The Hamburger Bahnhof opens its Sophie Calle exhibition on Thursday 12 November 2026 at 7pm. Entry is free and you don't need to register. It is the French artist's first solo show in Berlin in more than twenty years, and she will be there in person.
At 7pm the museum's director Sam Bardaouil and curator Lisa Hörstmann give short welcome speeches with Sophie Calle. After that the galleries are open for the evening. Is It Better? brings together six bodies of work from three decades. Among them are The Detachment, photographs of East Berlin sites stripped of GDR emblems that Calle made here in 1996, and Les fantômes d'Orsay, an installation from a hotel room she haunted for three years in the old Paris railway station. A new work about the Palast der Republik was made for the museum's thirtieth anniversary.
What to expect
Openings at the Hamburger Bahnhof get busy, especially with a name like Calle's. Come early if you want to see the work rather than the crowd. The speeches are short, and most people go straight into the rooms. If you prefer a quieter visit with a guide, the curator's tours on the 30-hour anniversary weekend two days later are free too.
Good to know
- When: Thursday 12 November 2026, from 7pm (speeches at 7pm)
- Where: Hamburger Bahnhof, Invalidenstraße 50–51, 10557 Berlin
- Entry: free, no registration
- Getting there: five minutes on foot from Hauptbahnhof; tram M5, M8, M10 to Invalidenpark
- The exhibition: runs from 13 November 2026 to 4 April 2027
Nearby
On the same evening, Carsten Nicolai opens WAVE WEAVE & SONO OBI at EIGEN + ART on Auguststraße (5–8pm). Go there first, then take the tram to Invalidenpark.