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Alighted – Refuge EP via Garden Broom Recordings
Alighted’s EP “Refuge” turns meditation into sound—edgy, textured, and grounded, a sonic homage to practice, teacher, and community.
We often mistake “refuge” for a destination—a quiet, soft place where we are protected from the world. But for McLean, the artist behind Alighted, refuge is not a retreat from the world, but a way of standing within it. His latest EP, “Refuge,” is a sonic exploration of this internal anchor, dedicated to the Buddhist practices that have shaped his life over the last two years.
The project found its name through a moment of synchronicity when McLean encountered a collage by Vermont artist Vanessa Compton. The piece, also titled “Refuge,” struck a chord that resonated with his developing Dhamma practice. While many associate contemplative music with soft, ambient washes, “Refuge” is intentionally different. It is rugged and edgy, filled with granular textures, glitchy rhythms, and heavy sub-bass. It mirrors the reality of a meditative mind: often chaotic, occasionally abrasive, but always seeking a ground to stand on.
Long for the Wakeful, remixed by Ian Ellison
The four original tracks on the EP are a bridge between past and present—some are archival pieces revitalized with a new perspective, while others were captured in a few days of intense focus. Together with a remix by Ian Ellison, the collection serves as a “Triple Gem” of its own: a dedication to the teacher, the teachings, and the community.
Ultimately, “Refuge” is not an attempt to tell a personal story, but rather a gesture of profound gratitude. It is a “thank you” to the beliefs that make life worth living and a creative practice reimagined as an act of devotion. In a world of analog and digital chaos, Alighted invites you to find your own center within the noise.
Artist: Alighted
Release: Refuge
Label: Garden Broom Recordings
Release Date: March 20, 20261. Long for the Wakeful
2. Tupper’s Crossing
3. Trio
4. Long for the Weary
5. Long for the Wakeful (Ian Ellison Remix)Taged as/in; Alighted, Garden Broom Recordings, Ian Ellison, Long for the Wakeful, Refuge, Tupper’s Crossing Trio#writtenby:
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Filipp Jenikäe Solo Exhibition at Galerie Sara Lily Perez
Athletes, cities, and memory collide on vibrant canvases, where images sampled from sports, travel, and media reconstruct how we remember contemporary life.
By the time Filipp Jenikäe’s figures appear on canvas, they are already mediated. Athletes mid-action, cityscapes saturated with signage, domestic spaces suspended in leisure. These are not direct observations but images remembered through screens, repetition, and movement.
In Figures in Motion and Places Remembered, Jenikäe’s first solo exhibition at Galerie Sara Lily Perez, the exhibition brings together a significant body of work produced in 2025. It offers a profound investigation into contemporary urban life. The exhibition explores the intricate dynamics of architecture, spectatorship, and collective space.
Sports iconography, architecture, travel impressions, and collectible imagery are present in the compositions. These compositions are vividly colored. They feel at once familiar and slightly displaced.
Freibad, 2025. Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm approx. Courtesy of Filipp Jenikäe and Galerie Sara Lily Perez Figures in Motion and Places Remembered
Jenikäe frequently turns to sports not as subject matter but as visual language. Tennis players, basketball stars, and historic baseball figures appear not as portraits but as carriers of movement and concentration. Their gestures are frozen at moments of intensity, echoing how athletic images circulate endlessly through broadcast, advertising, and digital feeds. In this sense, the athlete becomes a mnemonic device, a shorthand for aspiration, tension, and collective attention.
Urban environments function similarly. In paintings depicting Bangkok, swimming pools, and modernist domestic spaces, place is rendered less as geography and more as emotional residue. Signage, architecture, and interior details flatten into patterned fields, suggesting how cities are remembered through fragments rather than continuous experience.
Jenikäe’s interest in collectible imagery, including references to early twentieth-century trading cards, further complicates this relationship between image and memory. These works point to systems of value and repetition that long predate contemporary media culture, reminding viewers that the circulation of iconic images has always shaped how history is visualized and remembered.
Shai On slam cover, 2025. Acrylic on linen, 120 x 80 cm approx. Courtesy of Filipp Jenikäe and Galerie Sara Lily Perez Across the exhibition, spectacle and everyday life are treated with equal weight. A tennis match, a quiet poolside scene, and a dense city street are painted with the same compositional urgency. Rather than hierarchy, Jenikäe proposes accumulation. Meaning emerges not from a single image, but from the way images echo and overlap.
Figures in Motion and Places Remembered positions painting as a site of reassembly. Jenikäe does not document the world as it appears, but reconstructs it as it is carried forward. What remains is not accuracy, but recognition.
Exhibition Details:
Title: Figures in Motion and Places Remembered
Artist: Filipp Jenikäe
Dates: 7 March – 18 April 2026
Location: Galerie Sara Lily Perez
Address: Budapester Str. 48, 10787 Berlin, GermanyAbout the Artist
Filipp Jenikäe (b. 1987) is a German painter known for his vibrant, large-scale acrylic works that document the pulse of contemporary life. Raised in a family of art educators, Jenikäe initially pursued a different path, studying Law and Political Science at UAB Barcelona and Business Administration in the Netherlands. His artistic practice emerged later in life, crystallizing in Berlin around 2017 following the end of his childhood dream to play professional basketball.
