May 16 – July 27, 2025 / Tue–Sun 12–19:00 / daadgalerie / free admission

Opening: Thursday, May 15, 18:00

How can we, as workers of the imaginary, recognize the significance and the poetics of being when all manners of racism, war and patriarchal violence redirect the gaze from our indisputable presence? For Real For Real gathers together artists working to bring us closer to the particularities, obsessions, peculiarities, playfulness, obscurity, wonderment of a single one doing life, being alive, loving, seeing, making, breaking, collapsing, doing and doing in the wild wilderness of now.

For Real For Real is presented by The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII), an interdisciplinary cultural laboratory founded by the poet Claudia Rankine, in collaboration with the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program and in conversation with Kevin Quashie’s book Black Aliveness: A Poetics of Being. The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive program of readings, talks, and screenings.

With John Akomfrah, Baff Akoto, Rihab Alyousufi, Lotte Andersen, Mary Jo Bang, Catherine Barnett, Alvaro Barrington, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Dana Bishop-Root, Black Visual Grammar, Diane Borger, Garrett Bradley, Rizvana Bradley, Dionne Brand, Susan Briante, Jericho Brown, Felisha Carenage, Bruce Carlisle, Cameron Carrington, Prudence Carter, Mel Chin, Reyes Coll-Tellechea, Bevil Conway, Helga Davis, Blaire Davis, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Biswamit Dwibedy, Torkwase Dyson, Becky Earley, Jody Ellant, Radna Fabias, Daniela Faurel, Logan February, Teresita Fernández, Nick Flynn, Patrick Gaspard, Theaster Gates, Carmen Giménez, Kimia Godarzani-Bakhtiari, Sana Goldberg, Tony Guerrero, Carmen A. Hall, Sandra Harper, Lyle Ashton Harris, Thomas Allen Harris, Terrance Hayes, Harmony Holiday, Annie Howard, Christine Hume, Kahlil Joseph, Dozie Kanu, Titus Kaphar, Bhanu Kapil, William Kentridge, David Knight, Isadora Knutsen, Lauren Kolar, Raymond Koranteng, Alix Lambert, Laura Larson, Satchel Lee, Nate Lewis, Bluey Little, Isaiah Lopaz, Canisia Lubrin, John Lucas, Margeaux Lucas, Ula Lucas, Lucine Bassa, Tracy Biga MacLean, Saraswati Nandini Majumdar, Maria Markham, Dawn Lundy Martin, Stefan Marx, Lebogang Mashile, Farid Matuk, Fiona McCrae, Jean Melesaine, Otis Mensah, Joshua Mensch, Katie Merz, Christine Millerin, Leah Mirakhor, Dasia Moore, Fathima Moyikkal, Fidha Moyikkal, Nicholas Muellner, Sandeep Mukherjee, Jackie Murray, MZIN, Pooja Nansi, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Anne O’Connor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Jennifer Packer, Diana Pfammatter, Shamel Pitts, Patricia Powell, Paul B. Preciado, Yuval Pudik, Abeera Qureshi, Thomias Radin, Ram Natarajan, Claudia Rankine, Asad Raza, Nasima Sophia Razizadeh, Raphaëlle Red, Andrea Rexilius, Catherine Riley, Jess Row, Simon(e) van Saarloos, Enas Sabbah, Christina Sharpe, Eleni Sikelianos, Sjón, Dirk Skiba, Emily Skillings, Jackson Elijah Smith, Therese Stanton, Rune Steenberg, Ann Sundberg, Martine Syms, Norio Tagasuki, Catherine Taylor, Mercedes Teixido, Monica de la Torre, Martha Tuttle, David Ulin, Wilson Villaverde, Kara Walker, Maslen Bode Ward, Carrie Mae Weems, Gus Weiner, Joshua Weiner, Susan Wheeler, Carla Williams, Margrethe Winslow, Tiphanie Yanique, Janise Yntema, among others

Curated by John Lucas, Claudia Rankine, Russell Salmon, Mathias Zeiske

Events

16.05.2025, 19:00
Reading with Jericho Brown
Details

17.05.2025, 15:00
Readings by Tracy Biga MacLean, Maslen Ward, Asad Raza, Simon(e) van Saarloos, Baff Akoto, Felisha Carenage, Nasima Sophia Razizadeh, Ann Sundberg, Rune Steenberg, Ann O’Connor, Isadora Knutsen, Nandini Majumdar, Tiphanie Yanique, Wilson Villaverde, Kimia Godarzani, Fiona McCrae, Logan February, among others

17.05.2025, 18:00
Screening of A Touch of Red by Shamel Pitts and Taylor Antisdel
In presence of the artist and the filmmaker
Details

23.05.2025, 19:00
In Praise of Mere Beauty. Keynote by Kevin Quashie
Followed by a conversation with Claudia Rankine
Details

24.05.2025, 18:00
Screening of RIVÂL by Thomias Radin, Mats Meisen, and Alex Brack

06.06.2025, 19:00
Claudia Rankine in conversation with Mel Chin

10.06.2025, 19:00
Screening of Exhibiting Forgiveness by Titus Kaphar

24.06.2025, 19:00
Reading with Terrance Hayes

26.06.2025, 19:00
Reading with Delfi Magazine
With Enrico Ippolito, Raphaëlle Red, and Claudia Rankine

More events to be announced.

daadgalerie
Oranienstraße 161
Berlin

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The exhibition is made possible through the support of the Ford Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, Sarah Arison, Allison Coudert. With a public program underwritten by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Image: Martine Syms, The Non-Hero (still), 2021, Single channel video. Courtesy of the artist and Bridget Donahue, NYC