Abstract and multi-perspective art

IBA 2037: Berlin-Brandenburg as a shared region of the future

The Ecosystem of Contrasts: Why the International Building Exhibition 2037 Succeeds as a Union of Berlin and Brandenburg.

International Building Exhibitions—IBA for short—are globally renowned laboratories for the future of designed living spaces. They are not merely showcases for architecture; they are concentrated innovation programs measured against societal values, translating visionary ideas into real urban and landscape projects over many years. With discussions now underway for the fourth regional IBA in 2037—exactly fifty years after the 1987 West Berlin exhibition—it must no longer be confined to the Berlin city limits. A contemporary building exhibition unfolds its full impact as an integrative regional project. The end of the physical division of the country into East and West opens up the opportunity today to define the IBA from the start as an inseparable unit of Berlin and Brandenburg. It is about creating a shared ecosystem of contrasts: the dense, vibrant metropolis and the vast, resource-rich Brandenburg landscape are no longer separate worlds in 2037, but the two heart chambers of the same future region.

A look at the demographic realities shows the momentum that makes this shared path inevitable. Currently, around 3.91 million people live in the federal capital, and the trend is sharply upward. By the IBA year 2037, statisticians—according to current population projections by the Berlin-Brandenburg Statistics Office—forecast continuous growth, steering the city straight toward the historic mark of around 4 million inhabitants. So far, the administration has responded to this enormous growth in the usual way, focusing on acute inner-city housing shortages, closing local vacant lots, or converting old factory courtyards. Yet, the most pressing questions for this future four-million metropolis can no longer be solved within Berlin's city limits alone. With its current population of around 2.55 million and a projected stable increase of about 0.4% by 2037, the state of Brandenburg contributes exactly what is needed to master these future crises: space, regenerative resources, and radical transformation areas. Growth in the Mark region is concentrating almost exclusively on the Berlin periphery, which significantly intensifies the pressure for a shared regional planning approach that is synchronized from the very beginning.

Looking back, the major building exhibitions have always sought answers to the crises of their time. The first exhibition in 1910 fought against the misery of the tenement blocks and laid the foundation for regional traffic planning. The 1957 Interbau showcased rapid, modern reconstruction in the Hansaviertel, and the 1987 IBA developed gentle urban renewal in Kreuzberg with the first ecological experiments. Yet, all these predecessors reached political and geographic limits, as the exhibitions were inevitably confined to inner-city quarters due to the decades-long division of the region. The planned fourth IBA in 2037 offers the historic opportunity to finally overcome this division and revitalize the grown unity of Berlin and Brandenburg, thereby resolving the artificial dividing lines between city and hinterland. It is the logical continuation: it elevates the growth pressure of 1910, the housing demand of 1957, and the ecological awareness of 1987 to an entirely new, joint regional level. International Building Exhibitions have historically been laboratories of density. They showed how modern cities can grow, renovate, or reinvent themselves. Yet, the crises of our time—from climate change and resource scarcity to changing life patterns through digitalization—demand larger systems. When the region launches a new IBA, it faces the classic problems of a growing metropolis: extreme density, land scarcity, and immense pressure on existing infrastructure. The decisive unique selling point of Brandenburg in this structure is not to function merely as an expansion area or a "dormitory town" for Berlin. Brandenburg is the necessary counter-model and the perfect complement at the same time.

Berlin is a consumer metropolis; it consumes energy, food, and above all, building materials. This is where Brandenburg's first great strength lies. The state possesses the land and the agricultural tradition for renewable raw materials. A joint IBA could contribute the living lab for a deepened and contemporary regional economy. From timber construction sourced from Brandenburg's forests to innovative hemp and clay building materials grown directly on local fields, and through to serial manufacturing: Brandenburg can show how regional value chains make the building transition in the metropolis feasible. Paired with Brandenburg's pioneering role in renewable energies and the painful yet instructive experience in dealing with water scarcity, a landscape of resilience emerges—one upon which Berlin is directly dependent.

