Exhibition Preview
Sonnendeck, 200×150, 2024
Christian Thoelke, Sonnendeck, 2024, oil on canvas, 200 × 150 cm, Private Collection © Christian Thoelke, 2025, Photo: Nguyen Xuan Huy

Paradies (Paradise)

ausstellung

As part of Berlin Art Week 2025, the exhibition Paradies (Paradise) will open at the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank on September 10. In it, contemporary artist and curator Christian Thoelke explores urban scenes from the Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank. He sees them as an expression and testimony of subjective world views within a culturally and politically divided Germany. Thoelke juxtaposes these works with his own works of deserted architecture from the GDR. Based on his personal experiences, the East Berlin artist reflects on the profound change in his living environment after reunification. He traces the loss of significance of these spaces as well as the conflicts and potentials of social upheaval.

Picture of the painting from Rainer Fetting, The House and the Tree, 1988, Oil on Canvas, 254 x 165 x 4 cm, Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank K 1361 © Rainer Fetting, Photo: Peter Adamik
Rainer Fetting, The House and the Tree, 1988, Oil on Canvas, 254 x 165 x 4 cm, Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank K 1361 © Rainer Fetting, Photo: Peter Adamik
Picture of the painting from Christian Thoelke, Würfel, 2025, Oil on Canvas, 150 × 200 cm © Christian Thoelke, Photo: Nguyen Xuan Huy
Christian Thoelke, Würfel, 2025, Oil on Canvas, 150 × 200 cm © Christian Thoelke, Photo: Nguyen Xuan Huy

The exhibition offers a multi-layered view of the urban landscape as a mirror of individual and collective transformation and builds a bridge to the present day: what processes of change is our society undergoing today and how do we experience them – as silent observers or active co-creators?

Paradies runs until December 7 and rounds off the 40th anniversary of the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank and the Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank.