Katapult closes at the end of December, after ten years of running an artist-led circus space in Berlin
Katapult is closing. The announcement sits on the organisation's own site: "It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of Katapult at the end of December 2026 after 10 years." It describes itself as Berlin's independent space for training, creation and exhibition in contemporary performing art, run by artists, for artists.
Two German outlets, looprituals.de and a press release carried by openpr.de, give the same cause and name the same programme. The Kulturraum-Kontingente scheme that covered the space ended, general cuts to cultural funding followed, and running the studio became financially untenable even though project support from Berlin's culture administration had been rising year on year. The press release dates the end of that programme to the close of 2024.
The problem underneath is the length of the contract, not the size of it. looprituals.de reports the team's own argument: an organisation allowed to plan one year at a time cannot run sustainably. Katapult's funding came through a one-year production venue line, renewed annually, while the rent it charged artists had not moved since 2018.
The ten years count the studio rather than the project. Katapult was founded in 2014, opened its own studio in Marzahn in 2016, and moved in 2018 to the larger space in Oberschöneweide it still runs. The team is the artistic directors Oliver Pinchbeck and Declan Mee, with Luana Yázigi and Kerstin Oschabnig.
There are three months of programme left. The last Katapult Kabaret runs 9 and 10 October, with exhibition and food at 18:30, doors at 19:30 and the show at 20:00, and a clean-up, barbecue and jam on Sunday 11 October from 1pm. Before that, an aerial rope evening on 2 October, then a double bill of two twenty-minute pieces on 24 October.
looprituals.de also reports that the team is looking for a successor with both the mission and the money to take the space over. That appeal appears nowhere on katapult.berlin, so read it as one outlet's reporting rather than an open call.
One detail worth using while it lasts: the creation contingent is still live, at 10 euros an hour for Studio 1 and 15 for Studio 2, for rehearsal and creation in circus, dance and theatre. Three months is enough time for a residency.