In September 2025, double-clicking on a question from Spike #81/82 – “The Post-Cool,” dramaturg and Volksbühne director Matthias Lilienthal, art historian, curator, and Berlin Biennale director Axel Wieder, artist Henrike Naumann, and writer, editor, and moderator Pablo Larios debated if Berlin remained a world-leading center for contemporary art, and what might usher in a city for culture yet to come.

Their conversation is dedicated to the memory of Henrike Naumann, who passed away in February 2026 while preparing to co-represent Germany at the 61st Venice Art Biennale.

Listen to their conversation on Spotify or Apple Podcasts; and get your copy of our 20th anniversary double issue, complete with an A1 poster time-lining two decades of art history, from our online shop or in select book and magazine shops worldwide.

Post-Cool Berlin? is the first in a series of four Spike roundtables on the critical conjunctures in contemporary art, proudly hosted by the Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin.

Sunday, 14 Sept 2025
Julia Stoschek Foundation
Leipziger Str. 60, 10117 Berlin

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MATTHIAS LILIENTHAL (*1959) is a dramaturge, lecturer, and actor. In 2026, he will begin his second tenure as artistic director of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin. 

HENRIKE NAUMANN (*1984) was an artist whose immersive, scenographic installations traced the marks of politics and societal trauma. She passed away in 2026, while preparing to co-represent Germany at the 61st Venice Art Biennale.

AXEL WIEDER (*1971) is an art historian, curator, and writer. Since 2024, he has been the director of the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art.

PABLO LARIOS is a writer, editor, and International Editor at Artforum. Born in Honduras and raised in the US, he lives in Berlin.