Ryuichi Sakamoto at Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin: Dates & What to See (2026–27)
Hamburger Bahnhof, 11 September 2026 – 20 June 2027. The first major European retrospective of Ryuichi Sakamoto, built entirely from sound installations, not records or film scores.
Ryuichi Sakamoto never had a solo show in Berlin. He scored The Last Emperor, co-founded Yellow Magic Orchestra, and spent his last years building sound installations most of his listeners never saw. Three years after his death, Hamburger Bahnhof gives him one, and it's built almost entirely from the part of his work that never got airplay.
In 3 minutes
- Seven works, five installations, one building. seeing sound, hearing time fills about 1,500 square metres of the Rieckhallen, running 11 September 2026 to 20 June 2027
- €16, everything included. The standard day ticket covers this show plus whatever else is running in the building — no separate exhibition ticket
- It opens during Berlin Art Week, as the centrepiece of the museum's 30th-anniversary programme
Where to book
Our take: One button because the official €16 ticket already covers every exhibition in the building, and the only reseller listing charges the same price without letting you cancel.
The Sakamoto at Hamburger Bahnhof guide — ready in 3 minutes
- The order to walk the five installations in, so one room's sound doesn't bleed into the next
- What IS YOUR TIME actually does with a tsunami-damaged piano, and why visitors stand there longer than planned
- What else your €16 ticket covers the same week: two more shows already running in the building
Who was Ryuichi Sakamoto, and why does this show matter?
Most people who know Sakamoto know him for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence or the Oscar for The Last Emperor. This show mostly skips that catalogue. Since the 2000s he built three-dimensional sound environments in gallery spaces, with collaborators including Shiro Takatani and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, treating sound as something you walk through rather than sit and listen to.
Hamburger Bahnhof, a former railway station turned contemporary art museum, is marking its own 30th birthday with the show, curated by the museum's Ingrid Buschmann with Tokyo-based Sachiko Namba. A larger version already ran at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2024–25; Berlin gets a smaller, tighter selection. It also opens the same building's autumn run, which continues in November with Sophie Calle's first Berlin solo show in twenty years under the same €16 ticket.
What to look for
Stand still at IS YOUR TIME. A piano damaged in the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami sits at the centre of the room, its keys triggered by real-time seismological data from earthquakes worldwide. Sakamoto called it a piano "tuned by nature." Visitors at the Tokyo showing describe waiting through long silences for a single note.
Trace the async lineage. Several installations grow out of Sakamoto's 2017 album async, made with Takatani and Weerasethakul, who elsewhere have staged this material as a wraparound screen with sound placed in three dimensions around the room. Expect the same principle here, even if the staging differs.
Watch the two Carsten Nicolai films. They use music from 12, the sonic diary Sakamoto recorded in 2021 and 2022. It was his final album.
Notice what's missing. No film scores, no pop hits, no Yellow Magic Orchestra. The show argues Sakamoto the installation artist deserves to be seen apart from Sakamoto the composer for hire.
What do most visitors wish they knew before going?
The ticket covers more than Sakamoto. The same €16 admission also gets you into Shilpa Gupta's What Still Holds and the CHANEL-commissioned Lina Lapelytė sound piece. Plan half a day, not an hour.
Go Thursday evening for quiet rooms. The museum stays open until 20:00, and visitors consistently report the galleries thinning after 18:00. First Thursday of the month is free, 16:00–20:00, but busier.
It closes Mondays, like every SMB site. Backpacks aren't allowed inside. Building a longer museum day around it? Our Berlin museum pass breakdown covers when the 3-day pass pays off, and best museums in Berlin shows where Hamburger Bahnhof sits in the wider circuit.
Practical info
- Where
- Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Invalidenstraße 50–51, 10557 Berlin
- Dates
- 11 September 2026 – 20 June 2027
- Hours
- Tue–Fri 10:00–18:00 · Thu until 20:00 · Sat–Sun 11:00–18:00 · closed Mondays
- Tickets
- €16 / €8 concessions, all exhibitions included · under 18 free · online up to 28 days ahead
- Free
- First Thursday of the month, 16:00–20:00 (Art4All) · under 18s every day
- Getting there
- S+U Hauptbahnhof, 5-minute walk · Tram M5/M8/M10
- Accessibility
- Partially wheelchair accessible, per the museum
- Book at
- SMB official
Prices, hours and the exact works on show can change before opening. Confirm on the official SMB site before you go.
Last verified: August 2026
Frequently asked questions
When does the Ryuichi Sakamoto exhibition open at Hamburger Bahnhof?
seeing sound, hearing time runs from 11 September 2026 to 20 June 2027, opening during Berlin Art Week — billed as the first major Sakamoto retrospective in Europe.
How much are tickets, and do you need to book the exhibition separately?
No separate exhibition ticket exists. The standard day ticket, €16 (concessions €8), includes every temporary exhibition in the building. Under-18s enter free. Book online up to 28 days ahead, or buy at the counter.
What will you actually see?
Seven works across five installations in the Rieckhallen, about 1,500 square metres. The centrepiece, IS YOUR TIME, is built around a piano damaged in the 2011 tsunami. Further pieces come from the 2017 album async, made with Shiro Takatani and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, plus two Carsten Nicolai films using music from Sakamoto's final album, 12.
Who was Ryuichi Sakamoto?
A Japanese composer, producer and artist, born in Tokyo in 1952. He co-founded Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978, scored nearly 45 films, and won an Academy Award, two Golden Globes and a Grammy. From the 2000s he built sound installations with collaborators including Takatani and Nicolai. He died on 28 March 2023.
Berlin has never had a Sakamoto show before. This one argues you were listening to the wrong half of his work.
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