Artistic transgressions and clandestine explorations of urban space, views from subterranean tunnels and canals, a house of cards as a construction site archive, vitreous security technologies, a pictorial piece of a border fence, improvised accommodations in living rooms, physical appropriations of public space, textile architectures, speculative narratives of the real estate market, ethnographic studies, delicate spatial collages and abstract pictorial spaces, testimonies to the urban landscape of Berlin.
On the occasion of the Berlin Art Week 2022, the exhibition Transgressive is dedicated to the most diverse positions of contemporary international Berlin-based cultural producers, who are characterized by a cross- border approach to art and the city.
All participants have in common a self-determined and subversive approach to urban space. From graffiti to cruising and queer spaces within the city, and from temporary architectures to forms of social activism, many of the works shown here find their origin in often unauthorized and sometimes even illegal urban practices.
Over 40 participating artists from the visual and performing arts, architecture, and urban research will present a wide variety of anti-disciplinary artistic practices across three floors of the Kühlhaus Berlin – in media as diverse as painting, collage, sculpture, installation, film, photography, and performance. In their creative process, they all enter into close connections with the city, allowing the city to appear as the point of departure of their works.