About
BPA facilitates exchange between emerging and experienced Berlin-based artists.
BPA arranges bimonthly meetings between participants and mentors. Activities take place in the studios of artists involved with the program rather than in a fixed location. The program unfolds over two years and is punctuated by a range of public events, organized in partnership with both artist-run spaces and renowned institutions.
KW Institute for Contemporary Art regularly hosts BPA Talks – afternoons of public presentations by BPA artists – and in May 2021, BPA Exhibitions will take place there for the first time. From October 2020, BPA participants will produce and present their work at Martin-Gropius-Bau under the banner BPA at Gropius Studios.
Participation in BPA is free of charge and participants receive support to produce new work.
Mentors
Mentors
- Saâdane Afif
- Yalda Afsah
- Monika Baer
- Angela Bulloch
- Mariana Castillo Deball
- Simon Denny
- Bouchra Khalili
- Thomas Locher
- Olaf Nicolai
- Calla Henkel / Max Pitegoff
- Willem de Rooij
- Wolfgang Tillmans
Guest Mentors 2021
- Kathrin Bentele
- Anna-Catharina Gebbers
- Krist Gruijthuijsen
- Daniel Lie
- Robert Müller
- María Inés Plaza Lazo
- Judy Radul
- Berit Schuck
- Milan Ther
- Sung Tieu
Guest Mentors 2020
- Bani Abidi
- Monira Al Qadiri
- Kader Attia
- Khaled Barakeh
- Clémentine Deliss
- Katharina Grosse
- Krist Gruijthuijsen
- Iman Issa
- Prem Krishnamurthy
- Boaz Levin
- Matt Mullican
- Henrike Naumann
- Isabel Parkes
- Jimmy Robert
- Elif Saydam
- Nicolaus Schafhausen
- Tobias Spichtig
- Michael Stevenson
- Sung Tieu
- Sissel Tolaas
- Kristian Vistrup Madsen
- Raphaela Vogel
- Ingrid Wagner
- Ming Wong
Guest Mentors 2019
- Heba Amin
- Ho Rui An
- Yael Bartana
- Candice Breitz
- Mariana Castillo Deball
- Clémentine Deliss
- Natasha Ginwala
- Krist Gruijthuijsen
- Yngve Holen
- Anne Imhof
- Natasha A. Kelly
- Boaz Levin
- Hili Perlson
- Nicolaus Schafhausen
- Dierk Schmidt
- Tobias Spichtig
- Peter Wächtler
Guest Mentors 2018
- Julieta Aranda
- Claudia Comte
- Mariana Castillo Deball
- Maurin Dietrich
- Richard Frater
- Christian Friedrich
- Flora Klein
- Pablo Larios
- Keto Logua
- Ibrahim Mahama
- Michaela Melian
- Matt Mullican
- Ahmet Öğüt
- Judy Radul
- Karin Sander
- Yorgos Sapountzis
- Jerszy Seymour
- Tobias Spichtig
- Slavs and Tatars
- Shabahang Tayyari
Guest Mentors 2017
- Monica Bonvicini
- Maurin Dietrich
- Elodie Evers
- Richard Frater
- Yngve Holen
- Oliver Laric
- Ibrahim Mahama
- Michaela Melián
- Ahmet Öğüt
- Judy Radul
- James Richards
- Yorgos Sapountzis
- Slavs and Tatars
- Amelie von Wulffen
Guest Mentor 2016
- Saim Demircan
Participants
Participants 2021
- Orawan Arunrak
- Kévin Blinderman
- Benjamin Busch
- Dina El Kaisy Friemuth
- Sarah Friend
- Tang Han
- Julian Irlinger
- Paul Kolling
- Sofia Defino Leiby
- Shirin Mohammad
- Nnenna Onuoha
- Mooni Perry
- Shirin Sabahi
- Jana Schulz
- Joshua Schwebel
- Adam Shiu-Yang Shaw
- Ernie Wang
- Xiaopeng Zhou
Participants 2020
- Nadja Abt
- Niklas Binzberger
- Kévin Blinderman
- Rob Crosse
- Anne Fellner
- Bertrand Flanet
- Dina Khouri
- Sofia Defino Leiby
- Doireann O’Malley
- Victor Payares
- Mooni Perry
- Esper Postma
- Shirin Sabahi
- Jana Schulz
- Joshua Schwebel
- Adam Shiu-Yang Shaw
- Anton Steenbock
- Katrin Winkler
- Xiaopeng Zhou
Participants 2019
- Nadja Abt
- Niklas Binzberger
- Rob Crosse
- Anne Fellner
- Bertrand Flanet
- Julian Garcia
- Dina Khouri
- Doireann O’Malley
- Victor Payares
- Esper Postma
- Anton Steenbock
- Katrin Winkler
Participants 2018
- Yalda Afsah
- Aliénor Dauchez
- Nadine Hattom
- Janus Høm
- Adam Kaplan
- Yuki Kishino
- Cosima zu Knyphausen
- Mickael Marman
- Simen Musæus
- Scott Roben
Participants 2017
- Alan Affichard
- Helin Alas
- Armin Lorenz Gerold
- Keto Logua
- Anna Lucia Nissen
- Tamen Perez
- Zac Langdon Pole
- Philip Poppek
- Gabriel Säll
- Elif Saydam
- Stefanie Schwarzwimmer
Participants 2016 (Pilot)
- Maria Anna Bierwirth
- Sofia Duchovny
- Richard Frater
- Mia Goyette
- Sylvester Hegner
- Flora Klein
- Johanna Klingler
- Nile Koetting
- Grayson Revoir
- Miriam Yammad
Apply
Applicants must live and work in Berlin during the two-year BPA cycle and be able to present work from their own workspace. Many participants join BPA after completing their studies, but a specific level of education or age is not a requisite for admission. We ask that BPA participants are not enrolled other academic programs when they join us.
BPA meetings take place from January to December, with a summer break from July to October. Participation in all meetings is expected: focused 1-1 studio visits take place on approximately 15 Mondays per year and are followed by group visits in a mentor’s studio in the late afternoon. There are multiple additional full-day events, as well as talks and exhibitions of participants’ work.
BPA is neither a residency nor a school. It does not provide workspace or accreditation.
Application to and participation in the program are free.
The open call for BPA’s 2021 cycle has ended. Information on how to apply for 2022 will be published ahead of time.
Events
BPA Talks 3