Jenikäe’s work is characterized by a “sampling” aesthetic. He compares this method to DJing. Visual fragments from urban landscapes, pop culture, and sports history are remixed into cohesive, neo-expressionist compositions. His canvases often depict the communal euphoria of social spaces: nightclubs, bars, and city backyards, alongside portraits of cultural icons ranging from athletes to musicians.
Influenced by the bold coloration of David Hockney and the narrative figuration of Henry Taylor and Nina Chanel Abney, Jenikäe’s work bridges the gap between the immediacy of street culture and the tradition of genre painting. His works have been exhibited internationally, with representation in Paris, Hong Kong, and the United States, and have been featured at major auction houses including Sotheby’s and Phillips.
Galerie Sara Lily Perez
Galerie SLP was founded in 2021. It is a contemporary art gallery based in Berlin. The gallery is dedicated to advancing the dialogue between contemporary art and pressing social and environmental issues.
Operating from its exhibition space in BIKINI BERLIN, Galerie Sara Lily Perez represents a diverse roster of emerging and established international artists working across painting, sculpture, digital media, and photography. Through a rigorous program of curated exhibitions, institutional collaborations, and public programming, the gallery fosters critical engagement and champions art as a catalyst for social change.
Galerie Sara Lily Perez
Email: galerie@saralilyperez.com
Website: www.saralilyperez.com#writtenby:
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Tab 2026: Curatorial Concept and Launches Vision Competition
TAB 2026 asks “How Much?” exploring cost, value, and sustainability in architecture. Curated by Stuudio TÄNA with international collaborators.
The 8th edition of Tallinn Architecture Biennale will question cost, value, and sustainability in architecture with the theme “How Much?”. TAB 2026 is curated by Kertu Johanna Jõeste, Ra Martin Puhkan, and Siim Tanel Tõnisson from Stuudio TÄNA (Estonia). They are working together with Mark Aleksander Fischer (Estonia) and Mira Samonig (Austria). TAB 2026 will run from September 9th – November 30th, 2026.
TAB 2026 examines the paradox of “cheapness” in architecture, encouraging architects to innovate within financial constraints while considering the broader, often hidden, costs of construction: social, ecological, and temporal. Instead of just looking at the price of materials or construction, TAB 2026 encourages architects to consider the long-term effects of their design choices. These choices can impact communities and the environment.
Through the main exhibition and a programme of competitions, a symposium and collaborations across academic and artistic fields, TAB 2026 tells various tales of how “cheap” is a critical, even generative mode of practice. Divorced from its narrow financial connotation, it challenges an architectural production. This production is submitted to a fundamental mechanism of capitalism. It’s about getting more out for less put in.
MAIN CURATORIAL EXHIBITION
The main curatorial exhibition presents nine projects by nine architectural practices—three local, three regional, and three international—responding to the binding question “How much?” through spatial practice. All contributors work from the same brief, establishing shared parameters. Including the wider cost of architecture across its lifespan, a common context of a slowly dissolving architectural structure inhabited by natural decomposers, within which the works must persist. As well a narrative format, using the tale as a medium capable of accommodating both speculative and built approaches. Instead of proposing a single programmatic answer, the exhibition highlights contrasts.
The concept shows how frugality at different scales, from large urban interventions to more intimate architectural works, can generate social, ecological, and design value over time.
“How Much?”
Building on this diversity of approaches, “How Much?” unfolds through five thematic interconnected sections. It looks at how working together can reduce costs while enhancing quality, how repetition and thoughtful efficiency can preserve integrity, and how simple, adaptable systems allow architecture to be both flexible and resilient.
Considering the power of compact, dense design to minimize waste, and celebrates the transformation of existing structures into sustainable spaces that honor their history. Together, these approaches show that constraints are not limitations but catalysts, sparking innovation, social responsibility, and ecological care in every project.
VISION COMPETITION
Alongside the main curatorial exhibition, TAB 2026 is launching its Vision Competition “From Void to Value” 2026.tab.ee/competitions/vision-competition, inviting architects, urbanists, and designers to propose innovative solutions for reimagining Tallinn’s UNESCO-listed Old Town. The competition focuses on the southern edge of the Old Town. This area is historically significant and was damaged during the 1944 bombings. Participants are challenged to propose strategies that balance heritage preservation with contemporary urban life demands. They must reactivate this urban void and reconnect it with the wider city.
Key to the competition is the rethinking of Harju Street, a major thoroughfare in the area. Proposals should explore how to transform public spaces, unused buildings, and vacant urban voids into vibrant and accessible places that meet the needs of both residents and tourists.
The complete Vision Competition brief is available at www.tab.ee. The deadline for submissions is April 27th, 2026, with winners announced by May 6th, 2026. Selected proposals will be exhibited at TAB 2026. The competition awards include:
first prize 4.499,99 €
second prize 2.499,99 €
third prize 1.499,99 €
five honourable mentions.
