Staircase Intervention
Photos: Maik Gräf
Staircase Intervention at the Bucerius Kunst Forum
With the Staircase Interventions, we are, for the first time, inviting art fellows from the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS to artistically reinterpret the Bucerius Kunst Forum and its institutional role by transforming the staircase of the exhibition building. In doing so, the space in which art can be experienced extends beyond its original setting — through the windows and out into the city itself.
Tintin Patrone
The Staircase Interventions at the Bucerius Kunst Forum return for their second edition with Condition(s) by Tintin Patrone. The artist transforms the central staircase into a distinctive climate zone ‒ oscillating between critique and comedy, monotony and overheating. Condition(s) invites visitors to reconsider the relationship between environment, technology, and the art world.
Along the way to the exhibition space, several mock air-conditioning units are mounted on the walls. Varying in size and design, they appear at times raw and improvised, at others almost functional.
In doing so, Condition(s) highlights a defining feature of western exhibition spaces, where air-conditioning systems form part of an invisible architecture of comfort — embedded, insulated, hidden. In contrast, in southern Europe and many tropical regions, these units are visible markers of everyday life and have become increasingly essential.
The work also exposes the contradictions within cultural climate policy: while art institutions increasingly advocate sustainability, many of their systems — both energetically and symbolically — remain focused on cooling, preservation, and exclusion.
Condition(s) thus makes visible what usually remains unseen: the infrastructures of power, representation, and the temperature of our cultural climate.
Christina Köhler is a German-Filipino sound and performance artist. In 2011, she completed her studies in fine arts at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, where she studied under Haegue Yang, Asmus Tietchens, Isaac Julien, and Matti Braun, among others. Her work at the Bucerius Kunst Forum builds on her sound-based practice, as sound is an integral part of the installation. Her Filipino background and her involvement in collectives that focus on togetherness rather than exclusion are equally reflected in her work Condition(s).
The Staircase Interventions are realized in collaboration with the art fellows of the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS.
Since 2019, the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS has been awarding art scholarships in cooperation with the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media. Through this program, the foundation supports professional visual artists and artist collectives based in Hamburg. The aim is to respond to the diverse artistic practices and production conditions of contemporary art while providing tailored support for each artist’s individual development. Every year, seven scholarships of €10,000 each are awarded to artists and collectives working across a wide range of disciplines, including Karo Akpokiere, the Cake&Cash Collective, Cordula Ditz, Nurgül Dursun and Eda Aslan, Annika Kahrs, Lene Markusen, Hannah Rath, Karimah Ashadu Schmidt, Mika Sperling, Tilmann Walther, and Carlos León Zambrano. With these scholarships, the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS combines its commitment to artistic freedom with the encouragement and promotion of emerging talent.
The Staircase Interventions series is sponsored by the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS. The art scholarships are an initiative of the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Media.
