Instead of going door-to-door in search of the ideal space to call home, the artists that started the Agora Collective decided to take matters into their own hands. This summer, they began to renovate an industrial building in Neukölln with a floor for exhibitions, one for co-working and a loft for visitors to stay. They then began filling it up with the people and projects and ideas they wanted to be surrounded by. “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
On Monday, the musical branch of their space opened in an explosion of creative activity. Dylan Aiello had been working on transforming his neighboring flat into Montenegro – a practice and performance venue. The opening, sponsored by Airbnb, was composed of performances ranging from burlesque to jazz, classical recitals to improvised jam sessions. Chattering crowds of attendees, warm lights and the sounds of foot-stomping blues spilled out onto the streets.
A defining feature was the mammoth bar Dylan had managed to materialize inside the space – though it dwarfs the studio doors. For the opening, he outfitted it as a Wunderkammer. My paintings nested in its old wood shelves for the evening. He filled the middle section with an odd assortment of found treasures and lit the piece with jerry-rigged bulbs and colored lamps in various stages of disrepair. I had also painted the glass panels on the bathroom doors and a video artist projected his colorful abstractions onto the ceiling.
The evening winds down.
It was the opposite of the white-cube gallery experience. There was no line between where my work ended and the hanging clock gears began. I am not sure what this means for showing my work in the future, but when all was said and hung, my paintings felt very much at home.
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