HOUSE TOUR #5, March 2024
Walkabout
BRÜCHE – Artists in Berlin Exile: Memory as Artistic Expression at Haus Kunst Mitte
Dear friends of Haus Kunst Mitte,
For the fifth edition of our HOUSE TOURS blog series, Haus Kunst Mitte presents a three-part feature on the exhibition “BRÜCHE – Artists in Berlin Exile”, which was on view in early 2024. The show featured the work of 15 artists from Afghanistan, China, Iran, Syria, and Ukraine, each reflecting on different aspects of the exile experience. The participating artists were at various stages in their personal and professional lives and had undergone diverse forms of displacement.
Nearly all the works presented explored key stages of the exilic journey—from hopelessness, fear, and rage, to newfound courage, hope, and escape. Other recurring themes included arrival, adaptation, memory, longing, and artistic engagement with the new environment of Berlin. Here, art served not only as a means of processing trauma but also as a critical dialogue with the reality of exile.
Hiba Alansari, لحالحاف / Blanket, 2017, Fabric, Sheep wool © Michael Lüder
Hiba Alansari created a powerful visual representation of destruction, violence, and fear. Her exhibited piece was a quilt whose colors evoked a bright summer sky. Upon closer inspection, the soft, bulging fillings revealed themselves as depictions of bomb explosions. The stitched seams traced the infrastructure of a destroyed Syrian city. What would normally be a symbol of comfort and warmth became a haunting emblem of man-made violence and the consequences of war.
Tammam Azzam, Series: Storeys, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas; Untitled, 2021, Paper Collage on canvas, Courtesy of the artist & Kornfeld Galerie Berlin © Michael Lüder
Tammam Azzam also confronted the themes of violence and loss. His artworks documented the inner dialogue between his memories, daily life, and surrounding world. As a witness to destruction and suffering, Azzam withdrew into his studio to channel his anger through artistic expression. For him, destruction is not only a source of inspiration, but a fundamental part of life that his art seeks to reveal and process.
Nikolay Karabinovych, Ici et ailleurs / Hier und anderswo, 2023, 4K Video, Courtesy of the artist © Michael Lüder
A deeply moving contribution came from Nikolay Karabinovych, who in a 2023 film portrayed his mother—a talented organist—alone in a vast, uninhabited mountain landscape. She performs from memory, without an actual instrument, Francis Poulenc’s 1938 Organ Concerto in G minor for Organ, Strings and Timpani. The nearly soundless setting transforms the absence of music into a powerful accusation. Silence becomes a metaphor for loneliness and mourning. Her pre-war life, disrupted by the Russian invasion, now exists only in memory—distant and unreachable.
Nikita Khudiakov, Warmth, 2022, Videoart, minted as NFT in 3 Editionen, Courtesy of the artist © Michael Lüder
Nikita Khudiakov, together with artists Dmytro Dokunov and Sergey Melnitchenko, explored new forms of intimacy during times of physical separation. Their video art projects investigated the possibility of creating intimate digital artworks that extend physical experience. In times of war, flight, or global pandemics—when human connection is often reduced to video calls—touch becomes a memory. Their works question how emotional closeness and belonging can be maintained under the conditions of isolation and alienation.
With kind regards,
Your Haus Kunst Mitte Team