If you walk down through the otherwise neatly curated spaces of the Kunstgewerbemuseum, turn right, and push your way through a curtain of fluttering plastic strips, you’re suddenly faced with a massive red form: the centerpiece of Mutuogenesis, the exhibition by Jerszy Seymour and S27. “Mutuo” meaning mutual and “Genesis” meaning creation, the project stems from a months-long collaborative process with Berlin-based cultural center Schlesische27, alongside numerous international artists, designers, and activists. The exhibition poses questions about collective learning, producing, and living together, within the very experimental space it creates for itself. Surrounding the red structure are televisions screening interviews about waste, mutated everyday objects with invasive outgrowths, and a long, worm-like bench made from dried seagrass. Using found, recycled, and ecological materials, a multi-layered installation emerges, oscillating between object, stage, and workshop. Over the course of the exhibition, the space is repeatedly reactivated: performances, workshops, and concerts transform the installation into a communal environment. Jerszy Seymour himself describes Mutuogenesis as a kind of “ecological neon swamp” — a setting where punk aesthetics, science fiction, and social practice overlap. While design shows with discursive ambition often drift into spheres I can’t (or don’t want to) follow, Mutuogenesis may not always be easy to grasp, but it remains accessible. At the very least, I’m happy to follow it associatively. Especially when I stepped through a zipper into a glowing red plastic chapel and lay down on one of the recycled paper furniture pieces. The sculpture’s ventilation system fills the exhibition space with a steady stream of white noise — and if I hadn’t had to head home to write this article, I might have simply stayed there.
Text: Inga Krumme / Photos: Trevor Good, Jerszy Seymour Design Workshop 2025
Kunstgewerbemuseum, Matthäikirchplatz, 10785 Berlin–Tiergarten; map
Jerszy Seymour: Mutuogenesis until 03.05.2026
@kunstgewerbemuseum_berlin
