The Spike Roundtable: Post-Cool Berlin?

In Spike’s 20th anniversary double issue, “The Post-Cool,” we asked several of Berlin’s leading cultural figures if it remained a world-leading center for contemporary art – or if Berlin as we knew it is really over. Much hand wringing and many think pieces later, the magazine brought together a roundtable at the Julia Stoschek Foundation Berlin in September 2025, to espy what new city is emerging. The panel featured Matthias Lilienthal, dramaturg and artistic director of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz; Axel Wieder, art historian, curator, and director of the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art; and the late artist Henrike Naumann, who passed away in February 2026, while preparing to co-represent Germany at the 61st Venice Art Biennale. Their conversation, moderated by writer and editor Pablo Larios, now published as a podcast, is dedicated to Henrike’s memory.Sound and editing: Sören Hochberg.