POOR LITTLE THINGS by Kfir Goldenberg at Motorwerk Berlin featured by 404 | BAI

Many thanks to the artist Kfir Goldenberg for realizing his site-specific installation Poor little things at Motorwerk Berlin featured by 404 | BAI within the Studio Program Art Residency at Berlin Art Institute.

Steel cables, steel chucks, steel, black marble, spray paint, wooden beam, sandpaper, chicken soup powder, suitcase, concrete, nylon, launch sticks and inkjet print on tarp, 160 x 370 x 170 cm

Location: Courtyard Motorwerk Berlin
Address: An der Industriebahn 12–16, 13088 Berlin

At the corner of the old industrial building, an ephemeral, foreign cover stands in the courtyard. It recalls, on the one hand, the aesthetics of improvised homeless shelters, and on the other, the temporary stands in flea markets. Both are defined by their edges and by the relation between their inside and outside. In each, objects are laid out on rugs or blankets and displayed to passersby or potential buyers. Within this display, a kind of material metabolism takes place. Substances appear in different states of transformation: before, after, or on the verge of change. Some with the potential to alter other objects as well. They move from solid into powder, or vice versa. Some function as residues of a kind of catharsis, while others act as the catalysts that set it in motion.

“A heavy metal is forged in the ground and bursts into the air with great power. Shattered into the sky in a mesmerizing display, it falls back to the ground, piercing holes through roofs and covers. Moments after, the ash accumulates in places where there were cavities or openings, forming piles that resemble spice stands at the market. Under the pouring rain, the piles react to the acidity of the water, solidifying and turning back into rocks.

The rain grows heavier and becomes a flood, carrying the rocks along with everything else into a newly forming and rising sea. There, they sink to the bottom of the water and, with pressure, heat, and time, morph into yet another kind of stone. The disappearing sea leaves the sediment exposed to new weather conditions, such as the sun’s heat.

It dries, crumbles, and grinds itself into dust that drifts through the air like leaves collecting in the corners of buildings. There, it rests, waiting for some force to move it again, for someone to give it the attention it needed.“ (Text courtesy of Kfir Goldenberg).