Interwoven Souls

Concept_ Kunst am Bau competition for Humboltd Forum, Berlin 2025

This Installation explores the relational tissue of life through the transcultural souls —ancestral, displaced, and searching for belonging— inhabiting the exhibition halls of the Humboldt Forum. As they wander, they weave their pads with one another, when finding themselves in the unfamiliar landscape that is this space. These sleeping souls inhabit a building that has itself a soul—a spirit taking shape through the material and memory of the city. The Berlin Palace as a location, like the city itself, has lived many lives. Its physical bodies have changed over time, yet its spirit roams through different spaces. It is a soul longing to be reimagined, here and now, rooted in the complexities of place, memory, and transformation. This wandering spirit has become a host, inviting other displaced, invisible, or forgotten souls to gather and intertwin—each one seeking reconnection, remembrance, and return. It is a meeting place for those on their long journey back home.

Within its walls, multidimensional beings—figures suspended in the spiral of History—defy time and space. They gaze into glass cabinets, archives, and voids, hoping to catch a glimpse oftheir own. The souls of our ancestors—Abuelos, Elders, Taitas, Guardians of Knowledge and Wisdomkeepers from all around the globe— arrive unannounced, emerging from their long sleep, finding themselves here once more. This Installation envisions the space not only as a structure but as a living, breathing tissue—an interwoven scenario for the invisible and the sacred, where memory and imagination co-create a shared reawakened future. This goes inline with the Humboldt Forum’s goal as a culturally vibrant location in and beyond Berlin.

The artwork evokes a woven piece of fabric composed of metal strips. These strips symbolize the souls—both objects and living agents—that make up the Humboldt Forum’s collection. The strips encounter one another. In these encounters, they interweave, embrace, and then continue on their individual paths. In a way this “fabric” intends to bring light into the complex interrelations that happen within the Humboldt Forum, where humans and other entities come together learning with and from each other. With this installation, we also wish to highlight the significance of the Museum’s textile collection. These pieces are guardians of the visual memory of bodies no longer present—bodies whose souls continue to accompany and enlighten us