Event archive

Student Council on "The Political Mandate of the Arts" – with Myriam Boulos

Lion Feuchtwanger. Reflections of a Cosmopolitan - Panel Discussion and Performance

Layers of Los Angeles: Memory and Speculative Futures of Place – Frances Anderton, Lauren Bon & Norman Klein in Conversation. Moderated by Mimi Zeiger.

Approaching Marta Feuchtwanger: Sonya Schönberger in Conversation with Marianne Heuwagen

Arts in Times of Crises: The Role of Artists in Weakened Democracies | Conference

Student Council on "The Political Mandate of the Arts" – with Joes Segal

Politics and Fiction: Lion Feuchtwanger’s Oppermanns

Bystanding & the Holocaust in Europe – Lecture & Conversation with Christina Morina, Saul Friedländer, and Norbert Frei

Meet The Artists

Welcoming Reception for our current artists in residence Janine Eggert (Visual Artist), Anke Völk (Visual Artist), Cathy Milliken  (Composer), and Paula Fürstenberg (Writer).

"Thomas Mann: Democracy Will Win!" – Traveling Exhibition at Princeton University

Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra performs works by Cathy Milliken | California Festival

Marta - An installation by Sonya Schönberger

An exhibition of the Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in the Villa Oppenheim.

"Das Thomas Mann House - Politischer Denkort am Pazifik" (Book Presentation & Conversation)

"Das Thomas Mann House - Politischer Denkort am Pazifik" (Book Presentation & Conversation)

Join us for a book presentation and conversation about the upcoming book Das Thomas Mann House- Politischer Denkort am Pazifik (Wallstein Verlag, 2023). Editors Benno Herz and Nikolai Blaumer, together with contributing authors, will take you on a journey to the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles.

Student Council on "The Political Mandate of the Arts" - with Elizabeth Ai

Rooms with a View

For the first time, Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House presents an exhibition of its art fellows at Haus Kunst Mitte - House for Contemporary Art in Berlin-Mitte: Ali El-Darsa, Silke Fischer, Anna Haifisch, Antje Majewski, Lukas Schilling, Sonya Schönberger, Siska and Clemens von Wedemeyer. The exhibition is curated by Curator: Dr. Anna Havemann, Artistic Director at Haus Kunst Mitte.

"Artivism"- Round Table Discussion with Nikita Dhawan, María do Mar Castro Varela, Nehemiah Dixon III, Reginald Douglas, Maria Goyanes, Renee Harrison, Maria del Carmen Montoya. Moderated by Mia Matthias.

"Dealing with Disenchantment: Aesthetic Enlightenment & the Art of Decolonization" - Conversation with Nikita Dhawan, María do Mar Castro Varela and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

"Aesthetics & Politics: Perspectives" - Lectures & Discussion with Nikita Dhawan, María do Mar Castro Varela, Vivek Bald, Helen Yitah, Hortense Spillers and Emily Apter

"Learning from the Germans?" - A Conversation Around the Politics of Remembrance

"Dealing with Disenchantment: Aesthetic Enlightenment & the Art of Decolonization" - Conversation with Nikita Dhawan, María do Mar Castro Varela, Andrea Patiño Contreras & Tania Bruguera

"Dealing with Disenchantment: Aesthetic Enlightenment & the Art of Decolonization" - Panel Discussion with Nikita Dhawan & María do Mar Castro Varela

Student Council on the "Political Mandate of the Arts" - With Sasha Razor

"Californie 1900: Circulating California’s environmental imagination at the Paris world’s fair" - Lecture by Carolin Görgen

Beyond Borders: A conversation on Art and Exile

A conversation between Yasmin Merei and Ghayath Almadhoun as part of the Tage des Exils ("Days of Exile") 2023 program in Berlin.

What Gets Us Through the Crisis

With Marina Weisband, Tom Zoellner, and Aida Baghernejad. An introduction by Christine Landfried.

Annika Kahrs – Gravity's Tune

In her solo exhibition, artist Annika Kahrs (Villa Aurora Fellow 2023) presents a new video work interpreting – in collaboration with the composer Louis d’Heudières and musicians from Los Angeles – the acoustic signal that helped make gravitational waves audible for the first time

Long Night of Exile

Opening of the festival Tage des Exils (Days of Exile) with Talks, presentations, readings. VATMH will present the App "Exit Exil".

Multiverse and Multilingualism

Time to Listen – Krill.Foam.Stop

Feminist evening concert with Ute Wassermann, Nina Dragičević and Anna Hetzer.

"I know what I’m doing” : Women Photographers in the West Coast Camera Club Environment, circa 1900. - Lecture by Carolin Görgen

Student Council on the "Political Mandate of the Arts" - With Amanda Beech

Time to Listen. The Ecological Crisis in Sound and Music

Festival with an exhibition, concerts, workshops for children and teenagers, open-space symposium, presentations and a community day in Moabit.

Listening to Ballona in the Natural History Museum of the Future

2022 Villa Aurora Fellow Carola Bauckholt invites Los Angeles-based composer Daniel Rothman to Berlin for the Time to Listen festival.

