From 23 November 2025 to 22 February 2026, Spreepark Art Space presents the group exhibition “Im Gespräch mit Geistern” (“In Dialogue with Ghosts”). The participating artists engage with key moments in the history of the Eierhäuschen at Spreepark in East Berlin – from its use as a prop storage facility for the GDR state television to cultural formats of the 1970s. The exhibition explores personal memories, collective experiences and suppressed narratives of the GDR past.
Image above: Maithu Bùi, MMRBX, 2022, 2-Kanal-Videoinstallation, Farbe, Ton, 22’, filmstill, Salz, im Auftrag der 12. Berlin Biennale
The exhibition focuses on historical contexts in which the Eierhäuschen served different functions: as a storage site for the GDR television service in the 1960s, as the “Café der Jugend” during the 1973 World Festival of Youth and Students, and as the location for the radio programme Sieben bis Zehn: Sonntagmorgen in Spreeathen, which was broadcast live several times from the site. The project highlights how cultural spaces reflected social realities and political structures.
For the exhibition, Maithu Bùi, Franziska Pierwoss, Josefine Reisch, Ernst Markus Stein and Jackie Grassmann, Gabriele Stötzer, Verena Kyselka and Paula Gehrmann enter into dialogue with the “ghosts” of those times. Through film and spatial installations, textile works, prints and newly produced radio broadcasts, they revisit historical moments and connect personal stories with collective memories, revealing both familiar and forgotten aspects of the past.
In her series It’s very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present. Do you know what I mean?, Josefine Reisch refers to the tradition of commemorative cloths that were distributed in the GDR at special events such as the 10th World Festival of Youth. Her works address the fragility of memory and life paths.
The illuminated text Die Jugend klagt den Imperialismus an (“Youth Accuses Imperialism”) by Franziska Pierwoss refers to a tribunal held at Humboldt University during the 1973 festival. As part of the programme, she also stages a performative aperitif that weaves together the memories of contemporary witnesses with associative archival material.
Darauf abgebildet: Verena Kyselka, Joghurt-Kleid, 1990
The video installation Mathuật – MMRBX (2022) by Maithu Bùi, first shown at the 12th Berlin Biennale, references the widespread Vietnamese tradition of water puppetry. It reflects on the strong presence of ghosts and ancestors and their intergenerational remembrance.
Jackie Grassmann and Ernst Markus Stein place the egg itself at the centre of a comprehensive installation in the entrance area of the exhibition. They examine its spectrum of meanings from political, cultural and cross-class perspectives. A participatory audio programme in the form of a radio broadcast accompanies the work.
auf Seide, 61 x 61cm
Gabriele Stötzer presents three Super 8 films by the artist group Erfurt (Komik – Komisch (1988), Signale (1989) and Überfahrt (1990)) in a spatial installation by Paula Gehrmann, shown together with an object-dress worn in the films by Verena Kyselka.
A diverse programme featuring talks, live radio broadcasts, readings, guided tours, workshops, music, a performative aperitif and an evening of films from Vietnam extends the exhibition into a space of exchange and collective storytelling. Art becomes a medium for revisiting the past and exploring its resonance in the present.
Curated by Sandra Teitge.
WHEN?
Opening: Sunday, 23 November 2025, 11 am–6 pm
Exhibition date: 23 November 2025 – 22 February 2026
WHERE?
Spreepark Art Space
(im Eierhäuschen / Spreepark)
Kiehnwerder Allee 2
12437 Berlin
 explores the history of the Eierhäuschen, memory and GDR narratives through interdisciplinary artworks.){kind=link}