11 SEP – 17 OCT 2026

Opening – 10 SEP 2026, 6–10 pm

Galerie Mountains is delighted to be part of BERLIN ART WEEK 2026 with a solo exhibition by Nschotschi Haslinger, opening on September 10 as part of Gallery Night by GALLERY WEEKEND BERLIN.

Nschotschi Haslinger presents Centralia, a new body of work comprising ceramic floor and wall sculptures, drawings, video, and performance. At the center of the exhibition are hybrid beings with long, umbilical cord-like necks that oscillate between organic body, landscape, and autonomous life form. They appear at once vulnerable and vigilant – as earthlings seemingly guarding their territory in an ecological, feminine and spiritual sense.

Haslinger’s sculptures and drawings develop forms and visual worlds that resist clear categorization. Plants, animals, bodies, and geological processes merge into one another; the familiar shifts into the uncanny. Fire, subterranean landscapes, and cosmic spaces do not appear as mere settings, but as living agents within a world in constant transformation.

Haslinger’s works can be read against the backdrop of current debates around more-than-human understandings of the world. The hybrid beings do not appear as figures of fantasy, but as actors within a reality in which organisms, landscapes, and materials alike possess agency.

The exhibition title refers to Centralia, an almost abandoned town in the US state of Pennsylvania, beneath which a coal seam has been burning since the 1960s. The virtually inextinguishable underground fire serves as a symbol of landscapes permanently altered by human intervention and of an Earth whose interior forces escape human control. At the same time, Centralia evokes notions of a center, a concentration, and a point of convergence: a place where ecological, geological, and mythical forces meet.

The exhibition is complemented by a video and a performance featuring a tree-like wearable, which is temporarily activated by performers. The result is an exhibition in which sculpture, moving image, and the human body form a shared spatial and experiential environment.

Centralia marks Nschotschi Haslinger’s first comprehensive solo exhibition at Mountains, following her participation in the three-person show Hinter Deinem Schatten / Behind Your Shadow (Martina Kügler, Nschotschi Haslinger, Miriam Cahn) at the gallery in 2024.

The artist studied with Walter Dahn, who passed away unexpectedly in November 2024; see also Nschotschi Haslinger’s obituary in Texte zur Kunst. In this context, artist and gallery would like to draw attention to two additional exhibitions taking place in Berlin-Mitte – within walking distance of Mountains – as part of BERLIN ART WEEK 2026: the Walter Dahn survey Let’s Get Married, Let’s Get Lost at Sprüth Magers, and Hauntings by Carina Brandes at BQ.

Nschotschi Haslinger

Nschotschi Haslinger was born near Cologne in 1982 and was a Meisterschüler of Professor Walter Dahn in Braunschweig. She works primarily in drawing and ceramics, as well as performance, audio, and installation. Haslinger lives and works in Berlin.

Solo exhibitions

Her recent solo and duo exhibitions include Between Places (with Monika Michalko), Nizza, Berlin, 2025; Symptom Couverture, EXILE, Wien, 2024; Earthseed, Galerie Šachta, Prag, 2023; Mikro Silence, curated by Alexander Pütz, Moltkerei Werkstatt, Köln, 2023; Introesque, EXILE, Wien, 2019; Die untere Welt, Overbeckgesellschaft, Lübeck, 2019; Apropofola, Kunstverein Kjubh, Köln, 2018; Ruine des Antlitzes, Mönchehaus Museum für moderne Kunst, Goslar, 2010.

Biennials etc.

In 2018, Haslinger participated in Manifesta 12 in Palermo, as part of the project May the bridges I burn light the way, organized by Christian Siekmeier, EXILE.

Group exhibitions

Her recent group exhibitions include Klasse Walter Dahn, Trafik Projekte, Brühl, 2025; Das öde Haus, as part of Droste Festival 2024, Haus Rüschhaus / Center for Literature, Münster, 2024; Magisch depressives Badezimmer, EXILE, Berlin, 2024; Zero is the Moon, curated by Sophia Scherer, nova space an der Bauhaus Universität Weimar, 2024; The Garden, Galerie Norbert Arns, Köln, 2023; Return to Ceramics, Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakau, 2023; Gibt es den Mond wenn keiner hinsieht?, Galerie Thomas Rehbein, Köln, 2023; Breathing Water, Drinking Air, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, 2022; Among Them, curated by Chantal Kaufmann, Galerie Kirchgasse, Steckborn, CH, 2020; Musée sentimental de l’ours de Berlin, curated by Jan Tappe, Bärenzwinger, Berlin, 2020; Junger Westen 2015, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen, 2015.

Collections

Works by Nschotschi Haslinger can be found in

MOCAK, Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow
Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf
Sammlung Oehmen
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo
Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody
as well as numerous further private collections