While Berlin must operate within dense, sensitive existing structures, Brandenburg offers space for experiments on a scale that would be simply unthinkable within Berlin city limits. The state is characterized by massive conversion areas—from old military and industrial sites like Wünsdorf or Luckenwalde to the Lausitz region. The structural change in the former lignite mining district makes the Lausitz one of the most exciting European hotspots for landscape transformation. In the wake of the post-mining era, entirely new water and energy landscapes as well as decentralized, self-sufficient quarters are being created here. An IBA with Brandenburg's participation shows the world how the sustainable living spaces of tomorrow arise from the wounds of the fossil fuel industry.

The future of living and working is no longer determined solely in the center. Through digitalization and "New Work," the necessity of physical presence in the inner city is losing importance. Brandenburg's strength is not a centralized urban sprawl, but its tightly knit network of historic town centers, well-connected medium-sized towns, and lively villages. The renaissance of these medium-sized towns—from Eberswalde and Brandenburg an der Havel to Cottbus—sustainably relieves the metropolis. The Mark's unique feature is the link between high quality of life in the green surroundings and an intelligent digital and physical infrastructure. In rural areas, Brandenburg offers the urgently needed experimental spaces for the mobility transition. As one of the first states worldwide, Germany has paved the legal way for autonomous driving at Level 4—fully automated, driverless vehicles—to become part of everyday life. A joint IBA offers the opportunity to bring this technology to market maturity in Brandenburg's vast landscape, for instance through driverless shuttles that finally connect villages flexibly to railway stations.

That this regional approach is the only sustainable path for modern metropolises is proven by a look at international megacities facing the same planning challenges. The closest functional parallel in the German-speaking world is the duo of Vienna and Lower Austria. There, federal and state governments work closely together in urban-regional management, with the surrounding Lower Austria specifically acting as an ecological raw material supplier and forestry partner for Vienna's building transition. When it comes to the strategic linking of dense urbanity and vast spaces, the French century project "Grand Paris" provides the groundbreaking concept of a lived "symbiosis of contrasts." To relieve the extremely dense Parisian core, the entire surrounding Île-de-France region is being radically networked, with autonomous on-demand shuttles being tested intensively in rural zones to flexibly connect villages to regional express train stations. Finally, the Canadian Greater Toronto Area with its "Greater Golden Horseshoe" shows how to prevent the uncontrolled sprawling of a metropolis and protect the rural space. A monumental, planned greenbelt ensures there that the spreading into meadows is prevented and that instead, the surrounding historic medium-sized towns are strengthened as independent, high-tech, and cultural hubs.

Berlin and Brandenburg in Union – The Symbiosis of Contrasts. Under the joint leadership of Berlin and Brandenburg, the IBA 2037 should be organized to function as a living ecosystem of contrasts. Berlin brings density, the investment market, and the pressure for innovation. Brandenburg contributes its vast space, raw materials, and the bold experience with large-scale structural change. Only in this symbiosis does a building exhibition become a forward-looking regional exhibition. Following the insight: "City and country are not opposites, but two poles of an indivisible reality of life." Entirely in the spirit of the Charta of Athens, living, working, and nature are transferred here into a single, large regional structure. What Paris, Vienna, or Toronto are testing in partial areas today can make the Mark-Berlin living lab a global reference in 2037: a functioning, crisis-proof symbiosis of a dense metropolis and a resilient hinterland.

Conceptual Approach

Raoul Kevenhörster

The Architecture of Perception

The visual interplay of light and space

“Art does not reproduce the visible, but makes visible.” – Paul Klee

My artistic practice operates at the intersection of photography, perception and movement. In the tradition of Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956, NY), I understand architecture not as a static mass, but as a pulsating structure. Where Feininger broke the world down into crystalline, transparent planes, I use the camera directly to rearrange urban structures. Being on the move is the guiding principle for these multiple-exposure photographs: transition rather than arrival; instead of loose sequences of landmarks, the path stands as a project of positioning.

Layering as a Condensation of Time

Layering forms the core of my work. Through the technique of multiple exposure, photographic works emerge that go beyond the documentary image. It is an “urban archaeology” of the moment:

Temporal depth: Moments are not isolated but superimposed until a dense, almost haptic reality emerges.
The in-between: The composition resides between the planes, where form and color merge into a new, hybrid logic.
Transparency: As with Feininger, the images open up the wall. The multi-layered nature creates a depth that allows the space to breathe and visually expands it.

