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Center for Contemporary Art

ZAK – Center for Contemporary Art is a generous exhibition space for contemporary art and a meeting place for people of all cultures. It opened in May 2018 in the premises of the Old Barracks and it is establishing itself as a center for modern and contemporary art. In changing exhibitions, not only positions of contemporary art, but also the confrontation with the past and the location of the Citadel itself can be admired and discussed on 2,500 square meters of exhibition space. The museum’s educational and supporting programs, which are tailored to individual exhibitions, round off your visit to the ZAK.

Artistic Director: Dr. Ralf F. Hartmann (email)

Applications

We are not accepting applications from artists until further notice. We assume no liability for unsolicited applications, portfolios and catalogs and cannot return them for capacity reasons. Likewise, we cannot guarantee a response for this reason.

Current Exhibitions at the ZAK Center for Contemporary Art

Reiner Maria Matysik – SEXTINCTION

Solo exhibition

14 Feb – 3 May 2026

Grand opening: 13 February, 7 p.m.

ZAK – Center for Contemporary Art

Reiner Maria Matysik (born in Duisburg in 1967) uses instruments from the natural sciences and visual arts for his speculative biology of the future. Recording, describing, and classifying are just as much a part of his artistic practice as camouflage, deception, and irony. Models of post-evolutionary species with proliferating forms reveal that the biological nature of humans—here supplemented by the (il)logical—is a dead end on the path to the future and can only survive as anti-biology through entanglement and transformation with other phytic, animalistic, or biofactual realities of life.

Reflecting on the disciplines, the artist devises utopian scenarios for a future of the human beyond humans. Only as a hybrid and post-evolutionary symbiont (Donna Haraway) is future of human life conceivable – not only for Matysik. Such ideas enriched us through the objects, drawings, and video works, but also through the performances and participatory projects of an artist who has been reflecting on the virulent questions of today since the mid-1990s

Eine abstrakte Skulptur, die an ein männliches Geschlechtsteil erinnert.
Photo: sexual creeping, institut für postevolutionäre lebensformen. (Installationsansicht), Kunstmuseum Heidenheim, 2021, © Reiner Maria Matysik

You can find more information about the exhibition here.

Justin Time, Sabine Ercklentz – Touching monuments – Listening monuments

Sound installation

14 Feb – 3 May 2026

Grand opening: 13 February, 7 p.m.

ZAK – Center for Contemporary Art

The installation in the ZAK project space is the second part of the project Touching Monuments – Listening to Monuments by Justin Time and Sabine Ercklentz, which deals with monuments in public spaces and chooses unusual ways of approaching them. During three participatory city walks in the summer of 2025, bronze and stone sculptures in public spaces in various districts of Spandau were touched and “felt.” Audio recordings of these encounters are processed into a sound-producing, walk-in sculpture in the exhibition. A multisensory experience space, an “anti-bronze,” is created.

Eine Skulptur mir einem Erwachsenen und einem kleinen Engel, der Engel trägt Kopfhörer.
Photo: © Urban Reflections

You can find more information about the exhibition here.

The Julius

Group exhibition

14 Feb – 3 May 2026

Grand opening: 13 February, 7 p.m.

ZAK – Center for Contemporary Art

The Spandau Culture Prize ‘Der Julius’ is intended to express a clear sign of appreciation for Spandau’s creative artists and to strengthen the cultural diversity of the district. The prize is awarded for outstanding achievements in the respective discipline, for above-average commitment to cultural work in the district, or for innovative formats that enable as many people as possible to participate both actively and as recipients.

In 2025, the prize was dedicated to the visual arts and endowed with a total of €10,000. It was presented on 28 November during the Spandau Culture Festival by Dr Carola Brückner, Councillor for Culture, to photographic artist Georgia Krawiec (1st prize), illustrator Karen Scheper (2nd prize) and painter Aydin Öztek (3rd prize).

The cabinet exhibition provides a concentrated insight into the work of the three prize winners.

Der Preis „Der Julius“
Picture: Der Julius © Kulturamt Spandau

You can find more information about the exhibition here.