The competition will be evaluated by an international jury. Triin Talk is a Heritage and conservation specialist and a PhD candidate at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Keiti Lige serves as Visions Architect at the City of Tallinn. Klaske Havik is a Professor at Delft University of Technology. Siiri Vallner is an Architect and a partner at Kavakava. Siim Tanel Tõnisson is an Architect, TAB 2026 curator, and co-founder of Stuudio TÄNA.
OPEN CALL
TAB 2026 Open Call 2026.tab.ee/competitions/open-call/ invites architects, designers, artists, researchers, journalists, collectives, and other spatial practitioners to propose events and exhibitions within the biennale framework, responding in their own way to the central theme of “How Much?” and the broader questions of cost, value, and sustainability in architecture.
Proposals can include existing works or ongoing projects adaptable to the biennale context. TAB provides venues, visibility, and documentation, but production costs are self-funded. Submission must be sent by March 31st, 2026, as a one-page PDF (max 2.000 characters) accompanied by conceptual or reference images, sent to info@tab.ee with the subject line “Open Call”.CREDITS & INFO
TALLINN ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE TAB 2026 – “How Much?”
Opening Week: 9 —13 September 2026
Dates: 9 September — 30 November 2026Curators:
Kertu Johanna Jõeste, Ra Martin Puhkan and Siim Tanel Tõnisson (Stuudio TÄNA, Estonia), Mark Aleksander Fischer (Estonia) and Mira Samonig (Austria)Production:
Estonian Centre for Architecture
Curatorial Exhibition Production:
Estonian Centre for ArchitectureMain Partners:
Estonian Association of Architects, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Tallinn City Government, Estonian Academy of ArtsTALLINN ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE
Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB 2026) is an international architecture and urban planning festival with a diverse programme that promotes architectural culture. TAB encourages synergy between Estonian and foreign architects as well as between architects and the general public by way of creating contacts and exchanging ideas.
The core programme consists of five main elements: Curatorial Exhibition, Symposium, Tallinn Vision Competition, Installation Programme, and a Catalogue.
Tallinn Architecture Biennale TAB is organized by the Estonian Centre for Architecture. This year, TAB 2026 is titled “How much?”. As the curatorial team states, the biennale challenges us to rethink what affordability truly means in architecture today and will be curated by Stuudio TÄNA.“Resources For a Future”
TAB 2024 “Resources For a Future” was curated by Anhelina L. Starkova with Daniel A. Walser and Jaan Kuusemets. TAB 2022 “Edible; Or, The Architecture of Metabolism” was curated by Lydia Kallipoliti and Areti Markopoulou in collaboration with local advisor Ivan Sergejev. TAB 2019 “Beauty Matters” was curated by Dr Yael Reisner.
The biennale focused on how beauty matters again, reflecting a cultural shift after nearly eighty years of dormancy when beauty was a tabooed and denigrated subject. TAB 2017 “bioTallinn”, curated by Claudia Pasquero (ecoLogicStudio), challenged the typical assumptions of what constitutes the boundaries between the natural and artificial realms.
TAB 2015 “Self-Driven City”, curated by Marten Kaevats, explored future cities with self-driven cars, whilst TAB 2013 “Recycling Socialism”, curated by Aet Ader, Kadri Klementi, Karin Tõugu, and Kaidi Õis, redefined the Soviet-era urban environment in Tallinn. Lastly, TAB 2011 “Landscape Urbanism” was curated by Villem Tomiste.
MINTLIST.INFO — IG — FB
Copyright © 2026, MINT LIST, All rights reserved
Taged as/in; Architecture, art, Biennale, competition, design, exhibition, heritage, innovation, kertu johanna jõeste, mark aleksander fischer, mert, mira samonig, ra martin puhkan, siim tanel tõnisson, stuudio täna, Sustainability, tab estonia, Tallinn Architecture Biennale, urbanism#writtenby:
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Busenfreundin – Stimme, Humor und Haltung
„Busenfreundin“ verbindet Humor, persönliche Geschichten und queere Themen. Ein Podcast über Identität, Sichtbarkeit und Gesellschaft – ehrlich & nahbar.
Ein Podcast der queeren Community
Der Podcast Busenfreundin zählt zu den bekanntesten queeren Gesprächsformaten im deutschsprachigen Podcast-Kosmos. Seit seinem Start im Jahr 2018 verbindet das Format persönliche Gespräche. Es umfasst gesellschaftspolitische Themen und humorvolle Unterhaltung. Damit hat es sich eine feste Hörerschaft aufgebaut. Hinter dem Podcast steht die Kölner Comedy-Autorin und Podcasterin Ricarda Hofmann, die in jeder Episode mit wechselnden Gästen über Identität, Liebe, Popkultur und gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen spricht.
