iKW Institute for Contemporary ArtMitte
Susan Hiller: Bad Dreams
The first Berlin survey of Susan Hiller, a pioneer of conceptual and video art, with hypnotic audiovisual installations probing fantasy, fear and the unconscious.
More in Berlin
Two wall-sized projections, a small TV set and a ring of votive lights make up Wild Talents (1997). The big screens borrow from horror films to play out fantasies of occult powers in children, while the small one shows footage from Medjugorje, where children reported visions of the Virgin Mary.
It is the first Hiller survey in Berlin, about 27 works from five decades in KW's main hall and ground floor. Belshazzar's Feast puts you in a living room facing a fire that turns out to be a television. In Channels, a wall of old TVs carries voices describing near-death experiences, and KW warns sets may fail during the run. Next to Freud's microscope slides hangs his letter asking his fiancée not to read anything into his ink blots.
KW puts seeing everything at about 90 minutes, 66 of them video and sound. Tickets are on site only, cashless: €10, €6 reduced, free under 19. Free Thursdays (12 November, 10 December, 7 January) run free until 21:00.
Editor's pick
The first Berlin survey of Susan Hiller, a pioneer of conceptual and video art, built around hypnotic audiovisual installations on fantasy, fear and the unconscious. KW shows two further solo exhibitions alongside it.
Look for
Wild Talents (1997)
Two wall-sized horror-film projections about children with occult powers, a small TV showing a pilgrimage to children with religious visions, and a ring of votive lights.
Belshazzar's Feast (1983-84)
A living room where a television plays a flickering fire, over whispered newspaper stories of ghosts on late-night screens and a boy remembering Rembrandt's painting.
Channels (2013)
A towering wall of analogue televisions flickers with static as voices in several languages recount near-death experiences, each voice traced as an oscilloscope line.
Homage to Yves Klein: Levitation (2011)
Photographs Hiller found online of anonymous people apparently caught floating in mid-air, a nod to Klein's staged Leap into the Void.
Homage to Joseph Beuys: I Pozzi Sacri
Water Hiller collected from holy wells and sacred springs over nearly five decades, in antique medicine bottles inside a felt-lined wooden vitrine.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
- Rainy Days
About 90 min
Skip if
You want a quick look: the video and sound works alone run 66 minutes.
With kids
Free for under-19s. Wild Talents uses horror-film imagery, so check it against your children's age.
Also at KW Institute for Contemporary Art
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Image credits
9
- Susan Hiller: Bad DreamsCourtesy of KW Institute for Contemporary Art
- 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