Franz Kafka – The second century

3 June 2024 marks the centenary of Franz Kafka's death. This is obviously just the start of another century of perception of his work. On two evenings, the Akademie der Künste will once again explore the unfathomable basis of the fascination with the Prague-born German-language poet. As internationally renowned Kafka experts, Kafka biographer Reiner Stach and Kafka publisher Hans-Gerd Koch will deliver key lectures. Numerous members of the literature section will present essays and artistic texts on current views of Kafka's work.

As part of the supporting programme KUNSTWELTEN, Berlin high school students will compete with ChatGPT writing about a day in the life of K in the master’s style.

The Murmur of the Cosmos. Sandra Vásquez de la Horra. Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2023

Sandra Vásquez de la Horra is the recipient of the 2023 Käthe Kollwitz Prize. In conjunction with the award ceremony, the Akademie der Künste is showing a selection of her works, which can be seen from 19 Jun to 25 Aug 2024 on Hanseatenweg. Over 60 drawings, photographs and objects can be seen in a site-specific installation. The artist’s work focuses on the conflicts that are of current concern to people around the world, combining archetypes derived from our collective consciousness, taboos, questions of gender and sexuality, intercultural reflections and interrogations of spiritual practice. De la Horra grew up during a period when her native Chile was governed by the junta following the military coup in 1973 and plagued by torture, abductions and human rights violations. Her drawings, sculptures and installations are influenced not only by her country’s history but also by her examination of her own family history, the mythologies of the Indigenous population and European colonial rule in Central and South America.

Born in 1967 in Viña Del Mar in Chile, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra studied visual communication in her home town before going on to study fine arts at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, under the tutelage first of Jannis Kounellis and later of Rosemarie Trockel. She continued her education at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, where she focused on photography, film and new media. She relocated to Germany in 1995. Her work featured at the 59th Biennale di Venezia in 2022 and can be seen in upcoming large-scale solo exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum (2024) and the Haus der Kunst in Munich (2025).

The exhibition catalogue will include texts by Ulrike Grossarth and Siegfried Zielinski.

With the generous support of Kreissparkasse Köln and Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Cologne.