Zwischen Talk, Aktivismus und Unterhaltung
„Busenfreundin“ versteht sich als Gesprächsraum für unterschiedliche Perspektiven auf queeres Leben. Hofmann lädt regelmäßig Gäste aus Kultur, Politik, Medien und Aktivismus ein und diskutiert mit ihnen über Themen wie Sichtbarkeit, Coming-out, Beziehungen oder gesellschaftliche Vorurteile. Dabei gelingt dem Podcast eine Mischung aus Haltung und Unterhaltung: ernsthafte Themen werden mit Humor, Selbstironie und persönlichen Anekdoten verbunden.
Gerade diese Verbindung aus politischem Anspruch und lockerem Ton prägt das Format. Queere Lebensrealitäten werden nicht nur analytisch, sondern auch alltagsnah erzählt – etwa wenn es um Dating, Rollenbilder oder Repräsentation in den Medien geht. Damit schafft der Podcast einen niedrigschwelligen Zugang zu Themen, die sonst häufig in spezialisierten Diskursräumen verhandelt werden.
Plattform für queere Stimmen
Im Zentrum von „Busenfreundin“ steht die Sichtbarkeit der LGBTQIA+-Community. Ursprünglich lag der Fokus stark auf Frauen, die Frauen lieben, doch im Laufe der Jahre hat sich das thematische Spektrum erweitert. Heute kommen unterschiedlichste Stimmen zu Wort: Künstlerinnen, Aktivistinnen, Journalistinnen, Influencer oder Politikerinnen.
Die Gespräche zeigen, wie vielfältig queere Lebensentwürfe sein können. Gleichzeitig thematisiert der Podcast gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen – etwa Diskriminierung, politische Debatten oder Fragen der Repräsentation. Durch die persönliche Gesprächsführung entsteht eine Mischung aus Interview, Talkshow und persönlichem Erfahrungsbericht.
Erfolg im deutschen Podcast-Markt
Der Erfolg des Formats spiegelt sich auch in seiner Reichweite und Anerkennung wider. „Busenfreundin“ erscheint in der Regel wöchentlich und umfasst inzwischen mehrere hundert Episoden.
Auch die Branche hat den Podcast mehrfach gewürdigt: So wurde Host Ricarda Hofmann 2020 für den Deutschen Comedypreis als beste Comedy-Podcasterin nominiert. Außerdem erhielt das Format 2021 den Impact Diversity Award in der Kategorie „Contribution to LGBTQ+“ und wurde mehrfach für den Deutschen Podcast-Preis nominiert.
Diese Auszeichnungen unterstreichen die Rolle des Podcasts als wichtiges Medium für gesellschaftliche Diskussionen rund um Vielfalt und queere Perspektiven.
Ein Podcast, der verbindet
Trotz seiner klaren Haltung bleibt „Busenfreundin“ vor allem ein Gesprächsformat, das Menschen miteinander ins Gespräch bringen will. Die Mischung aus Humor, persönlicher Offenheit und gesellschaftlicher Relevanz hat dazu beigetragen, dass sich der Podcast weit über die queere Community hinaus etabliert hat.
So zeigt „Busenfreundin“, welches Potenzial Podcasts als Plattform für gesellschaftliche Debatten haben können: Sie bieten Raum für persönliche Geschichten, neue Perspektiven – und für Gespräche, die verbinden statt zu spalten. Spotify
Taged as/in; Aktivismus, Alltag, Anekdoten, Austausch, community, Diversität, Erlebnis, Geschichten, Identität, inspiration, Kultur, Leben, Persönlich, perspektiven, Podcast, Politik, Unterhaltung, Vielfalt#writtenby:
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Spring Program Highlights at Berlin Art Institute
Master classes, workshops & online courses explore surrealism, feminist hybridity, ecology, participatory performance, and drawing beyond the self.
Spring at Berlin Art Institute brings together live online courses, on-site workshops, master classes, and the Studio Program Art Residency. From feminist hybridity, the weird divine, and other worlds, to plants, ecology, participatory performance, surrealism, magical practice, material form, and drawing with and beyond the self.
MASTER CLASSES
DRAWING DOWN THE MOON: The Crossroads of Surrealism, Magical Practice and Material Form by Emily Hunt
Duration: March 16 – 20, 2026 | 10 am – 4 pm (On-Site)
Surrealism, magical practice, and material experimentation intersect in this master class, which explores these crossroads through drawing, object-making, and symbolic processes. The course invites participants to engage with ritual, myth, and surrealist methodologies, where intuition and imagination shape artistic form. Artists will develop a personal symbolic language rooted in material exploration and imaginative practice. Seats are limited. Learn More & Enroll Now
OUT OF LINE: Drawing with and beyond the Self by Dagmara Genda
Photo Credit: Image by courtesy of Dagmara Genda & Aleks Slota Duration: June 08 – 12, 2026 | 10:00 am – 4:00 pm (On-Site)
What happens when you stop drawing to represent and start drawing to rethink?
