iKW Institute for Contemporary ArtMitte
Rafik Greiss: The City and the City
Rafik Greiss's first institutional solo show premieres a new film essay drifting through Cairo, Alexandria and the Western Desert on time, memory and history.
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Figures stand in vast desert landscapes, watching and waiting for something that seems yet to happen. That is the new film at the centre of Rafik Greiss's first institutional solo show. Ocula's Maja Renfer saw them with backpacks and rifles, and said watching it "feels a bit like lucid dreaming".
The title comes from China Miéville's novel about two cities sharing one space. The soundtrack, by the musician 7038634357, spills past the screen, so you are still inside the film's sound when you turn to the black-and-white photographs: storage boxes, glass vitrines and leg braces, cut loose from their contexts. KW calls the waiting a kind of labour, repeated and without resolution, and anyone who has refreshed the Bürgeramt booking page for a week already has the training.
It fills KW's darkened third floor, and KW says seeing everything takes about 40 minutes. Tickets are on site only, cashless: €10, €6 reduced, free up to 18. Free Thursdays (12 November, 10 December, 7 January) are free until 21:00.
Look for
The City and the City (2026), the film
Figures with backpacks and rifles cross a desert that stays out of focus, gazing into the distance for an event that may never come, with no place names or dates to anchor them.
The soundtrack by 7038634357
The musician's score is not confined to the screen: it carries the film's atmosphere out into the exhibition space around it.
The black-and-white photographs
Greiss's analogue prints of storage boxes, glass vitrines and leg braces, shown detached from the sites and events they came from.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Evening Visits
- Going Solo
- Locals Who've Seen It All
About 40 min
Skip if
You want a story with an ending: the film withholds places, dates and any resolution.
With kids
Entry is free for anyone 18 or under.
Also at KW Institute for Contemporary Art
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- Rafik Greiss: The City and the City© the artist.
- Carola Lampe: Tell Me What To See© Carola Lampe
- The Anonymous Project by Lee Shulman: No Place Like Home© Lee Shulman / The Anonymous Project. Courtesy of Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière
- Lauren Greenfield: Social Studies© Lauren Greenfield / Fahey Klein Gallery
- KW Institute for Contemporary ArtJörg Zägel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Fotografiska BerlinShaysd / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Bode-MuseumThomas Wolf / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- PergamonmuseumHerrAdams / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Alte NationalgalerieManfred Brückels / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain