Imagine coming to an exhibition and finding yourself in an office where employees are going about their daily business amidst the art on display. This will be the case at the OOW architecture office on Leipziger Straße (09.11.2023). Architects Sebastian Blancke and Mathis Malchow asked artist and curator Tim Plamper to put together an exhibition and gave him carte blanche to do so. For the “mental hot spot” exhibition, he assembled sixteen exciting artist positions from Berlin. The works are not to be shown in an empty room but in an everyday environment. For example, there is a perfume by Christian Kölbl, who offers his new car perfume (edition for 250 euros) on a screen, which smells of pepper, violets, varnish, leather, plastic, and ozone.
The artist Billie Clarken has placed a two-meter-high and four-and-a-half-meter-wide PVC chipboard hedge on tables, disrupting the work process and communication among office workers. Some works make direct reference to architecture, such as the cork model of a socialist-classical building in Berlin created by Philip Topolovac. It has strict proportions and elongated windows. If you look closely, you can also identify the building—it’s the Berghain dance temple, often considered the ultimate ‘mental hot spot.’ Other works can be seen by Emma Adler, Patrick Alt, Maxime Ballesteros, Rebekka Benzenberg, Lukas Glinkowski, Jason Gringler, Charlotte Klobassal, Anna Nezhnaya, Tim Plamper, Alona Rodeh, Fette Sans, Yorgos Stamkopoulos, and Lisa Tiemann.
Belgian Berliner Louie Van Nieuwenborgh discovered his passion for architecture, art, and baking as a teenager. His “mental hot spot” is Flouxus Food, a collective he founded that combines food and intermedia. Inspired by the Fluxus art movement and sprinkled with the current zeitgeist, they publish zines and music.
Text: Louie Van Nieuwenborgh / Credit: Alona Rodeh, Christian Kölbl & Maxime Ballesteros
Mental Hot Spot bei oow, Leipziger Str.56, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
Mon–Fri 9–18h bis 08.12.2023. Opening 09.11.2023 18– 21h.
@oow.berlin
@timplamper
@flouxusfood
@louievn
