Tanja Ostojić: ENCOUNTERS — On Bodies, Borders, Resistance

ENCOUNTERS — On Bodies, Borders, Resistance is the first major retrospective in Germany of works by the Berlin-based artist Tanja Ostojić. As a pioneer of intersectional feminist and postmigrant artistic practice, she has been exploring issues such as migration, body politics, gender politics, and institutional mechanisms of power and exclusion since the 1990s. Her work alternates between performance art, video, installation, and conceptual art, as well as photography, drawing, and textile art, often created in close collaboration with others. In doing so, Ostojić combines personal experience with socio-political research, and transforms individual perspectives into collective spaces of experience and action.

The exhibition brings together some of the pivotal works from the past 25 years alongside several new art projects. At its heart are three interconnected themes: experiences of migration and border regimes, gender politics, and power structures within the field of art and culture. The exhibited works interrogate how deeply these spheres are interwoven, and how questions of gender, heritage, mobility, body politics, and institutional authority are mutually dependent. In light of current debates around migration and gender — and amid the growing political backlash against feminist and emancipatory gains — Tanja Ostojić’s practice remains vital and urgently relevant.

The exhibition is presented in collaboration with Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien and alpha nova & galerie futura. It is curated by Katharina Koch and Sylvia Sadzinski.

Tanja Ostojić is a Berlin-based interdisciplinary and performance artist, researcher, and educator. She is internationally recognised for her pioneering work on institutional gender critique and her socially and politically engaged art projects, many of which have taken place in public spaces. Since 1994, she has been developing research-oriented performance art projects that deal with gender politics, feminism, migration, displacement, labour, and participation. Her works have been shown in the Brooklyn Museum in New York, at the Venice Biennale, and at the Busan Biennale in South Korea, among others. In 2026, she had a major retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade.
https://tanjaostojic.com/

Guided Exhibition Tours 

• Thursday, 12. Nov. 2026, 6pm
  with Katharina Koch (in German)
  
  
• Sunday, 24. Jan. 2027, 4pm
  with Sylvia Sadzinski (in English)
  
  
• Sunday, 14. Feb. 2027, 16 Uhr / 4pm
  with Tanja Ostojić and the curators (in English)

Additional Program 

• Changed by Water:
  Menopausal Embroidery Tea Party
  Participatory workshop with Tanja Ostojić (in German and English)
  Sunday, 8. Nov. 2026, 12–4 pm
  alpha nova & galerie futura, Am Flutgraben 3, 12435 Berlin
  Please register: mail@galeriefutura.de
  
  
• ‘How much strength it takes …’ —
  Artist Talk with Tanja Ostojić
  Moderated by Bettina Knaup (curator)
  Thursday, 26. Nov. 2026, 6pm
  Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin
  
  
• Tanja Ostojić:
  ENCOUNTERS — On Community, Water, Care
  Satellite exhibition
  30.1.—19.3.2027
  Opening: Friday, 29. Jan. 2027, 7–9pm
  Opening Hours: Wed–Sat 4–7pm
  alpha nova & galerie futura, Am Flutgraben 3, 12435 Berlin
  
  
• Mis(s)placed Women?
  Gender & Migration Now
  Roundtable discussion with artists rezzan gümgüm, Marina
  Naprushkina & Tanja Ostojić, moderated by Zofia nierodzińska
  (curator, artist, and activist), in English
  Sunday, 14. Feb. 2027, 6 pm
  Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2,10997 Berlin