Fluentum- Contemporary Time-Based Art

Fluentum is a nonprofit, privately run institution dedicated to exhibiting, producing and collecting contemporary art, with a special focus on time-based media such as film and video. Founded as an initiative of Berlin based entrepreneur and collector Markus Hannebauer, the institution's collection was established in 2010, purchasing, archiving and maintaining select works of time-based art, before Fluentum opened its dedicated exhibition space in 2019 within a former military complex in the city.

The building itself carries an unusually layered history that has become central to the institution's own identity. Constructed between 1936 and 1938 during the Nazi era under the name Luftgaukommando III, based on designs by architect Fritz Fuss, the complex initially served as an administrative building for the German Reichsluftwaffe before becoming increasingly bound up in strategic warfare as the Second World War progressed. Following the war, the building was used as the headquarters of the United States military in West Berlin, from which the famous Berlin Airlift was organised in 1948 and 1949. After the withdrawal of the last American soldiers in 1994, the complex stood vacant for a period, during which it was repeatedly used as a film set for historical productions including Bryan Singer's Valkyrie and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. In 2016, Markus Hannebauer acquired the ornate main building and commissioned architects Sauerbruch Hutton to transform it into an exhibition space for video art, preserving the building's outward appearance on its nearly 5.6 hectare site.

Fluentum's contemporary importance lies in its dual commitment to public exhibition and to sustained support for artistic production, particularly among Berlin based artists. At the centre of its biannual group and solo exhibitions is the realisation of new works, commissioned specifically at Fluentum's invitation and given their first public presentation at the institution, complemented by guided tours, artist talks, screenings and publications that extend and deepen engagement with each exhibition. Admission to all exhibitions and events is free, reflecting the institution's commitment to public accessibility. Beyond its own exhibition programme, Fluentum funds artistic productions and external exhibitions more broadly, supporting independent practices and reflecting what it sees as Berlin's uniquely wide ranging opportunities for local artistic production.

Curatorially, Fluentum works critically and productively with its building's own multilayered history, treating the site's connection to Berlin's urban and cinematic past as a distinctive point of departure for site specific engagements with memory and historical narrative, understood as an ongoing and unresolved process. Dialogical collaboration with artists sits at the centre of this approach, with artistic methods treated as equal partners to other forms of historical and critical research.

The institution's core organisational pillars are its growing collection, now including works by more than sixty artists spanning documentary, experimental and conceptual approaches to the moving image, its commissioning and exhibition programme, and its publications. As a nonprofit gGmbH, Fluentum is funded through the continued support of its founding director, Markus Hannebauer, a structure that allows the institution to pursue an independent and consistently research driven programme within Berlin's cultural landscape.