Ariane Mueller, Martin Ebner: The Near Future
Pavillon der Volksbühne Berlin, 2019

Trompe l’oeil architecture installation

Institution:
Volksbühne Berlin

Location:
Rosa Luxemburg Platz, Berlin

Duration:
March 2019 – June 2019

Synopsis:
As part of an invitation to the magazine Starship, Ariane Mueller and Martin Ebner conceived the re-design of the Volksbühne pavillon, an urban one level 50ies structure formerly used as the ticket office of Volksbühne and later used as a gallery space, as a barn, which should also be usable as a space craft. The conception discussed that this barn came from the former barn-district (Scheunenviertel) where the Volksbühne is situated. After a time travel of app. 20 years, which also marked the time in which the Berlin based magazine Starship existed at that time, it had landed again at its former site, Berlin Mitte. In the barn were artefacts from the year 1998 – the time when Starship had started.

While the barn stood on the square like a rural alien to the urban surrounding, inside there was an exhibition as a sort of storage space for the art of the 1990ies as well as the technical necessities, a pilotes desk, a screen depicting the galaxies it had crossed, and turbines, which fit the artwork of artist Nina Rhode, as well as an overall signature and logo-type designed by Till Sperrle.

Technical Details:
A wooden front covering the facade of the Volksbühne pavillon, forming a corridor with benches, a pilotes console, a screen, and turbines on the outside of the pavillon.