Workshop Seminar in cooperation with KW Institute for Contemporary Art as part of the exhibition "Kazuko Miyamoto – String Constructions"

Time:
Opening: 30. October 2025, 7 pm

31.10.2025—18.01.2026
Wed-Wed 11am–7pm
Thu 11–21, Tue closed
 

On the occasion of the exhibition Kazuko Miyamoto – String Constructions, on view from October 31, 2025, to January 18, 2026, KW Institute for Contemporary Art is collaborating with Berlin University of the Arts. The seminar and collaborative project Connecting over Bridges will serve as the starting point for the joint production of a work for the exhibition.

Miyamoto’s String Constructions are two- and three-dimensional sculptures made of cotton threads, which are created through a laborious manual construction process involving repeatable but unique hand movements—marking, nailing, knotting, and linking hundreds of threads. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kazuko Miyamoto developed many of her works at the A.I.R. Gallery in New York’s SoHo district, which was run by and for (exclusively) female-identified artists. To this day, she remains committed to feminist and collective working methods. The exhibition String Constructions spans three floors and the inner courtyard of KW. All of her works are produced on site at KW in accordance with the work concept.

As part of the seminar, students at the Berlin University of the Arts are reconstructing works by the artist— bridges made of rope and wood that were originally installed in Bryant Park in New York in 1982. They are producing these site-specifically for the courtyard of KW, where they will be on display for the duration of the exhibition. The collaborative process of production is inherent to the work. To produce the works, the students collect natural materials such as branches in the Berlin area and transport them by ship to the KW in downtown Berlin. As part of the collaborative project and workshop seminar, the students use documentary photos to research the construction of Kazuko’s works and reconstruct them in the following days at KW, where they are then handed over to the installation team for hanging.

In addition to reconstructing Miyamoto’s works for the exhibition, the students use what they have learned and experienced for an experimental exploration in their own artistic practice. Based on Miyamoto’s working methods, a wide range of art-theoretical, formal-aesthetic, or political points of reference can be pursued. The students’ own works will be presented in the KW’s education room during the last week of the exhibition in January 2026.

Within the context of this project, students gain insight into the working methods of various departments within the institution and into the institutional processes involved in producing an exhibition.
 

Students:
Kaivalya Brewerton, Lucas Dudeck, Luis Fritz, Julia Kafizova, Jiwoo Lee, Jusun Lee, Paula Oltmann, Yoon Park, Alexandra Ravkina, Sarah Schroth, Katia Lina Sternel und Franz Warnke

Seminar leaders:
Akiko Bernhöft, curator, examination and exhibition organization, Berlin University of the Arts
Sarah Kamender, head of woodworking workshop, Berlin University of the Arts
Miriam Döring, project assistant

Project management KW:
Alexia Manzano, Head of Education and Outreach

Thanks to
Silvia Knöfel-Mos, forester, Schmöckwitz
Hiltrud Barz, forest educator, Schmetterlingshorst
Frank Wendler and all other employees of Schmetterlingshorst
Dr. Bettina Knaup, Independent curator and writer