SCREENING – Artist Films on sub- and counterculture is a six-part short film series that brings together film and video works by internationally renowned artists with rarely screened underground films. Across six evenings in summer 2026, Kantine am Berghain presents short films that explore music, the body, and identity in the context of sub- and countercultures in various ways. Admission is free.
SCREENING Artist films on sub- and counterculture Kantine am Berghain 23 June, 1 July, 8 July, 30 July, 5 August and 12 August
Violett explores the historical links between poverty, queerness and public space. The work takes as its starting point research carried out in Viennese archives into a lesbian relationship between two female workers in the early 20th century. The film gives visibility to these marginalised queer stories and challenges the boundaries of official historiography.
In her artistic practice, Laura Nitsch (b. 1986) explores desire and economics, work and friendship, property and education, as well as class struggle and collective structures. Her works have been exhibited at venues including Diagonale, mumok, nGbK Berlin and Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien.
Wish You a Lovely Sunday connects a church (Kirche am Südstern) and the queer club SchwuZ through choreographic movement — two spaces that may appear fundamentally opposed, yet both function as ritualized sites of community. The film explores the parallels between these environments as spaces of ritual, collectivity, and bodily practice, revealing through the shift between church and club a constant renegotiation of movement, context, and meaning.
Young-jun Tak (b. 1989 in Seoul) is a South Korean artist living and working in Berlin. Through performance, video, sculpture, and installation, his work explores questions of corporeality, queerness, spirituality, and cultural identity. His works have been presented internationally in exhibitions and biennials, including the Berlin Biennale, the Julia Stoschek Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo and the Seoul Museum of Art.
A twentysomething gay man develops a relationship over text messages with a stranger he meets on a dating app. Their exchange becomes increasingly intimate as the protagonist navigates life as an architect in New York City. We catch glimpses of his reflection on the glass facades that dominate the architecture surrounding him, a visual stand-in for the world of screens that populate our lives. He longs for connection, watching other people on social media while offering himself up to be seen. He attempts to create the perfect selfie in the hopes of meeting his stranger face to face. Will they ever meet? And will that satisfy their desires?
New Yorkers Daniel Chew and Micaela Durand make incisive films about contemporary urban life, tapping into the surface pleasures of the city and the radical new interconnectedness of our ever-more online existences. Micaela Durand and Daniel Chew met in freshman year of film school at NYU Tisch, and their collaboration has taken on several forms since then, including net art projects and art e-publication.