Like a geological formation, each photograph tells its own story of a different perspective, a different incidence of light, a different movement within the space.

The Musicality of the Moment: Acting as a Method

My experience in acting flows into my photography as a rhythmic element. I read urban spaces like the score of a role. Here, the work meets the musicality of every sequence of movement, of every emotional shift – a quality that was also characteristic of Feininger’s prismism.

Places thus become scenes with their own tension and inner dynamism. This visual musicality makes it possible to recognize situations in fractions of a second and to bring them to a climax like a fugue. The result is not a static state, but a fluid process of perception – a way of seeing that follows the rhythm of the human eye as it glides searchingly over architectural edges.

“Everything flows, nothing remains.” – Heraclitus

Raoul Kevenhörster’s photographic works “ZWISCHENRAUM”
Photography is on the agenda at the AIV zu Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.: “ZWISCHENRAUM” showcases works by Raoul Kevenhörster (introduction: Sebastian Wagner). The focus is on photography as a process of perception – brief moments in time, movement, light, geometry, atmosphere. The gaze turns to urban interstices and temporary states, to identities that are not fixed.

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evidare magazin

THE ESSENCE OF LUXURY LIFESTYLE

Raoul Kevenhörster – Artist, Observer
Crémant, mulled wine, a fire pit: it is with this very combination that the Association of Architects and Engineers of Berlin-Brandenburg (AIV) is hosting a reception today, 21 January 2026, at Bleibtreustraße 33 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The event begins at 6.30 pm. The setting is provided by an exhibition opening: “ZWISCHENRAUM” featuring works by Raoul Kevenhörster, with an introduction by Sebastian Wagner.

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AZ/Architektur Zeitung

Architecture Journal

The Poetry of Pure Observation
Raoul Kevenhörster observes the viewer. The everyday person standing at the traffic light, looking at their phone, inwardly absent and outwardly unremarkable. The exhibition visitor, the casual passerby shopping, on the escalator, at the bus stop – all of them in the stillness of still-ness.

In a contemporary version of the expressionist poster language, he composes these images in superimpositions to create masterfully clear, transparent yet powerful pictures.

As in a dream, the images overlap into an inseparable unity – one is looking straight ahead and to the side at the same time, one person is simultaneously two different people… impossible in reality, perfectly logical in a dream. The same is true of Kevenhörster’s pictures.

The digitally created collages are neither one nor the other – neither spatial nor graphic, and yet both are fused into an unfathomable unity. They invite us to enter a controlled chaos, a panorama that presents fragments of reality as if in a circus ring, but we are the ones providing the show – Kevenhörster triggers our own memories, which we ourselves rearrange into new patterns in the face of his art.

Like the collision of oppositely charged elementary particles, the images partially annihilate each other, releasing energy in the process. The result is silence, but a silence that also narrates the explosion of its creation, like a cloud chamber obscuring the innocent paths of its origin.

Kevenhörster removes himself from this narrative as the narrator. That is entirely sufficient – fragments of faces, an enclosing architecture, the shadows and reflections flitting about, sometimes joyfully, sometimes menacingly: they all tell the story of modern life from the perspective of an artist who has chosen to remain silent.

He who has chosen not to interfere in the ordinary process of life, and who, precisely by doing so, gets his hands on its raw material, as if he had molecular acid at his disposal, like the alien whose uncanny presence thus devours its way through the spaceship, floor by floor.

The forms are sometimes difficult to remember because they are unfamiliar to us, but it is precisely through this unfamiliarity that the canon of their language becomes ingrained. Taken together, they form the rushing, iridescent ribbon of contemporary life, which normally passes us by in a numbing rush. Here in Kevenhörster’s work, it sears itself onto the cerebral cortex and cannot be erased once one has viewed his images.

Therefore, they are best presented as series of images, as montages in the truest sense of the word. Often, the flow of time replaces the third dimension. Adorned with philosophical quotations from Schopenhauer, Newton, or Sartre, they become evidence in a criminal case – helping us to uncover the crimes modernity has committed against our perception of reality.

Haste, triumphant and harsh, clamors to push its way to the forefront. But Kevenhörster’s figures march along seemingly unconscious paths, if one can put it that way, as if they were ultimately just light and color on a screen. They glide across the retina, like the shifting of gaze in a dream.

