The German word for weed, Unkraut, carries a dismissive connotation — naming plants that are deemed undesirable and usually removed. Yet many of these so-called Beikräuter are ecologically valuable, nourish insects, strengthen soil, and are edible or even medicinal for humans. Weeds remind us that what is outside conventional order often participates in rich and
complex inner ecologies.
Weeds appear in the exhibition not only as subjects of study or metaphor, but as active principles.
Through various artistic positions that are unruly in their structure or message , the question is raised as to when something, an action or a state, is weedy? What does it mean to be weed — to unsettle, to permeate, to transgress —within art, institutions, language, and everyday life? Weeds demonstrate that disruption is not merely destructive, but generative — dissolving rigid boundaries and reopening space for alternative formations of identity, meaning, and practice.
Inspired in an intuitive and visceral way by weeds, Louder, Taller, Uglier, Weirder – Learning from Weeds / Von Unkraut lernen is a curatorial project composed of events that we call sprouts and exhibitions that unfold with different rhythms.
Spanning nearly a year , the project began at the projectspace Xanadu in Neukölln, before opening its first exhibition at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien in autumn 2025. From this initial moment, many more sprouts will appear across the city, along with three more exhibitions at Galerie im Turm in Friedrichshain, Bärenzwinger in Mitte and Galerie im Körnerpark in Neukölln.