iJewish Museum BerlinKreuzberg
The Opposite of Now
Twelve contemporary art projects, by Yael Bartana, William Forsythe, Alexander Kluge and others, imagine paths to a different present. Old Building, level 1.
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A man walks backwards across a bright hall while a woman watches from a bench. He is following William Forsythe's Backwards, choreographic instructions lettered on the wall, and you can try them too. A few steps on, you take a sticker-covered poster off one of Eran Schaerf's stacks on the floor.
For its 25th anniversary the museum gave twelve artists a 1964 radio debate between Ernst Bloch and Theodor W. Adorno on the possibilities of utopia, and commissioned a new project from each. The answers are film, sound, print and installation: in Dor Zlekha Levy's Esperoj you sit in headphones and listen, and Alona Rodeh's room is dark, hazy and lit by flashes.
It is on level 1 of the Old Building, €10 (€4 reduced, under-18s free), with texts in German and English and about 80 seats. The Choir of Time Astronauts, singers all over ninety, rehearses live on 16 October, 5 and 25 November, 18 December and 10 January.
Look for
Choir of Time Astronauts
Ari Benjamin Meyers' singers are all over ninety and wear astronaut suits, some in wheelchairs or with canes; come on a rehearsal date to hear them start again.
Forsythe's Backwards
Vinyl lettering on a hall wall gives choreographic instructions for moving in reverse, and visitors walk backwards across the room following them.
Büttner's Jetzt (Now)
A black-and-white woodcut about one and a half metres tall, with the word "Jetzt" printed mirror-reversed in its upper right corner.
Bartana's satellite and The Birds
A metal machine like a fan or satellite points at a big screen where figures climb a ladder, one of them in a bird-head mask.
Schaerf's poster stacks
Large two-colour offset posters covered in stickers lie in stacks on the floor, and visitors pick them up, a tribute to the writer Jacqueline Kahanoff.
Good for
- Going Solo
- Nerding Out
- Rainy Days
Skip if
You want historical objects: this is twelve contemporary art commissions, mostly film, sound and installation.
With kids
The free Ephra trail gives children a bag to collect clues from all twelve works for the Story Wheel, and under-18s get in free. Two rooms are very dark, one with flashing lights.
Free in the same building
- ANOHA – The Children's WorldMore than 150 animals gather in a gigantic round wooden ark retelling Noah's story for preschool and grade-school children. Free; online time slots €3.
- Jewish Life in Germany: Past and PresentThe free core exhibition in the Libeskind Building: Jewish history in Germany from the Middle Ages to today, with rooms on Torah, Shabbat, music and art.
- Shalekhet – Fallen LeavesMenashe Kadishman's installation of more than 10,000 iron faces with open mouths covering the floor of the Memory Void.
- The Libeskind BuildingDaniel Libeskind's zigzag 'Between the Lines' building, reached underground from the Old Building, with its voids, axes and slashed windows.
Also at Jewish Museum Berlin
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- The Opposite of NowCourtesy of Jewish Museum Berlin
- 3hd 2026: Beyond Imagining© Saish Kotecha
- Lovis Corinth. Then came Berlin!© Hilti Art Foundation, Photo: Günter König
- Josef Kaiser. Building for the GDR© Foto Schlegel, digitized by A. E. Witte
- Jewish Museum BerlinMarek Śliwecki / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Berlinische GalerieChristoph Rehbach / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Topography of TerrorStiftung Topographie des Terrors / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
- Gropius BauManfred Brückels / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Deutsches TechnikmuseumSpyrosdrakopoulos / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0