11 SEP until 4 OCT 2025
Opening – 11 SEP 2025, 6-10 pm

With LAND BEFORE TIME, EBENSPERGER presents the first solo exhibition of emerging artist Arhun Aksakal (*1995, Offenbach) at its KAPELLE space. A graduate of the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Aksakal’s exhibition opens during Berlin Art Week (10–14 September 2025) and marks a significant milestone in the artist’s career. It also signals a curatorial shift within the gallery under the direction of newly appointed duo Leonie Rösler and Marlene Sichelschmidt, who aim to interweave the established program with new artistic voices.

At the heart of the exhibition is Aksakal’s new video work Land Before Time, a 19-minute film that blends documentary and experimental visual languages into a poetic essay on past and present civilizations and their impact on landscapes, architecture, and memory. The film draws connections between diverse sites: the gleaming white potassium salt mountains—once industrial waste, now mythologized tourist landmarks; the sunken ruins of Hasankeyf in Turkey—an ancient cradle of civilization submerged by massive dam projects; Ferropolis, the “city of iron,” whose former mining machines now serve as festival infrastructure; Mount Nemrut, the Ilısu Dam, the gardens of Diyarbakır and the Zeche Zollverein in Essen, where young parkour athletes navigate Ulrich Rückriem’s sculptures as obstacles.

Complementing the film, the exhibition features a selection of new sculptural and installative works. Together, they form a dense, immersive environment, allowing visitors to experience Aksakal’s artistic language in a comprehensive and spatially engaging way.

Arhun Aksakal (*1995 in Offenbach am Main) works across video, film, photography, sculpture, and performance. He studied Fine Arts at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, the Università Iuav di Venezia, the Academy of Fine Arts in Sulaimani, and the Städelschule in Frankfurt, where he was a student of Willem de Rooij and Cyprien Gaillard. His works have been shown internationally and have received multiple awards and grants, including those from the Hessische Kulturstiftung, DAAD, and Urbane Künste Ruhr. He lives and works in Frankfurt, Berlin, and Istanbul.

EBENSPERGER Kapelle in Berlin-Moabit is a temporary exhibition space operated by Galerie

EBENSPERGER. Originally a church, the venue is once again transformed into a site for art during Berlin Art Week through a collaboration with Luxoom Lab.