World-famous Berlin nightclub Berghain will reopen as a gallery for the second time. The institution will exclusively host an art installation by Danish artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen in 2021.
This follows up on last year’s exhibition of Studio Berlin, Berghain’s premiere as a gallery during the second lockdown in Germany. It’s nothing new for the famous club to exhibit works by local and international creators. In the past, they worked with Wolfgang Tillmans, Joseph Marr and Norman Bisky, among others.
Kudsk Steenen’s installation for this year “leads us to Berlin’s origins as a swamp formed by a glacial valley over 10,000 years old.” It was originally commissioned by Light Art Space (LAS).
Kudsk Steensen is an artist who uses animations, mixed reality, and virtual reality to interpret lost or overlooked ecosystems from a new perspective. His projects are rooted in intensive field research and cooperation with biologists, historians, composers and authors.
Additionally, he conducts research in big forest areas in Germany and documents the soil layers of their ecosystem. He also works with the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (museum for national history in English).
With recordings from the wetlands and his research on extinct animal species, he bridges the gap between guests and the history lying underneath them. The great hall of Berghain will be seen as a “portal in which relics of the Ice Age connect to present-day wetlands – lost worlds revived in the present day.”
At the time of writing, no specific launch date has been announced for the exhibition.