The great cylinder
Pergamon in 129 AD, four storeys around you โ a light cycle from dawn to night.
asisi F&E GmbH โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Roy Zuo โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท NutzerAusBerlin โ CC0 ยท Matthias Sรผรen โ CC BY-SA 4.0
The renovation is phased and long: official talk points to late this decade for the first wings, full completion years beyond. Do not plan around waiting โ the Panorama plus the rest of the Island give you archaeological Berlin today.
The label wrongs it: this is an immersive artwork the size of a building, and its value is feeling the ancient city alive around you โ what no object museum gives. Anyone who has seen Asisi's panoramas in Dresden knows; anyone unmoved by visual experiences should spend the ticket on the Bode instead.
Excellent: no glass, no 'don't touch' โ just a huge scene whose light and sound keep changing. A good game: send them hunting for particular figures in the painted crowds โ Asisi's detail never runs out.
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The Pergamon Museum โ Berlin's most famous, with its Great Altar and Ishtar Gate โ is closed for full renovation for many years. This Panorama is the interim answer, and it is far better than its stand-in reputation: an experience in its own right, worth the trip. Its heart is a giant cylinder inside which you face the city of Pergamon in 129 AD, four storeys high and a hundred metres around, by the artist Yadegar Asisi: thousands of figures in detail, light cycling from dawn to night with its sounds, until you feel you stand on a terrace in the ancient city itself. An adjoining gallery shows original Pergamon treasures, including sections of the famous altar frieze โ so you do not leave Berlin empty-handed after all. A focused one-hour visit that slots perfectly into a Museum Island day.
Pergamon in 129 AD, four storeys around you โ a light cycle from dawn to night.
Original sections of the Pergamon Altar frieze in the adjoining gallery.
Yadegar Asisi's panoramas are an art form of their own โ this is among his largest.
Am Kupfergraben 2, 10117 Berlin