Arhun Aksakal

Eröffnung: 11. September 2025 - 6-11PM
12 September - 4 October 2025

EBENSPERGER KAPELLE with Luxoom Lab
WALDSTRASSE 52
10551 BERLIN

for Gallery Night at BERLIN ART WEEK 2025; 10-14 September 

With ›Land Before Time‹, Galerie Ebensperger presents the first solo exhibition of the young artist Arhun Aksakal (*1995, Offenbach) in the Kapelle. A graduate of the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Aksakal makes his debut in the professional exhibition context of a renowned Berlin gallery. The show marks not only a significant milestone in his artistic career but also serves as a signal for the direction in which the gallery is headed: the newly appointed directors Leonie Rösler and Marlene Sichelschmidt bring fresh impulses that will be woven into the gallery’s existing and future program.

At the centre of the exhibition is the film ›Land Before Time‹, which explores the traces of industrialization in Europe and intertwines them with the artist's personal family history as the child of Turkish guest workers. The film examines the tension between architecture, landscape, and memory, raising questions about identity, migration, and cultural heritage.

Through visual contrasts and poetic imagery, Aksakal highlights spaces of labor and transformation: abandoned coal mines, submerged cities, monumental structures, and urban free spaces. Sites once shaped by hard physical work have now been repurposed for leisure and culture—from parkour performances on Ulrich Rückriem’s sculptures to music festivals in Ferropolis.

The film engages with the transformation of spaces and humanity’s inclination to forget. At the same time, it reveals the connection between industrial progress and environmental destruction—whether through the renaturation of former mining areas or the disappearance of historic sites like Hasankeyf beneath a dam.

As an extension of the film, the exhibition presents a selection of new installation-based works – a dense spatial composition that invites visitors to experience and explore Aksakal’s artistic language in a holistic way.

Filmscore by Fazil Say with Nicolas Altstaedt

Curated by Leonie Rösler and Marlene Sichelschmidt

Supported by Hessen Film and Urbane Künste Ruhr