Traveling exhibition: "Thomas Mann: Democracy Will Win" at the University of Kansas

Meet The Artists

Welcoming Reception for our current artists in residence Nieves de la Fuente (Visual Artist), Monika Orpik (Visual Artist), Emre Dündar (Composer), Sergey Khismatov (Composer and Multimedia Artist) and Anna Korsun (Composer, Performer and Teacher).

The Origin of Values - Presentation and Discussion

"Martha Liebermann: A Stolen Life" (Online Screening & Conversation)

Student Council on the "Political Mandate of the Arts" - With Sonali Kolhatkar

"Martha Liebermann: A Stolen Life" (Online Screening & Conversation)

"Exiled Joy" – Reading and Conversation with Randa Jarrar, Ghayath Almadhoun & Sarah Yanni

PoliSounds - How political is Pop culture?

With Ebow, Marlene Grunert, Alice Hasters, Salwa Houmsi, Anthony Hüseyin and T'neeya.

"Künstlers in Paradise" – Reading and Conversation with Cathleen Schine & Donna Rifkind

Student Council on the "Political Mandate of the Arts" - With Cauleen Smith (New Date!)

Annika Kahrs, Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani at 2220 Arts + Archives

Carpool Community Engagement – How Civil Society Shapes L.A.’s Neighborhoods: Part II (Video Release)

Ecologies of the Western Camera: Photographic Practice in Early Twentieth-Century California. Lecture by Carolin Görgen

Affective Landscapes – Photography & Cinema of the American West: Carolin Görgen, Heike Paul & Jordan Reznick in Conversation. Moderated by Erin Cooney.

Poetry with Ghayath Almadhoun

Veronika Kellndorfer: Dialogue with Silver Lake. Metabolism of Architecture at Neutra VDL House

FUTUR DREI / No Hard Feelings: Screening & Discussion with Faraz Shariat and Paulina Lorenz

Student Council on the "Political Mandate of the Arts" - With Steven D. Lavine

Loss(es) of Modernity

On Journalism, Technology & Democracy: An Evening with Maria Exner and Guests

Book Burning Memorial Day

On the occasion of the commemoration of the Book Burning, 9 outstanding artists read texts from Erich Kästner to Kurt Tucholsky, remembering writers whose works were burned in 1933.

With Paula Beer, Ebow, Alice Hasters, Behzad Karim Khani, Shelly Kupferberg, Enis Maci, Svenja Leiber, Pascal Richmann and Senthuran Varatharajah.

*The event will be held in German*

Screening & Conversation with Dana Kavelina

Screening & Conversation with Dana Kavelina

Carpool Community Engagement – How Civil Society Shapes L.A.’s Neighborhoods: Part I (Video Release)

Meet The Artists

Welcoming Reception for our current artists in residence Maroan el Sani (Visual Artist), Nina Fischer (Visual Artist), Lukas Rietzschel (Writer), Annika Kahrs (Visual Artist), Paulina Lorenz (Filmmaker) and Faraz Shariat (Filmmaker).

Poetry & Exile - Reading and Conversation with Ghayath Almadhoun

Student Council on the "Political Mandate of the Arts" - With Heidi Duckler

The Poetry of Exile - Poetry Reading by Lan Duong and Ghayath Almadhoun

Book Presentation "Thomas Mann's Los Angeles: Stories from Exile 1940-1952"

Panel discussion on the literature scene in Los Angeles between 1940-1952. With Sylvia Asmus, Friedhelm Marx, Andreas Platthaus and the editors Benno Herz and Nikolai Blaumer. Moderated by: Sabina Becker

*The Event will be held in German*

Artist Talk: Antje Majewski

Student Council on the "Political Mandate of the Arts" - With Ghayath Almadhoun

The Biggest Tax Heist Ever – Felix Rohrbeck & Oliver Schröm in Conversation

Becoming Black - Film Screening and Discussion

Black Germans Between Erasure and Tokenism

How to tax the rich? - Panel discussion with Felix Rohrbeck and Evan Horowitz

The Diaries of Franz Kafka

Kevin Vennemann in conversation with Ross Benjamin on translating The Diaries of Franz Kafka with an open discussion afterwards.

Student Council on the "Political Mandate of the Arts" - With Ebow

Who Can Dance? - A Conversation with Alice Hasters and Kurt A. Douglas

Meet The Artists

Welcoming Reception  & Artist talk with our current fellows: Florian Baron (Filmmaker), Ebow (Musician), Paul Hutchinson (Visual Artist), Ines Johnson-Spain (Director and Screenwriter), and Sandra Wollner (Director and Screenwriter).

Barrett Memorial Lecture - With Alice Hasters

Black Feminism - A Conversation with Alice Hasters and Morgan Jerkins

Against the Edge: 2023 Frieze Art Fair at Thomas Mann House

Against The Edge: 2023 Frieze Art Fair at Villa Aurora

Exhibition "Democracy Will Win!" at Northwestern University

Student Council on the "Political Mandate of the Arts" - With David Horvitz

Rethinking the West: Promise and Crisis of a Concept (Event Series)

Subtlety, Taste, and Intelligence - Remembering Oskar Werner at 100