Exhibition trailer (1:40 min.):

The current coronavirus regulations mean only a limited number of people can be admitted to the exhibition at one time. Book free time slot tickets for your visit here. These tickets guarantee admission during your preferred time window. Fifty people can be admitted without a time slot ticket per time slot – simply go to the main entrance. You will need to provide your contact details before you enter the foyer. Your details are collected to assist the health authorities with contact tracing in the event of an infection. A face mask must be worn in the foyer at all times, except when you are sitting in the catering area.

Please call +49 (0)30-2326 2326 in advance if you are a wheelchair user or unable to climb stairs. Our service team will then admit you to the building via the wheelchair entrance around the corner on Johannisstraße.

Definition of a “time slot”: You may enter the exhibition at any time during your booked time slot – even shortly before your time slot ends – and also remain in the exhibition after your time slot ends. Each ticket admits one person and is person-specific (due to the contact tracing requirements). Please provide the real names of all visitors when booking.

In October 2019, Sven Marquardt photographed members of the Palast’s international dance ensemble just after a performance as well as after rehearsals. In some of the pictures, the posture and expression show that the subject is still on an adrenaline high, whereas others reveal more intimate moments. Less than half a year after the photo shoot, the artists portrayed were deprived of their stage and essentially became ‘stageless’ when all performances between 11 March 2020 and 1 January 2021 were cancelled due the coronavirus pandemic.

The Palast stands for glamour and elegance – at least it normally does. This exhibition is literally a huge intervention in our foyer, our lives, our future as a show theatre. Hence you’ll find bare, paint-splattered scaffolding, traces of the ongoing building work, and powerful photographs printed on construction fence tarpaulins illuminated with construction lights. These raw, improvised aesthetics do not merely give the impression of a construction site – we really are one: the theatre’s ventilation system is currently being refurbished (due to be completed by December). The tapestry of sounds audible in the exhibition may lead some to think that the sounds of construction work are part of the installation. When you stand on the huge stairs in the foyer featuring metre-high video projections, you will almost feel as if you are in an abandoned grand hotel. In all its intensity, there is something comforting about this massive artistic intervention by curator Felix Hoffmann (C/O Berlin) and Sven Marquardt: it is all temporary, we’ll be back.

For those eager for a sneak preview: this ZDF television report provides some interesting insights.