The casual and profane nature of the images also reveals the ugliness and poverty of modern life, even though we are materially richer than any generation before us. We have been robbed, as Charles Bukowski once put it.

However, the skeletal shadows of the modern world do not triumph in Kevenhörster’s work, as they do, for example, in the accusatory works of the aforementioned expressionist poster art. They make a spectacle of themselves, but Kevenhörster puts them all in their place. Like Wile E. Coyote, who, tricked by the Road Runner, plunges into the canyon, leaving only a Wile E. Coyote-shaped hole in the ground – so too does the composer’s quiet, contented smile defuse the brief, albeit intense, pain of reality. Here is someone who knows what pain means.

A meticulously raked Zen garden survives wars, palace revolutions, and changing rulers, and it also ignores them. Raoul Kevenhörster rakes Zen gardens into our consciousness, gently, persistently like a Zen master, powerfully like river water.

Once you’ve seen his series of images, you can’t walk, drive, or hurry through Berlin without thinking of them.

Of islands of stillness made up of forms, colors, faces, buildings, streets, and art. That is true beauty – found even when you weren’t looking for it.

Armin Völckers, Nov. 2025

Armin Völckers

Painter and filmmaker

I know Raoul Kevenhoerster, amongst other things, for his cinematic and character-driven photographic art, which is characterised above all by his sensitive, creative and innovative perspective on people, moments and social issues. Expressing new ways of seeing and new perspectives runs like a thread through his work.

Raoul draws on his own unique life experiences, demonstrating a curiosity, openness and an unyielding desire to express himself, which is also reflected in his acting ambitions.

I also admire his talent for engaging with social issues despite all obstacles and actual disadvantages, enriching those around him through his empathy and alert mind, and blazing new trails with an unyielding will. Creative, yet practical in life.

If powerful acting charisma is fuelled by an unyielding desire for change, extraordinary actions and infectious enthusiasm, Raoul is undoubtedly an enriching participant in relevant acting workshops – and a strong casting option for suitable roles in productions that demand authenticity.

Hans Koch

Managing Director of ndF Berlin, Producer

Raoul Kevenhörster is a photographic artist based in Berlin, whose work is characterised by the technique of multiple exposure and the fusion of reality with an inner visual world. In his photographic compositions, different layers overlap to form poetic visual spaces that oscillate between dream and reality.

A central element of his creative process is a state of intense inner concentration, which the artist describes as a ‘vacuum’. In this moment of mental clarity, his visual concepts emerge instinctively, often in a matter of seconds, before being realised in the camera through multiple exposure. Kevenhörster describes this process as working from his innermost self – beyond external influences.

It was also remarkable that Kevenhörster completely refrained from digital post-processing. His photographs are created directly in the camera – without the use of tools such as Photoshop or similar image-editing software. This deliberate reduction lends his works a particular authenticity and underscores the performative nature of his photographic process.

In terms of content, his works revolve around existential themes such as transience, pain, memory and transformation. A recurring visual motif is what he calls ‘red noise’ – a dominant colour structure that for him symbolises both danger and alarm as well as passion and vitality.

Raoul Kevenhörster’s works are not only aesthetically condensed visual worlds, but also a powerful call for conscious observation. His works invite us to understand reality as a multi-layered, often contradictory structure and open up a space for reflection on perception, identity and the human condition.

A guiding principle that accompanies Kevenhörster’s work comes from the French artist Francis Picabia: “The head is round so that thought can change direction.” This principle of shifting perspective runs through his entire oeuvre.

Klaus Memmert

Dr. Klaus Memmert

Atelier und Showroom Galerie Beyond Reality

I have known Raoul Kevenhörster in various contexts. I have encountered him as a participant in various film-specific seminars, through his work at the Movie-College and Allary-Film, TV & Media in Munich, and as a creative photographer.

He has devised exciting, creative and surprising solutions in both theory and practice across all areas of media production, and has developed his own unique approach to all subjects.

He has reported on various film festivals, their films and approaches, has authored specialist articles on topics including ‘Accessible Filmmaking’, and possesses comprehensive visual knowledge of all film-making processes and acting skills.

