The autumn was warm and golden: a long, sweet aftertaste of all those scorching summer days. And now, all of a sudden, it’s winter – leaving everything gray. If you’re still not ready to accept this, you should take a trip to Kurzurlaub (“Short break”) an exhibition by artist, art director and illustrator Monja Gentschow at HVW8 Berlin in Mitte (until 14.01.2023). The title is apt: entering the gallery space, you’re instantly transported to somewhere between Rimini and Los Angeles (where the gallery’s main branch is located). Solero ice cream-colored parasols, plastic pink chairs, rippling pool waves, curved cigarette butts, cocoon-like croissants and crossed sunglasses temples populate the still lifes of the Die Zeit columnist-turned-artist. Her inspiration comes from the package holidays and travel agency catalogs of her 1990s childhood, crawling out of the in-between: fictionalized autobiography and painted longing.
Outside it may be gray, but inside it’s blue. It’s this hue that dominates the mood of the exhibition and, despite all its coolness, manages to bring back memories of squishy peaches in your beach bag, sand in your jeans, sunscreen on your sticky forehead, and that warm, sweet boredom when the heat makes everything slow and the concrete swelters – just like on holiday.
Text: Hilka Dirks / Photos: Justyna Fedec
HVW8 Berlin, Linienstr.161, 10115 Berlin–Mitte; map
Monja Gentschow – Kurzurlaub (until 14.01.2023) Tue–Sat, 14–19h
@monifaktur
@hvw8gallery
