Death, nudity and sex... in the city: summer art round-up

Frida Kahlo’s in town. So is Robert Capa. And don’t forget Bruce Nauman, Olafur Eliasson, Louise Bourgeois and Art Spiegelman. Wondering what to see? Here are our tips. If you are in Berlin this summer and keen to see some art, start with the ‘off-off’ spaces run by artists: these promise experiences beyond the more idle reflection of galleries and museums. Mitte’s last-stand alternative art space MMX opened its fifth show on July 16 (through Aug 20). Or go even further ‘underground’ and befriend Atelier Überall on Facebook: from a disused abattoir in Kreuzberg, it promises “a little bit of everything for a little bit of everyone”, and last year gave birth to the daughter of the Fernsehturm. On the more mainstream circuit, Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg’s Double Sexus, which brings together the work of Hans Bellmer and Louise Bourgeois, was extended until August 15 following Bourgeois’s death on May 31. More death rites at Martin-Gropius-Bau’s Frida Kahlo retrospective (through Aug 9) – tying in with the Teotihuacan show – while Olafur Eliasson’s Innen Stadt Außen (main exhibition: through Aug 9) continues to ask, “What is integral to a city?” Not a million miles away conceptually is Bruce Nauman’s Dream Passage at the Hamburger Bahnhof (through Oct 10), which offers “experience architecture”. The Berlinische Galerie’s Marianne Breslauer: Moments Unnoticed (photo; through Nov 1) documents street life from the last ‘lost generation’. Expect it all to look eerily familiar. Works by Magnum’s big name photojournalists (Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Donovan Wylie…) are on show in Shifting Medium, New Role for Photography for C|O’s 10-year anniversary (through Sep 19). At Galerie Morgen, Jens Lehmann’s Don’t Clean Up proposes the urban swill be maintained as a monument to “modernity’s crushed hopes” (through Aug 7). From the city to the diaspora… Heroes, Freaks and Super-Rabbis (through Aug 8) at the Jewish Museum explores the (weirdly) Jewish history of comics, and includes original sketches by Art Spiegelman, creator of Maus. Who Knows Africa? (through Sep 26) scatters site-specific African sculptures, textiles, video works and installations between Berlin’s national museums. And, if all this seems like strong stuff for a summer’s day, there is always Camera Work’s examination of the photographic nude (through Aug 28): all the nudity of an FKK beach, but slightly better looking bodies… Want to see images from these shows and more? Visit our picture gallery archive.