Challenging the notion of self-expression and exploring ways to think beyond the self. Through reactive drawing, collaborative drawing, spatial drawing, drawing with the body, drawing with prosthetics, and more, participants explore different forms of mark-making and question creativity and the boundaries of the self. Seats are limited 🍀Learn More & Enroll Now
BECOMING PLANT: The New Weird Divine by Jasmine Reimer
Photo Credit: Image by courtesy of Berlin Art Institute and the Artists Duration: June 29 – July 03, 2026 | 10:00 am – 4:00 pm (On-Site)
The hybrid and the monster are symbols of resistance. Explore historical and contemporary feminist mythologies, divine feminist symbols, narratives of transformation, and experimental drawing, writing, journaling, and sketchbook processes through the lens of the weird, eerie, and divine. Seats are limited. Learn More & Enroll Now
WORKSHOPS
Photo Credit: Image by courtesy of Ren Mauney: Photo: Willie Siau CREATIVE STRATEGIES: Participatory Performance and the Aesthetics of Citizenship by Ren Mauney
Duration: April 08 – 09, 2026 | 10:00 am – 12:30 pm
Experiment with participatory performance methods, use the group as a laboratoryfor interactive and embodied art-making, and develop a short participatory proposal through physical warm-up, tasks, reflections, and discussion on democracy, citizenship, and public bodies. Seats are limited. Learn More & Enroll Now
ONLINE COURSES
Photo credit: Image by courtesy of Jasmine Reimer BECOMING WEIRD, BECOMING WILD by Jasmine Reimer
Duration: March 31 – April 21, 2026 | Live Online Sessions, Tuesdays | 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm (Berlin time)
What makes the hybrid, the monster, and “the weird” so powerful?
Trace the origins of feminist hybrid symbols from Neolithic goddess mythology to contemporary theories of The Weird and the monster through experimental drawing methods, writing prompts, individual journaling exercises, readings, and discussions that bridge research and artistic practice. Seats are limited. Learn More & Enroll Now
Photo credit: Image by courtesy of Berlin Art Institute ART FOR OTHER WORLDS by Mitch Speed
Duration: April 28 – May 19, 2026 | Live Online Sessions, Tuesdays | 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm (Berlin time)
How do economic systems affect the capabilities of art?
Through readings, lectures, and seminar discussions, imagine methods of making and experiencing art beyond Eurocentric, market-based, and institutional art worlds, and new creative communities defined by collective support and solidarity. Seats are limited. Learn More & Enroll Now
Photo credit: Image by courtesy of Berlin Art Institute FLORAL TIME: How Artists Describe Plants by Joseph Walsh
Duration: May 26 – June 16, 2026 | Live Online Sessions, Tuesdays | 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm (Berlin time)
Embracing an ecological consciousness means shifting away from human-centred concerns. Apply artistic methods to the relationship with nature through activities and exercises that create ways of looking at plants, soil, and the earth as a living system, while engaging with art, writing, and artefacts on animist thinking, non-human time, and ´personhood´. Seats are limited. Learn More & Enroll Now
STUDIO PROGRAM ART RESIDENCY
Photo Credit: Image by courtesy of Berlin Art Institute. Photography by: Ivan Erofeev For artists seeking time, space, and structure, the BAI Studio Program offers a flexible, interdisciplinary residency in the heart of Berlin’s vibrant art scene. Participants gain 24/7 studio access, personalized mentoring, and a rich calendar of courses, lectures, critique sessions, and professional visits.
The program fosters creative independence and peer connection, encouraging residents to develop their voice while engaging with Berlin’s wider cultural ecosystem. Whether you’re building a new body of work or refining an ongoing practice, this residency is designed to help you expand your perspective, challenge your approach, and grow alongside a global network of artists.
Whether you’re curious or just beginning your artistic journey, currently studying, or actively working as a professional, the BAI Studio Program offers a space for orientation, experimentation, and meaningful exchange within Berlin’s vibrant contemporary art scene.
Apply now for the Studio Program Art Residency. Seats are limited! Learn More
With its hybrid concept of an international artist residency, contemporary art school and innovative arts incubator, the BAI is an independent institute for artistic practice, training, discourse, and research in Berlin. All courses are conducted in English.
info@BerlinArtInstitute.com
www.BerlinArtInstitute.com Taged as/in; Art Residency, Artists, berlin, Berlin Art Institute, contemporary art, Dagmara Genda, drawing, ecology, Emily Hunt, feminist art, Jasmine Reimer, Joseph Walsh, masterclass, Mitch Speed, performance, Ren Mauney, Surrealism, workshops#writtenby:
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Wandern in Geschichte. Die Fotografie von Ulrich Wüst
Ulrich Wüst zeigt in Leipzig Stadtbilder der DDR: Spuren von Krieg, Verfall und absurden Urbanismen – präzise, humorvoll und zeitlos eindringlich.
Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig
Eröffnung | 12. März
13. März – 14. Juni, 2026Das Werk von Ulrich Wüst wurde in den 1980er Jahren insbesondere durch seine zahlreichen Stadtbilder bekannt, die er an verschiedenen Orten der DDR aufgenommen hatte. Sie zeigen Spuren des Zweiten Weltkrieges und ungehinderten Verfall der historischen Bausubstanz.
Im Mittelpunkt seines fotografischen Interesses standen jedoch die durch Unachtsamkeit und Ahnungslosigkeit ebenso wie durch Zerstörung und Wildwuchs verursachten Absurditäten städtebaulicher Situationen. So entwickelte der Fotograf seine ganz eigene visuelle Form der Architekturkritik. Diese hat bis heute nichts an ihrer Eindringlichkeit verloren. Sie argumentiert nicht ideologisch und wird von einem Phänomensinn getragen. Ein subtiler Humor und Ironie sind ihr ebenfalls nicht fremd.
Berlin, Wichertstraße Januar 1984 (aus der Serie “Notizen. 1984-1986”) Der deutsche Osten
Einem breiten internationalen Publikum wurden die Fotografien von Ulrich Wüst durch seine Einladung zur documenta 14 nach Kassel 2017 bekannt. Ulrich Wüsts fotografisches Werk, das sich im weitesten Sinne mit dem Thema deutscher Osten befasst, lässt sich auch über die versunkene DDR hinaus als Bild-Archäologie der Gegenwart beschreiben. Diese Bilder zeigen Fundstücke der „Grabungen“ und sind zugleich Werkzeuge zu deren Konservierung.
Wüst hat einen untrüglichen Sinn für die Zeichenhaftigkeit alltäglicher Situationen, Gegenstände und Materialien. Er erkennt auch die hintergründigen Bedeutungsschichten von gefundenen Bildern. Zum Beispiel wird dies bei den vergrößerten Details aus DDR-Pressefotos deutlich, die den manipulativen Gebrauch der Fotografie offenbaren.
Universelle Phänomene gesellschaftlicher Wandlungen
Das fotografische Werk von Ulrich Wüst kann aus verschiedenen Perspektiven wahrgenommen werden. Die Beobachtungen, die er in seinen Bildern festhält, mögen letztlich ihre Wurzeln in der deutschen Teilung und deren Überwindung haben. Sie betreffen jedoch immer auch universelle Phänomene gesellschaftlicher Wandlungen und deren materielle Erscheinungsformen.
Die scheinbar lapidaren, höchst präzise komponierten Bilder sind Ergebnis langer visueller Wanderungen in gegenwärtigen Orten der jüngsten Geschichte.
Ausstellung: Wandern in Geschichte. Die Fotografien von Ulrich Wüst
Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig
13. März – 14. Juni 2026
Text und Kuration von Matthias Flügge
Eine Ausstellung des ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e. V.Taged as/in; 13. März, 14. Juni, ausstellung, berlin, documenta, Fotografie, Galerie, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Geschichte, Humor, Ironie, Kurator, Leipzig, Stadtbilder, Urbanismus, visual#writtenby:
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Berlin Fashion Week: Laura Gerte AW26 “Deviant Defiant”
Laura Gerte showcased her latest Autumn/Winter 2026 collection titled “Deviant Defiant” during Berlin Fashion Week in February.
The Berlin Fashion Week has always represented independence and focused on individuality with its variety of designs and concepts. This season the Berlin-based label Laura Gerte explored the darker aspects of female nature as she created looks that explored the characteristics of female villains. Delivering a powerful exploration of autonomy, femininity and resistance.
Since launching her label in 2023, Laura Gerte has built a reputation for empowering the feminine silhouette. Her designs help the body reclaim its power. Her work focuses on practicing scalable upcycling, often created from reclaimed clothing or deadstock textiles that are reconstructed into hybrid fabrics. Having graduated from Weißensee Academy of the Arts she has cemented her namesake brand in Berlin.
Gerte’s designs explore bodies reclaiming their power, oscillating between fragility and strength. Dramatic silhouettes and playful shapes are a consistent hallmark, often defined by heavy piping and sculptural construction that reshape the body into unexpected forms.
Berlin Contemporary
As of 2025, she has been recognized as a “Berlin Contemporary” designer at Berlin Fashion Week, an initiative supporting innovative designers during fashion week, further highlights the industry’s growing attention to her work.
While earlier collections balanced softness with playful irreverence, Autumn/Winter 2026 represents a shift toward something more intense. Deviant Defiant confronts the dark allure of feminine empowerment directly.
Villainess as resistance
Rather than portraying a villainess as moral failure, Gerte interprets it as a form of resistance. Women become “villains” precisely when they cease to be controllable, when they express autonomy, knowledge or sexuality outside socially acceptable boundaries.
This conceptual narrative is reflected not only in the narrative of the collection but also in its visual language. The garments appear both seductive and confrontational, creating silhouettes that command attention rather than seeking approval.
The palette is dominated by dark tones further enhancing the femme fatale motif. Black, charcoal, deep burgundy and ink blue reflect an atmosphere of authority and tension. These hues are realised across a wide range of materials, sculptural wool, flowing jersey, rigid leather, tight satin and sheer mesh. The contrast between these textures creates a dialogue between softness and structure, a recurring theme throughout Gerte’s work.
