Peaches and Klaus Biesenbach (Live in Berlin)

Sep 18, 2025

This lively discussion features Peaches, a boundary-pushing musician and performance artist known for her provocative style, and Klaus Biesenbach, a curator and director at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. They delve into the evolution of Berlin's art scene from the 90s to today, sharing insights on the shift from DIY creativity to institutional curation. Peaches reveals her experiences with ASMR as art and body politics, while both guests explore the importance of audience engagement and political messaging in their work. They wrap up with humorous takes on art and practical advice for aspiring artists.

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ANECDOTE

Site Of A New Berlin Modern Museum

Klaus describes the Neue Nationalgalerie construction site and the planted potted trees used to create shade and audience space.
He frames the new museum as Berlin Modern, a 20th-century national museum under two to three more years of construction.

INSIGHT

Berlin Moved From Open Experimentation To Regulation

Both guests note Berlin shifted from “poor but sexy” freedom to a more regulated, expensive city with ongoing gentrification.
They argue the 90s offered cheap space and opportunities that attracted creatives and shaped the scene.

ANECDOTE

First Berlin Visit And Early Gigs

Peaches recounts her first Berlin visit in the late 1990s and playing at Gallery Berlin Tokyo with a collective called Honeysuckle.
She emphasizes the spontaneous, open venues and carrying instruments like a Roland Groovebox and double turntable to plug into local systems.

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Talk Art Live in Berlin. Season 26 of Talk Art begins!!!!

This episode is a special Paid Partnership collaboration with Berlin Art Week, who flew Russell & Robert to Berlin.

Recorded live, in front of an audience, outside the Neue Nationalgalerie in September 2025. Special guests Peaches @peachesnisker (musician, producer, director, performance artist) and Klaus Biesenbach @klausbiesenbach (Director, Neue Nationalgalerie) join the conversation about art, music, and the Berlin art scene.

An iconic feminist musician, producer, director, and performance artist, Peaches has spent nearly two decades pushing boundaries and wielding immeasurable influence over mainstream pop culture from outside of its confines, carving a bold, sexually progressive path in her own image that's opened the door for countless others to follow. She’s collaborated with everyone from Iggy Pop and Daft Punk to Kim Gordon and Major Lazer, had her music featured cultural watermarks like Lost In Translation, The Handmaid's Tale, and Broad City among others, and seen her work studied at universities around the world.

Dubbed a “genuine heroine” by the New York Times, Peaches has released five critically acclaimed studio albums blending electronic music, hip-hop, and punk rock while tackling gender politics, sexual identity, ageism, and the patriarchy. Uncut has raved that her work brought together "high art, low humour and deluxe filth [in] a hugely seductive combination,” while Rolling Stone called her “surreally funny [and] nasty.”

An equally prolific visual artist, Peaches has directed over twenty of her own videos, designed one of the most raw and creative stage shows in popular music, and has appeared at modern art’s most prestigious gatherings, from Art Basel Miami to the Venice Biennale. On top of it all, she mounted a one-woman production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar’—redubbed ‘Peaches Christ Superstar’—which earned international raves, composed and performed the electro-rock opera 'Peaches Does Herself,' which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and sang the title role in a production of Monteverdi's epic 17th-century opera 'L’Orfeo' in Berlin. Visit: https://www.teachesofpeaches.com/

Klaus Biesenbach began his career in Berlin 30 years ago aged 25, when he was one of a group that set up the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in a former margarine factory. In 2004, he became a curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he rose to the position of chief curator and founded a new department for media and performance art. In 2010, he became director of MoMA PS1, the museum's outpost in Queen's. At MOCA in Los Angeles, he introduced free admission, expanded the collection and navigated the museum through the pandemic.

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