What if Ku’damm had an art space? One which you could stroll and dream in? It would be the crowning jewel of the boulevard of luxury…well, former boulevard of luxury, for the shine of West Berlin’s consumerist center has been fading for years. Shops close and tenants change – usually not for the better. The development of Ku’damm and the utopia of art are, among other things, the focus of the Kunsthaus exhibition at Studio Mondial (the former Hotel Mondial at Kurfürstendamm 47) which opens tomorrow (14.07.2023) 17h with a garden party. The solo works, some of which are shown in parallel, connect to each other with playful poetry, thanks to busy Berlin cultural workers Lutz Henke and Vlado Velkov whose curation is full of tongue-in-cheek mischievousness.
A huge textile installation by Dafna Maimon in the form of a flaccid tongue stretches limply and sock-like onto the asphalt. Insanely aesthetic and full of humor, it peeks out of the entrance – hanging charmingly and leaving you to construct the narrative. The works of the Swiss artist Reto Pulfer also employ textiles: site-specific found objects transform the space into something intimate, observing, transforming and playful. Transformation and play work well here, at least as far as the thought is concerned. “What-if” questions arise: What if the world were different? Without war and inflation and pandemics? What if the city had enough space for its inhabitants? What if art was there for everyone? And Ku’damm? What if Hotel Mondial once again housed fantastic contemporaries? The last question, at least, can be answered concretely. Works by the hands, heads and studios of Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Jimmie Durham, Philipp Eyrich, Inge Mahn, Benedikt Terwiel and many others can be discovered and admired. What would it be like if Ku’damm had an exhibition space? The answer is: probably quite beautiful.
Text: Hilka Dirks / Credit: Dafna Maimon, Mutating Mary, 2019. Ausstellungsansicht, Studio Mondial Berlin, 2023; Reto Pulfer, Simulat, 2023. Ausstellungsansicht, Studio Mondial Berlin, 2023 / Photos: Studio Mondial
Studio Mondial, Kurfürstendamm 47, 10707 Berlin–Charlottenburg; map.
Wed–Sat 12–18h, free admission.
Garden party and opening: 14.07.2023 17–22h. Anyone who brings something in the spirit garden romance to the garden party, from garden gnomes to lawn mowers, gets a drink on the house.
@studio_mondial
