ART IS NOT AN END IN ITSELF

In relationship with the constructivist Asja Lācis

Collage: Schmitt/Woisnitza, 2023, with a performance by Konstanze Schmitt and a film still by Karlheinz Mund | Photo: Holger Kral / Graphic Design: Studio Rada B.

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Programme overview

Exhibition dates: 11 April – 28 June 2026

Curated by Konstanze Schmitt and Mimmi Woisnitza

Exhibition – Discourse – Performance

Art is not an end in itself connects the avant-garde practices of Latvian theater maker, educator, and revolutionary Asja Lācis with contemporary artistic, scientific, and activistperspectives. A rich program of discoursive and performative events and workshops bringsthe exhibition to life during its course.

Artistic positions in space Chto Delat, cinéma copains, Contrafilé, Alice Creischer, Zhenya Efros, Anton Kats, Kollektiv Lauratibor, Karlheinz Mund, Mirja Reuter & Florian Gass, Elske Rosenfeld & Olia Sosnovskaya, Konstanze Schmitt, Luise Schröder, Andreas Siekmann, Zinnober/Theater o.N.

Performances Anna Stiede mit Panzerkreuzer Rotkäppchen, Bühnen zu Baustellen | Baustellen zu Bühnen, Christian Filips & Margarita Breitkreiz, Esels Alptraum, Lauratibor Kiezchor, Meckerchor

Lectures & Workshops with Nicolas Auzanneau, Margaritha Carbonaro, Inga Gaile, Federico Geller, Tatjana Hofmann, Susan Ingram, Ewa Majewska, Olga Martynova, Luise Meier, Simone Niehoff, Beata Paškevica, Lil Reif, Florian Thamer & Tina Turnheim and others

Films Krista Burāne, Payal Kapadia, Yulia Lokshina, Karlheinz Mund, Erwin Piscator, Marta Popivoda

Scenography Philine Rinnert Graphic design Studio Rada B.

Event program:


June 25–27, 2026
A Rebelião Das Crianças/The Kids are Outside

During the exhibition’s final weekend, we will facilitate a dialogue between artistic and activist perspectives featured in the exhibition and beyond. Focusing on the themes of children’s theater and interventions in public spaces, participants from around the world will come together to learn and work collaboratively.

Participation in the workshops is free of cost and open to everyone. Please register at asjalacis@posteo.de.


Friday, June 26, 9:30 p.m.
REVOLT OF THE FISHERMEN (AND ISLANDS)!

Film screening & performance based on Erwin Piscator/Anna Seghers: “Revolt of the Fishermen” (1934)
With Margarita Breitkreiz, Christian Filips, and the Lauratibor Neighborhood Choir 

Please stop fishing in murky waters. Is the time finally ripe for a general strike on the Fishermen’s Islands? On this film evening, we will cast an invisible net of solidarity. To learn how the anti-fascist struggle failed in the past, we’ll screen Erwin Piscator’s film THE FISHERMEN’S REVOLT, shot in 1934 in Odessa, Ukraine, based on a story by Anna Seghers, with Asja Lācis as assistant director. How do we begin the strike against isolation?

Tickets (5–10 euros) are available at freiluftkino kreuzberg at freiluftkino kreuzberg
The exhibition has 50 free tickets to give away! To request one, please email asjalacis@posteo.de


15 June 2026 · 4–6 pm
In memory of Asja Lācis. Undiscovered chapters in theatre education from an East German perspective

Christel Hoffmann in conversation with Hedwig Golpon, Iris König and Nina Trobisch
Moderator: Anna-Sophia Zimniak

Christel Hoffmann has developed a book project that brings together biographical interviews with women who worked in theatre with children and young people in the GDR and how they sought to establish themselves as theatre educators during and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This afternoon, three of the interviewees will join her for a conversation about their life journeys across two social orders, which also sheds light on the history of a discipline whose Eastern dimension has often remained hidden.

In the spirit of the emancipatory theatre practice with amateurs, for which Asja Lācis stands, we ask together: What spaces existed in the GDR for free, emancipatory theatre work that took the child seriously as an independent subject? Which traditions of progressive education from the 1920s – Laban, Orff, Brecht – continued to have an impact, even in the face of state resistance? And which of these still endure today – in theatre education and beyond?

Admission is free. Please register at asjalacis@posteo.de.
We look forward to seeing you there.


June 4–5, 2026
Lācis & Co.
Female Acteurs – Transit – Narratives

The workshop explores the ways in which female authors, journalists, and artists reflect on their migratory movements in the Eastern (Central) European avantgarde, and also seeks out echoes of reception, lines of comparison, and questions in the present.


April 23–25, 2026
Sliktā māte/Bad Mother
A feminist retrospective on Asja Lācis

How can political, artistic, and personal self-determination be reconciled with motherhood? This question, which remains relevant today, is the subject of the play “Sliktā māte,” (2023) by Riga-based author Inga Gaile about Asja Lācis’ reputation as a „bad mother“. Based on Lācis, the workshop on revolutionary motherhood examines historical case studies of other (non)mothers and parenthood in the arts. The room installation and reading by Inga Gaile and Berlin artist Alice Creischer opens up a feminist resonance space for Lācis in the present, reinforced by musical settings by the Lauratibor Kiezchor. The performance collective Bühnen zu Baustellen | Baustellen zu Bühnen (Stages to Construction Sites | Construction Sites to Stages) will continue the search for traces of the Bad Mother and the workers‘ theater at Mariannenplatz.


April 16–June 11, 2026
Film evenings with discussions (Thursdays)
Curated by cinéma copains


April 10–12, 2026
ANTIFASCIST WORKERS’ THEATER Today

The theme of the opening weekend sets the tone for the exhibition and connects us directlywith Asja Lācis‘ voice: What is to be done, how are we to act as cultural workers in times ofcrisis and war, of increasing authoritarian and fascist tendencies worldwide? Together, wewill follow in the footsteps of Asja Lācis in a workshop with the help of a time-space machineand in lectures and performances, continuing to write her story into the present.



Guided tours:

  • April 16, May 7, May 21, June 5:00 p.m. – Guided tour with curators Konstanze Schmitt and Mimmi Woisnitza (de/en)

Learn more about our research on Asja Lācis, the curatorial process, and the individual worksin the context of the exhibition.

  • Thursday, June 11, 5:00 p.m. – Images in the Mind – A Dialogic Art Education Program for Listening and Touch (DE)

Tour of the exhibition with Katrina Blach & Klaus-Jörg Kaminski

How can blind, visually impaired, and sighted people engage in conversation together about works of art? Katrina Blach (sighted) and Klaus-Jörg Kaminski (blind) lead a dialogic tour through the exhibition, creating space for exchange and diverse perspectives. Through image descriptions and biographical-historical context, new images emerge in the mind via language, sound, and touch—and a shared approach to art and history.

Funded by the Senate Administration for Culture and Social Cohesion: The Capital Cultural Fund (HKF) and the Visual Artists’ Exhibition Fees Fund (FABIK).