Jesse Darling, Green Papaya Art Projects, Robert Lippok, Minh Duc Pham, Katrin Steiger, Pam Virada

12.09.2024, 6 – 9 pm

Kunst Raum Mitte
Auguststrasse 21
10117 Berlin

Programm Opening Days
12. – 15.9.2024

12.09.2024, 6 – 9 pm 
Exhibition Opening Transforming
6:30 PM, Live Performance by Joaquin Roldan with Green Papaya Art Projects
7 PM, Reading Performance by Pam Virada’s the room I entered was a dream of this room (2024) with Johanna Ekenhorst

12. – 13.09.2024
4 pm, Guided Tours with Raoul Zöllner as part of Berlin Art Week
Participation only possible with prior registration.

12. – 15.09.2024
Open Studio with Anna Zett (Research Residency)

14.09 – 15.09.2024,
1 PM + 4 pm, Guided tours with Raoul Zöllner as part of Berlin Art Week
Participation only possible with prior registration.

14.09.2024
4 pm, Reading Performance of Pam Virada’s the room I entered was a dream of this room (2024) with Johanna Ekenhorst
4:30 pm, Activation of the Altar des Ungeteilten (Altar of the Undivided, 2024) with Green Papaya Art Projects (Norberto Roldan & Joaquin Roldan)

The exhibitionTransforming recontextualizes the spatial, material, and historical relationships of the place formerly known as the galerie weisser elefant. Founded in East Berlin in 1987, the municipal exhibition space was renamed Kunst Raum Mitte by the Department of Art, Culture and History in 2024 to look back on the history of the gallery with new perspectives and to link it with current debates in a pluralistic urban society. Transforming presents contemporary artistic positions and connects them with artistic and curatorial research processes, setting them in relation to one another.

The exhibition challenges the forces of commercialization and gentrification mechanisms of the present—particularly those in the Mitte district—by activating resistant and immaterial structures. It makes historical material accessible through an exhibition display developed by Martha Schwindling, including invitation cards, photos, posters, and documents. These materials reveal how the place was shaped by the move from Almstadtstraße to Auguststraße, as well as by the political regime of the GDR in the 1980s and the media and aesthetic conventions of that time. These historical and geopolitical components, in turn, create relationships with related contexts. By exploring deviant and invisible aspects, the exhibition opens up contemporary perspectives that question power structures, especially through implicit and everyday actions.