50 years: UdK Berlin celebrates

© UdK Berlin / Design: Ira Göller und Sophie Pischel

03.02.2025
50 years: UdK Berlin celebrates the diversity of its disciplines

Brain City Berlin

The Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin) will officially kick off its anniversary year on 8 February with interdisciplinary performances, dance, theatre, installations, screenings and concerts. The evening “An Experimental Ecology” marks the start of the “50 years of UdK Berlin” series of events. In 1975, the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste and the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst were merged into one institution - the Hochschule der Künste Berlin (HdK).

Atoning for small sins artistically? “Sacrament of Penance II” follows this unusual path. The interactive performance is not about shame and dishonour, rather it is about conversations and building new friendships. The participants confess to “artistic priests”. As penance, they are given “meaningful performance-related tasks”. The performance is one of a total of 17 projects selected by the UdK Berlin through an open call. Interdisciplinarity was a prerequisite: at least two study programmes, faculties or centres of the Berlin University of the Arts were to be involved.

On 8 February 2025, the students, teaching staff, employees and graduates involved in the projects will now present their artistic experiments as part of “An Experimental Ecology. Art practice in the dialogue of disciplines at the UdK Berlin”. The Berlin University of the Arts officially opens its anniversary programme “50 years of the UdK Berlin” with an evening of events in the Fasanenstrasse theatre. In 1975, the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste and the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst were merged into one institution – the Hochschule der Künste Berlin (HdK). The university was only awarded the title “university” in 2001 following a structural reform, although it already had the right to award doctorates before then.

Today, the UdK Berlin is one of the few arts universities in Europe to offer all artistic disciplines – including the discipline-related sciences. Around 4,000 students are enrolled in more than 70 artistic, artistic-scientific and artistic-pedagogical degree programmes. “An Experimental Ecology” aims to express the possibilities and potential of this diversity. It deals with topics such as migration, loss of home, cross-generational interests, perceptions and concerns, resource protection or the interweaving of past and present through dance.

“An Experimental Ecology” also marks the start of further anniversary events as part of “50 years of the UdK Berlin”. Next on the programme is “Crescendo” on 23 May: The Symphony Orchestra of the Berlin University of the Arts will perform Joseph Haydn’s Sinfonia concertante for oboe, bassoon, violin and cello and Ludwig van Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony under the direction of Giovanni Antonini in the UdK Concert Hall. Admission to both events is free.

By the way: The UdK Berlin can look forward to two more anniversaries this year: The UdK theatre “UNI.T” also turns 50. And the Jazz Institute Berlin (JIB) was founded 20 years ago as a joint institute of the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and the Berlin University of the Arts. (vdo)

More information

Free tickets for “An Experimental Ecology. Art practice in the dialogue of disciplines at the UdK Berlin” can be booked in advance here.
Calendar of events “50 years UdK Berlin”