Seminar and Exhibition Project Berlin-Beijing-Budapest Successfully Completed

This long-term seminar and exhibition project on the European Bohemian scene and its contemporary subcultural transformations began in the Summer semester of 2024 at the Free University of Berlin in the Department of Philosophy and Humanities and was revisited in a modified form in the Winter semester of 2024/25 at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing.

After the seminars concluded, student project teams in Berlin and Beijing embarked on archival and field research, exploring the Bohemian scene of today.

This resulted in a catalog of highly diverse subcultural formations, which were initially presented in a „cabinet of curiosities,“ a „lab,“ at the Galerie Friese in Spring 2025 as „Beijing-Berlin-Bohemian.“ At the same time, a hybrid curatorial practice was tested: the Chinese project teams participated via Zoom, while the Berlin working group set up the pop-up exhibition (3 days). Galerie Friese considered this temporary, experimental „expansion“ a resounding success and welcomed further collaboration in this constellation.

For the Budapest Contemporary Art Fair, a modified curatorial concept was implemented with the Budapest gallery „11_11,“ focusing entirely on the „Beijing Bohemian“ scene and reworking the Beijing video, photo, and text material for a traditional exhibition booth. The art fair appearance, which took place from October 15 to 19, 2025, proved to be a surprise success with the Budapest audience (including a large Chinese community) in the area of ​​the photo galleries, generating numerous inquiries and discussions about the subject matter and its context. This also revived the „Berlin-Beijing-Budapest axis“ in a „post-pandemic“ way.