EXILE was founded by Christian Siekmeier in Berlin on October 18, 2008. In 2018 the gallery relocated from Berlin to Vienna, where it closed one day shy of its eighteenth anniversary, October 17, 2026.
Over the course of eighteen years, EXILE realized 201 exhibitions with the participation of 695 contributors: artists, curators, and writers. While the majority of these exhibitions took place in Berlin and Vienna, further presentations were staged in Erfurt, Cologne and New York, at Ars Electronica in Linz, at Manifesta 12 in Palermo and at numerous art fairs.
The gallery’s program was characterized by the recurrent juxtaposition of historical positions with the work of a younger generation of artists. This intergenerational dialogue formed the conceptual core of the program: it served to situate individual artistic perspectives within broader contexts, advance a relational understanding of heterogeneous practices, and foster an understanding of interconnection and community.
Among the historical positions presented were Alvin Baltrop, Stuart Brisley, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Sine Hansen, Teenie Harris, Tess Jaray, Sabina Maria van der Linden, Kazuko Miyamoto, Verena Pfisterer, Jack Smith, Gwenn Thomas and Jiří Valoch. EXILE’s final exhibition was dedicated to a previously unseen body of work by David Medalla.
In parallel, EXILE engaged in long-term collaborations with artists of a younger generation, supporting their practice through solo, duo and group exhibitions as well as presentations at art fairs. These included Brishty Alam, Kerstin von Gabain, David Gruber, Nschotschi Haslinger, Kinga Kiełczyńska, Martins Kohout, Katharina Marszewski, Erik Niedling, Patrick Fabian Panetta, Christophe de Rohan Chabot and Pauł Sochacki.
Further, collective, community-oriented exhibition formats were integral to the program from its inception. The first Summer Camp, initiated in 2009 on the basis of an open call, was followed by further editions in 2010 and 2011. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, EXILE realized two projects: Coloring Quarantine, which brought together 178 artists, and Cruel Summer Camp in Vienna, likewise based on an open call. In 2022, the project 10×1000 invited ten artists to offer works whose proceeds were donated directly to charitable causes.
The exhibition program was complemented by screenings, readings, performances and artist talks. Following the closure of the gallery, this website remains accessible as an archive documenting all exhibitions and contributors.
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Christian Siekmeier wishes to express his personal gratitude to all artists, writers, curators, visitors, private collectors and public institutions who supported EXILE over the past eighteen years.
For further information on the EXILE archive and to contact Christian Siekmeier please email: info_at_christiansiekmeier_dot_de