A series of exhibitions in the darkest places of Berlin
In the past, large parts of the city were connected through basement systems.
In Tempelhof, you could walk for kilometers underground along entire streets.
Even today, some of these cellar systems still exist.
This event takes you into previously inaccessible, secret locations of Berlin’s underground — former cellars, vaults, or industrial facilities — opened exclusively for this art project.
“Himmel unter Berlin” presents international artists who transform these spaces into a mesmerizing installation.
During the event, you will encounter works by numerous artists who create new installations specifically for this space.
What to Expect
It begins like a rumor. Many visitors describe the beginning as an abrupt shift in reality: you meet in an inconspicuous, secret bar that feels more like the start of a story than an exhibition.
Imagine you are in this bar. Atmospheric music surrounds you, and a drink is handed to you.
A person dressed entirely in black leads you to an old wardrobe. Inside it, there is a hidden door. Behind it begins the journey beneath the city — deep into the minds of artists who guide you through a dark labyrinth of their imagination…
You move through light and shadow, through soundscapes, along narrow corridors and into surprising rooms.
You lose yourself. Not dramatically. Rather pleasantly.
In the end, the path through the darkness leads you back to the red bar.
Secret Location
The location is only revealed 48 hours before the exhibition.
Visitors receive a private message telling them where to meet. The suspense, it seems, is part of the artwork.
Industrial Aesthetics
With the temporary activation of abandoned historic buildings, “Heaven Beneath Berlin” joins a tradition of art that consciously turns away from the white cube. Instead of neutral museum architecture, a place is chosen whose history, materiality, and atmosphere become an integral part of the artistic statement.
In these exhibitions, architecture is not concealed but activated. Brick arches, traces of moisture, narrowness, and echo become counterpoints to the installations. Light and sound do not work against the site, but with it. The historical substance remains visible — as a layer of the city’s memory.
The underground itself carries its own tradition: catacombs, cellars, and industrial ruins represent transitional zones between visibility and concealment. The transformation of such places is a central motif. Berlin, with its layered history of industrialization, war, division, and transformation, provides particularly fertile ground for this.
Ephemerality
"Himmel unterBerlin” follows this tradition but deliberately avoids permanent institutionalization. The location remains temporary.
After the exhibition, the sites were either demolished or extensively modernized, causing their history to disappear.
The event of the exhibition is therefore not reproducible. It exists only in the moment of participation.
The aim is to create a unique experience seen only by the people who are present together at that specific place and time — a response to the constant digital availability of everything.
It is a moment. An intervention. A flicker beneath the city.
Afterwards, it becomes silent again.
Rawness and Technological Precision
The exhibited works primarily operate in the field of immersive installation.
The bodies of the visitors become part of the artwork. Perception is no longer addressed only visually, but multisensorially.
The aesthetic effect emerges between the historical rawness of the building and technological precision.
Underground Card
Only 199 people per evening can experience this journey into the darkness.
Tickets are not available online and are issued only by personal invitation.
Each guest receives a personalized Underground Card during their visit, granting access to future exhibitions. Only the holders of such a card will be informed about upcoming Heaven Beneath Berlin exhibitions. Additionally, at each subsequent event you may bring one person of your choice with you.