanian artist Čiurlionis, who sought to present a holistic portrayal of the cosmos in both art and music.
Without him, Martin Luther would never have achieved such fame: Lucas Cranach the Elder, one of the most prolific and influential artists of the German Renaissance, used his paintings to disseminate political and theological ideas and played a key role in advancing the Reformation. In its Cranach exhibition, marking the conclusion of a large-scale interdisciplinary research and externally funded project, the Kupferstichkabinett explores themes relating to the politicisation and instrumentalisation of art in the 16th century. Viewed through a contemporary lens, aspects such as propaganda, discrimination and anti-Semitism are also addressed.
Political iconography and the power of images are also explored at the Art Library: it delves into Jonathan Meese’s provocative world of images, language and ideas and, in collaboration with the artist, is developing a large-scale installation for the Kulturforum. The book as an artistic medium takes centre stage – from early school and sketchbooks, through comics, material and collage books, to monumental performance books. Also: the exhibition ‘Bizarr’ tells the story of this word, which first appeared in the 14th century in Dante’s ‘Inferno’ and has since been used to describe anything that transcends the boundaries of the normal.
He is regarded as a pioneer of light art and revolutionised our understanding of sculpture and perception: James Turrell. The Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart is dedicating its first comprehensive retrospective in Berlin to the American artist, thereby also drawing on its own collection, which includes works by Dan Flavin as well as his iconic light installation on the museum’s façade on Invalidenstraße.
With the exhibition ‘Ai Weiwei at the Bode Museum’ (working title), one of the defining voices of international contemporary art engages with the museum’s collection, history and architecture. His interventions open up new perspectives on questions of belonging and exclusion, of power and resistance, of memory and loss. They also demonstrate how identity only takes shape through an encounter with the supposedly foreign.
Abstraction with an international perspective – with the exhibition ‘Great Freedom. International Abstraction after 1945’, broadens its global outlook. It showcases the diverse manifestations of abstract art: from Japan to Latin America, from ZERO in Düsseldorf to Arab abstraction. The Neue Nationalgalerie is also honouring Katharina Sieverding with her first retrospective in Berlin. Alongside the artist’s large-format photographic montages, the Mies Building will also host multi-channel slide projections and room-filling film installations.
In 2027, alongside high-calibre art exhibitions, shifts in perspective and artistic debates within the museum, the focus will also be on new ways of engaging with cultural heritage. From March, ancient Egyptian culture can be literally ‘touched and grasped’ at the Neues Museum: all exhibits can be felt at life-size. On display are replicas from the plaster cast workshop, reproductions made from the original materials and a number of originals. Scents such as frankincense, myrrh and lotus complement the tactile experience. All display tables are wheelchair-accessible. An audio guide enables visitors to explore the inclusive exhibition at their own pace.
In 2027, a Children’s Biennale will take place for the first time at several SPK venues in Berlin. This internationally oriented exhibition format presents contemporary art and combines international artistic perspectives with the viewpoints and themes of a younger generation. As a participatory and interactive exhibition and educational format, the Children’s Biennale combines contemporary art with new forms of art education and creates space for encounters, exchange and individual approaches to the artworks.
The loss of thousands of European settlements is one of the most profound upheavals of the last hundred years. The ‘Atlantis’ exhibition project by the Museum of European Cultures explores such places that have vanished from the map. The museum brings together interviews, historical documents, artefacts, photographs and sound installations to create a comprehensive exhibition. In collaboration with academics, museums, research institutions, photographers, designers and musicians from Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Germany, a multi-layered exhibition has been created.
An exhibition at the Museum of Ethnology in the Humboldt Forum shows how indigenous communities in Costa Rica experience their rich natural environment. Archaeological evidence and contemporary indigenous perspectives are presented side by side, highlighting the need to protect nature. Furthermore, from the end of 2026, the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Ethnology at the Humboldt Forum will be expanded to include a section on Togo. Contemporary artistic works, set against the backdrop of historical collections, highlight both the lingering effects of shared history and the potential for new relationships.
For millennia, music was bound to the moment of its performance. In the exhibition ‘Music on Demand’, the Museum of Musical Instruments at the State Institute for Music Research traces the history of sound recording and reproduction, which spans just one hundred and fifty years. The exhibition also explores the consequences of the unlimited availability of ‘captured sounds’: environmental impact from streaming, musical tastes guided by algorithms, and AI-generated music.
The multi-day intervention ‘Aura’ by the Plaster Casting Workshop in the historic model hall in Charlottenburg raises questions about originals and copies, authenticity and cultural memory. The venue will thus be used one last time before the Plaster Casting Workshop moves to the Dahlem Research Campus. The listed existing building is to be completely renovated and extended with a new wing. In Dahlem, the Gipsformerei will present itself under the title ‘White Noise’ as an open resonant space comprising moulds, casts and the stories behind the objects.
On 4 June 2027, Berlin’s international museum crowd-puller will return: that is when the Pergamon Museum will reopen its doors. In their new presentation, the unique collections bring to life the interconnections between the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean region and the Near and Middle East. The Collection of Classical Antiquities brings back the Pergamon Altar and monumental Hellenistic architecture. The Museum of Islamic Art showcases some 1,400 years of Islamic cultural history. Among its approximately one thousand exhibited objects are highlights such as the Mschatta façade, the Aleppo Room and the Alhambra dome. The Museum of the Ancient Near East offers a showcase of key highlights from its collection.
