See above a video highlighting the exhibition and symposium that took place from June 27–29, 2025 as part of Kunstverein Arnsberg’s ongoing two-year program ‘Swamping,’ in this video created by MONA productions.

Curated by Pauline Doutreluingne, the program began on June 27 with the opening of Patricia Domínguez’s exhibition ‘Liquid Mantras’ at Kunstverein Arnsberg, on view through August 23. The show addresses the privatization and loss of water in Chile, portraying water as a force of resistance with artworks functioning as ritual acts of empowerment.

The opening was followed by the transdisciplinary symposium ‘Wetlands for the Future’ (June 28–29) at Kloster Wedinghausen in Arnsberg, featuring presentations by ecologists, students, artists and curators engaging with the past and future of wetlands. The starting point was the question of how artists explore the moor as poetic, social and ecological potential, as well as a hybrid space.

Video by MONA productions │ Produced by Monica Salazar │ Filmed and Edited by Peter Cairns

Monica Bonvicini’s multifaceted practice explores the intersections of architecture, power structures, gender and space. Her work interrogates the meaning of art-making, the ambiguities of language, and the boundaries and potentials tied to the ideal of freedom.

In this video, created collaboratively with Deichtorhallen Hamburg on the occassion of the group exhibition ‘HOW'S MY PAINTING?’, Bonvicini opens the doors of her Berlin studio, sharing insights into her long-standing practice. She discusses the evolution of her thematic concerns, the role of materiality and language in her work, as well as the place painting occupies within her multidisciplinary oeuvre.

‘HOW'S MY PAINTING?’ at Deichtorhallen Hamburg offers a comprehensive presentation of painting in all its forms, from traditional panel works to installative, deconstructive and conceptual approaches. It features 200 works by over 70 artists from the Falckenberg Collection⁠—including Monica Bonvicini, John Baldessari, Philip Guston, Charlotte Posenenske, Kay Rosen and Ouattarra Watts. The exhibition is on view until September 7, 2025.

Video by Mona, produced by Monica Salazar, filmed and edited by Peter Cairns.

Trevor Paglen’s ongoing photographic series 'Unknowns' and an artist proof of his public sculpture ‘Trinity Cube,’ the original of which is installed in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone, are featured in the group exhibition ‘Survival in the 21st Century’ at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, which explores the foundations of life in the age of polycrisis. In this video, Paglen talks about the processes behind both works and how his practice, in general, aims to address the tensions between knowing and unknowing, or seeing and lacking an interpretive framework to understand what we are looking at.

With both of these ambitious and technically difficult-to-realize projects, Paglen wants to explore humanity’s interventions on the planet, pushing us to think about how we affect our environment in a more expanded sense. Developed by Georg Diez and Nicolaus Schafhausen in close cooperation with Deichtorhallen, ‘Survival in the 21st Century’ presents works by 37 artists and artist groups. The exhibition is currently open until November 5, 2024.

Video by Mona, produced by Monica Salazar, filmed by Sean Hanley and edited by Peter Cairns.

Jakob Kudsk Steensen has created a new digital installation, ‘Boreal Dreams,’ for the ongoing exhibition ‘Northern Lights’ at Fondation Beyeler. The group show presents 74 landscape paintings made between 1888 and 1937 by Scandinavian and Canadian artists who share the boreal forest as a common source of inspiration.

‘Boreal Dreams’ examines the impact of the climate crisis on the boreal forest—the world's largest forest and one of the fastest-changing ecosystems—as well as the consequential shifts in our inner worlds and the ways we sleep, move and dream. Using gaming technology, Steensen constructed virtual worlds based on ecological field studies and through collaborations with sound artist Matt McCorkle, dream researcher Adam Haar and scientists at Northern Minnesota’s Marcell Experimental Forest, among others. The immersive installation, located in the park of the Fondation Beyeler, is complemented by an online experience freely accessible at borealdreams.live.

‘Boreal Dreams’ is on view until May 25th, 2025. Watch the video for a glimpse of the artwork, as well as behind-the-scenes insights into the artist’s practice.

Video by Mona, produced & directed by Monica Salazar, filmed & edited by Peter Cairns.

by Mona // July 9, 2024

In this video, presented collaboratively with Deichtorhallen Hamburg on the occassion of their group exhibition ‘Survival in the 21st Century,’ Yalda Afsah offers a peek into her studio in Berlin. The artist discusses her practice, which predominantly revolves around film and photography, and her interest in working between observation and staging. Afsah also talks about the two video works presented at Deichtorhallen—’Curro’ (2023) and ‘Vidourle’ (2019)—both of which exemplify her interest in the relationships between humans and animals, as well as the themes of power, care and control that emerge from these interactions.

Developed by Georg Diez and Nicolaus Schafhausen in close cooperation with Deichtorhallen, ‘Survival in the 21st Century’ explores the foundations of life in the age of polycrisis through works by 37 artists and artist groups. The exhibition is on view until November 5, 2024.