BPA at Gropius Studios

Editions
BPA// Simon Denny, Berlin Blue, (2020)
Simon Denny, Berlin Blue, (2020)
Reactive print on silk
100 x 100 cm
Edition of 80 + 10 APs
€420– (incl. VAT + shipping)
Simon Denny’s Berlin Blue (2020) reframes industry, invention and locality in a new silk scarf design.
This unique edition channels formats developed in Denny’s “Document Relief” series, which uses corporate patent applications to shed light on unseen developments in tech, and in his sculptures made earlier this year from the politically loaded scarf collection of Margaret Thatcher.
Berlin Blue overlays an image of the Tesla “Gigafactory” currently being built outside Berlin with drawings from two recently filed battery patents, one by Tesla and the other by Silicon Valley energy storage giant Natron. The latter describes a product that uses Prussian Blue – also referred to as ‘Berlin Blue’– a synthetic pigment developed in Berlin in the early 1700s that became famously popular among artists. Recently, this chemical compound has emerged as a lucrative alternative to cobalt: a controversial key ingredient in electric batteries, known to rely on supply chains linked to unjust mining practices, child labor, and contested trade monopolies.
Designed in faux Cyanotype, a photographic process also derived from Prussian Blue, the scarf overlays claims to technological development directly over Berlin. Through the occupation of place, abstract notions of intellectual property become tangible as powers with real impact within a changing city. As part of a program that provides infrastructure for artists, Berlin Blue highlights the complex interplay of forces shaping Berlin in 2020.
Contact us with any questions.
All proceeds of this edition sale support BPA’s free program.
Support
BPA Friends is a varied group of advocates and allies of BPA// Berlin program for artists, formed to support ongoing exchange between emerging and established artists.
Get in touch to become a BPA Friend or
Archive







Impressum
Berlin program for artists gUG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Müllerstraße 156a
2. Hinterhof, Aufgang 12
13353 Berlin
AG Charlottenburg, HRB 182350
Directors: Angela Bulloch, Simon Denny, Willem de Rooij
Program manager: Anna-Lisa Scherfose
VAT: 27/611/05462
Rechtsberatung: Bauschke Braeuer Rechtsanwälte, Berlin
BPA is currently funded by
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