Ideas of female autonomy
The show itself unfolded inside a reclaimed department store space. The industrial vastness of the setting heightened the dramatic atmosphere. Before the first model appeared, a spoken monologue echoed through the room, reflecting on ideas of female autonomy; by the time the runway began, the audience had already been drawn into the narrative world of the collection.
As the show progressed, elongated silhouettes remained a defining motif. Slim shapes were repeatedly disrupted by unexpected volumes like sculptural sleeves, exaggerated hips or dramatic drapes that created tension within the garments. This interplay between restraint and expansion mirrored the collection’s conceptual theme: the constant polarities of female autonomy with defiance.
Mesh and cut-outs introduced a sensual dimension, revealing glimpses of the body beneath rigid structures. Not necessarily overtly provocative, yet the result was a carefully balanced eroticism charged with intensity. Some looks evoked mythic villainesses, with sharp shoulders and long, dark gowns reminiscent of cinematic antagonists.
Deadstock fabrics and recycled garments
Throughout this collection sustainability remained at the forefront of Gerte’s design policy through the transformation of existing materials into something entirely new. The use of deadstock fabrics and recycled garments allowed for the creation of textile hybrids as each piece subtly retained traces of its previous life.
Laura Gerte Berlin Fashion Week AW25. © 2025 James Cochrane This approach reflects a positive shift towards the progress toward circular design. The idea of transformation through materials being reborn into new forms mirrors the collection’s narrative of reclaiming identity and power.
Textures play a crucial role in this process. Heavy wool absorbs light, giving garments a sense of density and weight. Leather introduces rigidity and resistance, while satin and jersey bring fluidity and movement. Mesh, meanwhile, offers transparency. Reinforcing Gerte’s interest in clothing as a form of transformation.
Power, autonomy and the cultural anxieties
The collaboration with Dr. Martens offers a subcultural edge to the collection. This collaboration is suitable considering the brand has long been associated with countercultural movements, from punk to contemporary streetwear, thus adding a layer of historical resonance.
Leather panels derived from the shoes were reconfigured as structural elements reinforcing the darker and rebellious tone. By transforming these iconic boots into garments, Gerte blurred the boundaries between clothing and object, functionality and symbolism. This design concept reflected the designer’s fascination with transformation and reinterpretation.
Ultimately, Laura Gerte demonstrated the power of narration in Deviant Defiant. Through performance, materials and silhouettes each look held presence and a story. Gerte constructs a narrative about power, autonomy and the cultural anxieties surrounding female independence.
Seductive and unapologetically
The villainess, long portrayed as a warning against ambition or defiance, becomes something entirely different in Gerte’s world. She is not a threat to be contained but a figure of fascination powerful, seductive and unapologetically autonomous.
Laura Gerte Berlin Fashion Week AW25. © 2025 James Cochrane As Berlin continues to assert itself as one of Europe’s most experimental fashion capitals, designers like Laura Gerte are playing a crucial role in shaping its identity. Her commitment to sustainability, conceptual storytelling and sculptural design sets her apart from more commercially driven labels. Discover the Brand: lauragerte.com
Taged as/in; AW26, berlin, Berlin Fashion Week, designer, Deviant Defiant, Dr Martens, fashion, James Cochrane, Laura Gerte, Runway, Sustainability, Upcycling, Womenswear#writtenby:
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Better Go South: DOUBLE OPENING IN BERLIN
The show features: Marlena Podolšak’s ironic, socially critical paintings and Sebastián Jauregui’s design-driven reflections on superstition and luck.
Ausstellung: 19th of March | 6 – 10 PM
Marlena Podolšak
B. 1976, Germany. Lives and works in Stuttgart (DE).
Marlena Podolšak transforms, in her powerful, self-taught painting style, images of women from the past into the present with social criticism but also with a great deal of irony. Between technically sophisticated retro aesthetics and fine detail work, she creates images that are as unsettling as they are moving. Her images tell stories and question history.
Marlena Podolšak, Plan Bye, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 60 cm Sebastián Jauregui
B. 1995, Colombia. Lives and works in Berlin (DE).
Sebastian Jauregui stages, through a crisp, design-informed practice, scenes where superstition clings to ordinary things. Between somber elegance and decadent detail, he works through still life, portraiture, and charged objects to trace how we negotiate uncertainty by reading signs, repeating rituals, and inventing rules for luck. His highly controlled process and structured compositions mirror the need for the order that superstition promises. They also invite the viewer to resist the feeling of being jinxed. The viewer is encouraged to treat luck as something shaped by choice, not fate.
Sebastián Jauregui , Odds are Even, 2026, oil and acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm. 
Sebastián Jauregui , Another one for sorrow, 2026, oil and acrylic on canvas, 100 x 70 cm. Better Go South
Brunnenstraße 25B,
10991 Berlin
www.bettergosouth.comCopyright (C) 2025 BETTER GO SOUTH. All rights reserved.
