Merzbau-Garten, Kinderhook & Caracas

Merzbau-Garten is a collaborative project which grew over the course of 2020–2021 in three modules by combining the work, concepts and labor of various Berlin-based artists, writers, and designers. Inspired in part by Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau, the space at Kinderhook & Caracas will organically accumulate architectural interventions, art works and plant life over the course of the year, meanwhile manifesting in a parallel, non-linear publication with contributions from all of the participants. A program of encounters accompanies the physical exhibition. The loose theme of each module is determined through a dialog established between the artists. Module I revolves around the connections between the mythology of the object, artist gardens, house museums, and contamination.

The accompanying publication followed the program of the exhibition through its three modules. For every iteration of the exhibition, 32 loose pages were produced and installed across the space for visitors to take. These pages were inhabited by ideas, notes or references by the artists in the exhibition.

Published by Kinderhook & Caracas (Christopher Kline and Sol Calero)
Designed by Santiago da Silva
17 × 24,8 cm
80 loose pages, kept together with an elastic string
Each module printed on a different type of paper with its own color and typography.

Featuring: Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard / Elizabeth Ravn, Nigin Beck, Kamilla Bischof, Böhler & Orendt, Andrea Canepa, Sayuri Chetti, Stephanie Comilang, Eli Cortiñas, Sophie Erlund & Stephen Kent, Mirak Jamal, Valentina Karga, Jesi Khadivi, Bob Kil, Zora Mann, Constanza Mendoza, Ad Minoliti, Nest Design, Annika Rixen, Santiago da Silva, Paul DD Smith, The Society for Matriarchal World Domination (featuring Selin Davasse & Zoë Claire Miller), Anna M. Szaflarski, Cecilia Valenti, Philip Wiegard