Video by MONA productions │ Produced by Anna Russ │ Filmed and Edited by Frank Zerban

‘Hallen 05’ took place from September 7–15, 2024 at Wilhelm Hallen on the occasion of Berlin Art Week, with presentations from the Berlinische Galerie, Kestner Gesellschaft, Art Collection Telekom, Mehdi Chouakri and Sprüth Magers, among others.

The fifth and largest edition of this annual art festival included a performance by Casey Spooner and the ‘CVNTEMPORARY Mini Kiki Ball’ vouging competition⁠, along with showcases of artworks by Yalda Afsah, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Dorothy Iannone and many more. See some of the program highlights in our video created as part of a media partnership with ‘Hallen 05.’

Video by Mona, produced by Anna Russ, filmed and edited by Frank Zerban.

In this video, presented collaboratively with Deichtorhallen Hamburg on the occassion of their group exhibition ‘Survival in the 21st Century,’ Paul Kolling invites viewers into his Berlin studio. The artist discusses ‘Westbound – 190621’ (2020), his large-scale work presented in the group show. It consists of five illuminated panels in which a series of images collected on 35mm film shows 9,840 kilometers of train tracks between the cities of Zhengzhou and Hamburg. While it originally aimed to highlight the geopolitical fantasy of the new Silk Road, its presentation at Deichtorhallen also focuses on the genocidal persecution of the Uyghur Muslim minority in China. The camps were unintentionally captured in Kolling’s footage and were later re-contextualized following the research findings of Alison Killing. Developed by Georg Diez and Nicolaus Schafhausen in close cooperation with Deichtorhallen, ‘Survival in the 21st Century’ explores the foundations of life in the age of polycrisis through works by 37 artists and artist groups. The exhibition is on view until November 5, 2024.

Video by MONA productions │ Produced by Anna Russ │ Filmed and Edited by Frank Zerban

For the Dutch Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, the Congolese artist collective Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC) presents an exhibition titled ›The International Celebration of Blasphemy and the Sacred‹. In collaboration with artist Renzo Martens and curator Hicham Khalidi, this exhibition showcases CATPC’s efforts to reclaim depleted plantation lands and restore the Sacred Forest in Lusanga, DRC, along with their broader mission of spiritual, ethical and economic reckoning.

The exhibition takes place from April 20 to November 24, 2024 at the Rietveld Pavilion in Venice and simultaneously at the White Cube in Lusanga⁠—the museum previously established by Martens and CATPC. At both locations, a series of sculptures and films are on view, along with a video livestream that virtually connects the two venues. For these parallel presentations, CATPC crafted new artworks using earth from the last remaining patches of forest surrounding the plantation, and subsequently cast in raw materials extracted from the plantation.

A key part of the exhibition is the temporary return of ‘Balot,’ a 1931 sculpture of Belgian Colonial Officer Maximilien Balot, originally created to protect the Lusanga community from the plantation regime. Loaned from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, ‘Balot’ is displayed in Lusanga for the duration of the show. This temporary return empowers CATPC’s movement to buy back confiscated land, regenerate the sacred forest and promote peaceful coexistence between humans and nature.

Video by Mona, commissioned by the Mondriaan Fund, produced & directed by Anna Russ, filmed & edited by Peter Cairns.

‘The Ephemeral Lake,’ Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s latest art project presented at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, combines landscape painting with 3D painting, virtual worldbuilding and ambisonic sound in an extraordinary spatial installation, featuring musical contributions from experimental sound artist Okyung Lee. Examining the natural phenomenon of the ephemeral lake, the exhibiton draws inspiration from Caspar David Friedrich and is presented as part of the celebration of the Romantic painter’s 250th birth anniversary.

‘The Ephemeral Lake’ is on view until October 27th, 2024. Watch the video for an overview of the show as well as behind-the-scenes insights into the artist’s practice.

Video by Mona, produced & directed by Monica Salazar, filmed & edited by Peter Cairns.

See some of the highlights from the opening days of ‘Hallen 4’—including performances by Göksu Kunak and Nik Nowak⁠—in this video produced by MONA for Berlin Art Link as part of our media partnership with the fourth edition of the art festival. Presented on the occasion of Berlin Art Week, ‘Hallen 4’ is open until September 17, 2023, every day from 11am–8pm.

On view across 9,000m² of the former iron foundry are showcases by Berlin galleries alexander levy, Esther Schipper, ChertLüdde, NOME, carlier|gebauer, HUA International and Capitain Petzel, among others, as well as a group exhibition curated by angels.sc3 and presentations of artworks from collections of Art’Us Collectors Collective, Art Collection Telekom and HK Art Collection. In addition, Berlinische Galerie shows a program of video works by Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau.

Video by produced by Anna Russ, filmed and edited by Frank Zerban.