Taged as/in; art, Artist, berlin, Better Go South, contemporaryart, culture, exhibition, gallery, Marlena Podolšak, opening, painting, Sebastian Jauregui#writtenby:
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Spreepark Art Space | Ausstellung: WANDEL LANDSCHAFTEN
Vier internationale Kollektive erkunden den Spreepark im Wandel. Installationen, Sound und Video verbinden Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und mögliche Zukünfte.
mit Disruptive Nostalgia, Flower Foundry, Memoria und Rent Collective, 15. März – 14. Juni 2026
Vom 15. März bis 14. Juni 2026 zeigt der Spreepark Art Space die Ausstellung Wandel Landschaften. Präsentiert werden die vier künstlerischen Positionen des Residenzjahrgangs 2025: Disruptive Nostalgia, Flower Foundry, Memoria und Rent Collective. Die international und interdisziplinär arbeitenden Kollektive lebten und arbeiteten während ihrer dreimonatigen Aufenthalte vor Ort im Eierhäuschen. Im Fokus ihrer Recherche steht der Spreepark als Ort im Wandel.
Eröffnung: Sonntag, 15. März 2026, 11-18 Uhr
Suche nach der geheimen Ausstellung,
Rundgang über die Baustelle des Spreeparks, 12-13:30 UhrKuratorische Führung durch die Ausstellung,
mit Katja Aßmann, 14-15 UhrSpreepark Art Space (Eierhäuschen / Spreepark)
Zum vollständigen Eröffnungsprogramm
Die Ausstellung zeigt begehbare Installationen, Sound- und Videoarbeiten sowie partizipative Formate, die sich zu einem immersiven und begehbaren Erlebnisraum verdichten. Wandel Landschaften fragt danach, wie sich ein Ort neu formt, was ihn prägt und welche Geschichten bleiben. Welche möglichen Zukünfte zeichnen sich ab? Zwischen Vergangenem und Neubeginn entsteht ein vielschichtiges Bild des Spreeparks als Gelände mit Geschichte und als Ort der Transformation.
V.l.n.r.: © Disruptive Nostalgia & © MEMORIA Die vier Kollektive Disruptive Nostalgia, Flower Foundry, Memoria und Rent Collective arbeiten interdisziplinär. Sie sind in den Bereichen Bildende Kunst, Musik, Architektur, Ökologie, Choreografie, Performance und Design tätig. Für die Ausstellung erkundeten die Künstler:innen Wege, Räume, Materialien und Relikte des Spreeparks. Sie setzten sich mit den unterschiedlichen Zeitspuren des ehemaligen Vergnügungsparks auseinander. In den Werken verbinden sich historische Spuren, Gegenwart und mögliche Zukunftsbilder.
Image: © Rent Collective https://www.spreepark-artspace.de/programm/ausstellungen/wandel-landschaften
Residenzprogramm wird 2026 neu ausgerichtet
Seit 2024 bietet der Spreepark mit dem Art Space-Residenzprogramm Künstler:innen aus dem In- und Ausland Raum für Forschung zwischen Kunst, Landschaft und öffentlichem Raum im ehemaligen Vergnügungspark Spreepark als einzigartigem Ort der Transformation.
2026 wird das internationale Residenzprogramm grundlegend neu ausgerichtet. Gemeinsam mit verschiedenen internationalen Partner:innen werden neue relevante Themenfelder bearbeitet. So startet u.a. im März eine zweijährige Partnerschaft im Rahmen des Projekts E cological Futures, einer gemeinsamen Initiative des Goethe-Instituts und ARCH+.
AUSBLICK SPREEPARK ART SPACE 2026
Vom 5. Juli bis 1. November 2026 präsentiert der Spreepark Art Space eine Einzelausstellung mit Iván Argote, im Kontext seiner Arbeiten B ridges Spreepark , die als permanente Werke ab 2027 im Spreepark zu sehen sind.
Über den SPREEPARK ART SPACE
Der Spreepark wurde 1969 als “Kulturpark Plänterwald” eröffnet und war der einzige ständige Vergnügungspark in der DDR. Der Spreepark Art Space zeigt heute in Erwartung des neuen öffentlichen Parks zeitgenössische Kunst, die sich mit Landschaft, Natur und Architektur auseinandersetzt.
Zwischen Plänterwald und Spree kommen Akteur:innen aus verschiedenen Bereichen zusammen. Sie beschäftigen sich mit dem öffentlichen Raum. Zudem erkunden sie die Rolle der Kunst darin und gestalten sie mit. DAS EIERHÄUSCHEN Einst ein beliebtes Ausflugslokal bietet das Haus heute dem Spreepark Art Space einen festen Anlaufpunkt und vereint einen kostenfreien Ausstellungsbereich und Residenzräume für Künstler:innen mit einem gastronomischen Angebot.
Taged as/in; art, artistresidency, artspace, berlin, contemporaryart, Eierhäuschen, Erinnerung, exhibition, Gruppenausstellung, immersiveart, installationart, Kollektiv, Kunst, kunstberlin, Landschaft, soundart, Spreepark, transformation, videoart, Zukunft#writtenby:
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