BPA// Exhibition 2025
A place never fully held
06.12.2025 – 11.01.2026

Opening on Friday, 05.12.25, 19:00–22:00

Participating artists: Umut Azad Akkel, Felisha Carénage, Will Fredo, Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, Tra My Nguyen, Stanton Taylor, Rexy Tseng, Prateek Vijan, Hana Yoo, Julija Zaharijević

KW Institute for Contemporary Art and BPA// Berlin program for artists, in collaboration with Kunst Raum Mitte, are pleased to present the exhibition A place never fully held. Featuring works by BPA// artists created during their two-year participation in the program, the exhibition extends along Auguststraße: at the front house and courtyard of KW, at Kunst Raum Mitte, and on the facades of both institutions.

A place never fully held calls attention to what lies beyond the fiction of a hold – to the unstable and not enclosed, where no meaning settles. It suggests that places, whether physical, emotional, or historical, can never be fully grasped, for their significance shifts through each act of revisiting and return. In this year‘s BPA// exhibition, the artists work within these thresholds, unfolding threads of meaning toward spaces where what is remembered, felt, or known remains unfinished, and is continuously remade. Engaging with the public space of Berlin-Mitte, Felisha Carénage draws from the Caribbean Carnival as a practice in which the past haunts the present through play, noise, and the bacchanal, while Umut Azad Akkel addresses the relationship between the self and the city through provisional, obstructive pathways that mirror bureaucratic infrastructures. Looking at the cultural relevance of materials and movement, Will Fredo and Tra My Nguyen reflect on the vicissitudes of identity and belonging through time and space. Extending this inquiry to the institutional frame, Stanton Taylor considers the history and function of museal display, while Prateek Vijan explores the ways in which administrative power is exerted within exhibition spaces and collections. The lingering effects of social, political, and ecological violence are traced by the works of Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, Rexy Tseng, Hana Yoo, and Julija Zaharijević. Challenging notions of progress and supremacy, they open pathways toward alternative forms of relation and presence. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication available in the KW shop, three guided tours with the participating artists, and a performance.

BPA// Berlin program for artists is an independent mentoring program. It supports intergenerational exchange between emerging and established artists through mutual studio visits, public events, and collaborative exhibition formats since 2016.

Curator: Lara Scherrieble

KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststraße 69, 10117 Berlin 
Opening hours:
Wednesday–Monday 11:00–19:00
Thursday 11:00–21:00
Tuesday closed

Kunst Raum Mitte
Auguststraße 21, 10117 Berlin 
Opening hours:
Tuesday–Sunday 11:00–19:00
Monday closed