The Exilmuseum Berlin Foundation is launching a new exhibition series at the portal ruins of the historic Anhalter Bahnhof, featuring artistic installations that engage with the site and its history, whilst bringing the concept of exile from history into the present. The series opens on 14 November 2025 with the illuminated text sculpture “I Don’t Have Another Land” (2022) by the renowned Scottish artist Nathan Coley.
New artistic installations every year
With the series At the Ruins, the Exilmuseum Foundation at Anhalter Bahnhof is creating a new forum in the urban space that connects history and the present: the artistic positions offer new perspectives on a largely forgotten chapter of Berlin history. Anhalter Bahnhof represents momentous events in German history—and is at the same time a largely underestimated site of remembrance.
“I am delighted that we can present Nathan Coley’s famous artwork ‘I Don’t Have Another Land’ in Germany for the first time, especially at a place that stands for exile and deportation during National Socialism. The installation raises pressing questions of identity, belonging and social responsibility—issues that are more relevant today than they have been for a long time.” says Ruth Ur, Director of the Exilmuseum Foundation.
Anhalter Bahnhof: a place of exile and deportation
Anhalter Bahnhof was once one of Europe’s largest railway stations. From 1933 onwards, countless people fled from here into exile abroad, having been persecuted in Germany by the National Socialists as Jews, as artists, intellectuals or because of their political convictions. Between 1941 and 1943, more than 9,600 Berlin Jews were deported from Anhalter Bahnhof to ghettos and concentration camps.
Today, only the station’s entrance portal remains. With the At the Ruins programme—initiated by the Exilmuseum Berlin Foundation in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn AG and the Heinz und Heide Dürr Foundation—this historic site is to be strengthened as a vibrant place of remembrance and culture.
Opening 2025/26: “I Don’t Have Another Land” by Nathan Coley
The luminous text sculpture “I Don’t Have Another Land” is based on graffiti that Nathan Coley discovered in Jerusalem in the mid-2000s. The striking phrase is deliberately left open: on the one hand, it refers to the site’s historical significance; on the other, it can also be read as a commentary on current questions of belonging and identity. Precisely because the sculpture invites different interpretations, it is particularly suited to opening a conversation about history and the present.
In an interview, Nathan Coley makes clear just how differently his works can be read: “I want the phrase to be loved and I also expect it to be disliked at the same time. The sculptures are propositions. They very consciously know that you're looking at them in a space which is contested and not private. I very simply give power to these words.”
Nathan Coley (born 1967 in Glasgow) is internationally known for works that use public space as a resonant space for social issues. His works have been exhibited worldwide, including at Tate Modern in London, Kunstverein Freiburg and the Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam. Coley was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007. He lives and works in Glasgow.
The work “I Don’t Have Another Land” was first displayed in Charleston in the South of England, the former studio and home of the artist couple Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. In 2023, it was installed on the façade of Eastbourne City Library, facing the English Channel. In 2025, the work was shown in Prizren, Kosovo, a place with a turbulent military history that was also a Bundeswehr base until a few years ago.
About the Exilmuseum Berlin Foundation
The Exilmuseum Berlin Foundation works to make visible the stories of flight and exile during the Nazi era and to reflect on the present through an understanding of the past. The Exilmuseum will open in 2027 in the historic building at Fasanenstraße 24 in Charlottenburg. At the same time, a publicly accessible site of remembrance and art is being created at Anhalter Bahnhof.