I can wholeheartedly recommend him for all kinds of media projects.

Prof. Mathias Allary

Prof. Mathias Allary

Movie-College and Allary-Film, TV & Media in Munich

Single-frame photography
A photograph is always a representation of the outcome of a sequence of events. It captures the state of reality at a given moment. The sequence of preceding events of varying duration is evident in the arrangement and nature of the various spaces and objects, such as landscape and vegetation, buildings and plants, the state of clothing, fallen leaves and chewing gum wrappers, and the immediate conditions such as light, clouds, the state of surfaces, pedestrians and vehicles, gestures and faces. The single image shows no movement. Different viewing angles and temporal sequences are reproduced in series of images.

Multi-exposure scenes
The multi-exposure photographs depict the final brief scene of a long period of time that has led to the current state. The exposure time for these photographs is a maximum of 120 seconds when taken live. When shooting in public, just as in the studio, it is necessary to plan the sequence of events in advance. In the studio, it is possible to ensure that the 120-second sequence proceeds without disruption; when shooting in public, disruptions are incorporated in advance wherever possible in order to maintain the intended staging.

Simultaneity
In a single photograph, therefore, not only the result of a sequence but also a brief part of the sequence itself is depicted simultaneously. Spatial coherence is complemented by temporal coherence. The spatial elements of the scene make the temporal events visible or determine them, such as the change in light on a façade caused by passing clouds, a car’s headlights or streetlights just switched on, trees in the wind, cars driving along a road, an awning being lowered, passers-by stepping aside, the gestures of a conversation. The various viewing angles in the multiple-exposure scenes reveal the spatial expanse within which the movement takes place. The movement within the momentary state of reality is captured.

Fritz Göran Vöpel

Fritz Göran Vöpel

Digital architectural reconstruction

My name is Stephan Beutner and I am the Chair of the German-Indian Society Berlin e.V. (DIG Berlin). Our association is dedicated to fostering German-Indian relations by organising cultural, social and educational events for a German audience with an interest in India. We support members of the Indian diaspora in settling into life in Berlin and provide a platform for exchange, dialogue and cooperation between India and Germany in the fields of culture, society, science and the arts.

It is my pleasure to write this letter of recommendation for Mr Raoul Kevenhörster, who is a valued member of our association and an exceptionally talented photographer with a keen interest in India.

Mr Kevenhörster has long demonstrated a deep interest in Indian culture, particularly in the fields of art, visual aesthetics and contemporary photography. His aim is to work closely with Indian and India-related arts organisations, institutions and creative communities – both in Germany and in India.

As a photographer, Mr Kevenhörster brings a highly distinctive style and a unique artistic vision to his work. His work is characterised by double and multiple exposures that create new layers of meaning which transcend the conventional boundaries of photography. These complex, superimposed images – created in several stages, much like overpaintings or palimpsests – form abstract compositions that transform and alienate reality, offering entirely new perspectives on the here and now. His technique has attracted attention due to its conceptual depth, visual richness and ability to stimulate intercultural artistic dialogue.

The board of DIG Berlin believes that Mr Kevenhörster’s artistic projects and cultural engagement deserve a high degree of support, exchange and collaboration. He is a reliable, prudent partner whose work offers considerable potential for intercultural creativity and the strengthening of Indo-German artistic relations.

I would be very grateful if you could kindly support Mr Kevenhörster in his efforts to establish contacts with interested artists, photographers, networks and institutions.

On behalf of the Executive Committee of DIG Berlin, I would like to thank you for your support and am happy to provide further information.

Stefan Beutner

Stefan Beutner

Chairman of the German-Indian Society Berlin e.V.

Raoul Kevenhörster

Photo Films (Selection)

0. New

anerkennung-lyonel-feininger

we-are-open-wir-sind-offen

1. Performances

2. Events

3. Temperaments

4. Palace of Illusions

5. Organism of Buildings

6. Culture and Commerce

7. City and Motion

8. Exhibitions

9. Architecture

Current

IBA 2037: Berlin-Brandenburg as a shared region of the future

Conceptual Approach

Raoul Kevenhörster

The visual interplay of light and space

Layering as a Condensation of Time

The Musicality of the Moment: Acting as a Method

Reviews

Kontakt