The Spike Roundtable: Post-Cool Berlin?

In Spike’s 20th-anniversary double issue, “The Post-Cool,” we asked several protagonists of Berlin culture if the city remained a world-leading center for contemporary art – or if Berlin as we knew it is really over. Much hand-wringing and many thinkpieces later, the magazine brought together a roundtable at the Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin in September 2025, to discuss what comes after “poor but sexy.”

The panel featured dramaturg Matthias Lilienthal, the forthcoming artistic director of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz; art historian and curator Axel Wieder, current director of the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art; and the late artist Henrike Naumann, who passed away in February 2026. Their conversation, moderated by writer and editor Pablo Larios, is dedicated to Henrike’s memory. 

Sound and editing for this episode are by Sören Hochberg. Our theme music is from Seth Price’s 2001 track “Die Leguane.”