A Friend in Berlin

A Friend in Berlin is a series of events that centre center on the Fellows of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program and their connections to the city. It explores the format of a meeting and a conversation with an old friend or a new acquaintance, who has been based in the city for longer or has arrived recently. Through conversations, readings, screenings, and performances, artistic peers come together to share their practices and stories and follow lines of thought, discovering shared interests, and considering the different ways they are situated within and connected to the city of Berlin.

This first event in the series centerscentres on a conversation between artists Wang Tuo (Visual Arts Fellow 2026) and his long-time friend Sim Chi Yin, who has been based in Berlin since 2024. Together, they trace the paths between their practices, reflecting on how each navigates challenging histories and finds ways of speaking about them with those positioned outside these experiences. The event begins with a screening of Wang Tuo’s most recent work Ratchet Drill (2026), followed by a conversation drawing on a selection of works by both artists.

Wang Tuo (born in Changchun, China) interweaves historical facts, cultural archives, fiction and mythology into speculative narratives. Equating his practice to novel writing, he stages an intervention in historical literary texts and cultural archives to formulate stories that blur the boundaries of time and space, facts and imagination. Through film, performance, painting, and drawing, the artist’s work is a powerful examination of modern Chinese and East Asian history.

Sim Chi Yin (born in Singapore) uses artistic and archival interventions to contest and complicate historiographies and colonial narratives, and probe trans-generational memory. Working across photographic / film installation and performance, she layers the personal and familial onto the geo-political, suggesting lineages between colonial and contemporary political practices.

The talk is in English.

For more information and the most recent event updates, please visit the website of DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program or Instagram @daad_artists.