Berlin | ArtRegion: Berlin, Schöneberg

ChertLüdde

Pauline Curnier Jardin: Luna Kino

4. Juni – 3. September 2022

Pauline Curnier Jardin’s (b. 1980, Marseille, France) first exhibition at ChertLüdde takes inspiration from the Luna-Lichtspiegel, a cinema formerly located at the gallery’s space at Hauptstrasse 18 in Berlin-Schöneberg. After Eduard Luft founded it around 1914, the cinema was very soon left in the hands of women. Following the ownership of Anna Topp, the cinema was heroically maintained by a group of women who kept the cinema running during the air raids of the Second World War. Now, the cinema will be reconstructed and reimagined by Curnier Jardin, in a collaboration with the scenographer Rachel Garcia, a longstanding accomplice of the artist’s work.

Luna Kino’s sheer curtains and corporeal imagery motivate a deeper consideration of the portrayal of women in Germany during and immediately following the war. At the entrance of the cinema a woman lies, as if exhaling from labor. Combining a number of literary, cinematic and historical references, the environmental installation embodies many of the oppressions that affect female bodies. A functioning cinema, the structure also hosts a previously unreleased film by the artist. Dripping in blood, the film is a macabre yet mesmerizing sequence bringing forth imagery of trauma and violence as well as resilience and life. New bas-reliefs made by Curnier Jardin further spotlight the great efforts made by women to rebuild the city while also directly referencing their portrayal in various forms of media and propaganda. These various elements gather in commemoration of feminine perseverance in the (still) politicized female body.