Berlin, the Bitch and the Witch

Beneath the bridge
a conclave gathers.
Bitches and witches build a barricade,
the rising smoke hexing the messages of the street.

For centuries, women were persecuted as witches. In her book Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici offers an insightful analysis of the history of capitalism, shedding light on the gendered division of labor and its impact on societal gender roles. Against the backdrop of social and economic crises, the European witch hunts between the 15th and 17th centuries evolved into an instrument of control and discipline driven by profit-seeking motives. Particularly affected were female healers, women with knowledge of plants and medicine, and those who defied social norms. In light of Federici’s analysis, we view the witch hunts for what they were: a strategy of control and domination. May the exhibition Berlin, the Bitch and the Witch inspire us to confront such mechanisms today.

The exhibition casts a collective spell against the capitalist structures that shape and drain life in the contemporary city. In the Western world, magic is often understood as a metaphor for the mystical, the sacred, and the imaginary, thereby challenging ‘rational’ or ‘scientific’ forms of thought. Here, magic becomes a method. Twelve artist-magicians present works that use contemporary magical practices as a starting point to reflect on capitalism and its impact on life in the metropolis. The works invite us to ask what needs protection, whom or what we fear, and how healing can become possible within the city. Berlin is our shared space. And perhaps the figure of the bitch points to the fact that the poison shaping and exhausting our beloved Berlin today is capitalism itself.

The exhibition brings together artist-magicians who use movement, sound, irony, fiction, and defiance to make visible what capitalist systems often render invisible: care, madness, healing, resistance, and connectedness. Like a circle around a fire, these works open up a shared space where bitches and witches reclaim knowledge, protect one another, and devise new forms of survival amidst Berlin’s monsters, ruins, and rhythms. The exhibition does not ask for permission—it sparks contradiction, imagination, and new forms of collective action.

Text by Arantxa Ciafrino
Curatorial assistance: Tatjana Rotfuß

Curated by Arantxa Ciafrino