Böhler & Orendt:  DOOM SNOOZERS – Vorletzte Träume – Spreepark Art Space (Berlin) | 13.07.-02.11.2025

Spreepark Art Space presents from 13th July the exhibition “DOOM SNOOZERS – Penultimate Dreams” by the artists Böhler and Orendt. The starting point of the exhibition is the artist duo’s installation TOWARDS HUMANITY!, which will be accessible to visitors as a permanent exhibition when the Spreepark opens in spring 2027.

Image above: Böhler & Orendt, Der gute Wille, 2009 ⓒ Böhler & Orendt.

Böhler & Orendt (Matthias Böhler, born 1981 in Aachen, Germany, and Christian Orendt, born 1980 in Sighisoara, Romania) deal with the political and ecological effects of human behaviour on the fate of the earth. With DOOM SNOOZERS – Penultimate Dreams, they develop a darkly comic science fiction speculation. The expansive installation interweaves existing and new works to create an audio-visual scenario of accessible dream worlds in which time and space, real and fictional events merge.

Im Mittelpunkt der Ausstellungsinszenierung stehen die Besuchenden selbst. Sie folgen als „Träumende“ einem Parcours verschiedener dystopischer Visionen. Dafür aktiviert die fiktive Technologie DreamKeep die im Eierhäuschen versammelten Kunstwerke und fügt ihnen jeweils eine suggestive Audiospur hinzu. Als Stimme und Gesicht von DreamKeep begleitet die virtuelle Siebenschläferin Jill – vermittelt über ein Headset – die Besucher*innen durch die Ausstellung, nimmt das jeweils visuell dargestellte Thema auf und spinnt es als DreamGuide  spekulativ weiter. 

The drawings, prints and sculptures selected for DOOM SNOOZERS, some of which are new creations, come from various contexts and are united by a partly affectionate and humorous, partly ironic and detached exaggeration of the political, economic and ecological consequences of the havoc we humans are wreaking on our planet. They playfully shift perspectives and show the world from the vantage point of a potential end.

Beings, mostly from the animal and plant world, who cannot represent their ‘interests’ in reality themselves, always speak up; for example, when extinct animal revenants lament the disappearance of their favourite plants, a group of trees sets entire settlements on fire, or humans leave Earth altogether in a spaceship with infinite storage space.

The starting point for this exhibition is the installation TOWARDS HUMANITY! In it, a group of trees encounter park visitors as beings capable of thought and speech, reflecting on or commenting on human behaviour and customs, thus testing our relationship with the environment. The model for the work is the subject of one of the dream scenes in the exhibition.

TOWARDS HUMANITY! is one of five artworks for Spreepark that emerged from a curatorial workshop process in 2020 and are being realised by internationally renowned artists specifically for Spreepark.

About Böhler & Orendt
Böhler & Orendt have already exhibited at numerous national and international art institutions. Solo exhibitions have been dedicated to them by, among others, the Neues Museum Nuremberg (2024), the Berlinische Galerie (2023), the Kunst Haus Wien (2023) and the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, USA (2018). Their works in public spaces include KALA HET DIWAI, or The Tree of Knowledge (2018) for the Bavarian State Office for Statistics in Fürth and KWIRKI, THE MESSENGER (2022) for KÖR, Art in Public Space Vienna.

Ellen Blumenstein is an internationally active curator and author. Since 2018, she has been involved in the curated workshop process “Art and Planning” at Spreepark Berlin, in which five artistic concepts were selected by an advisory board for permanent realisation in the park.

About Spreepark Art Space
The Spreepark was opened in 1969 as the “Kulturpark Plänterwald” and was the only permanent amusement park in the GDR. Today, the Spreepark Art Space exhibits contemporary art that deals with landscape, nature and architecture. Between Plänterwald and the Spree, actors from various fields come together to engage with the public space and explore and help shape the role of art in it.

Art, as an essential design element in the future Spreepark, provides new impetus and opens up new perspectives on the park: it inscribes itself into the entire structure of the park via the works permanently installed in the park, temporary exhibitions and artistic interventions, and makes art an experience for all visitors.

The Eierhäuschen 
Since March 2024, Spreepark Art Space has had a permanent home in the Egg House. The newly renovated 19th-century building on the edge of Berlin’s famous Spreepark hosts exhibitions on the themes of landscape, nature, architecture and public space. The house was already a popular excursion destination in the 19th century, with an outdoor bowling alley, hundreds of seats along the Spree, its own ferry connection and space for music and dancing. Today, it combines a restaurant and art space with a free exhibition area and residences for artists with living and working spaces. Art, a diverse programme of events and educational activities, and gastronomy are all enjoyed here together.

WHEN?

Opening: Sunday, 13. July 2025, 11:00 Uhr

Exhibition dates: Sunday, 13. July until Sunday, 02. November 2025

Opening hours: Wed – Sun, 11 am – 7 pm

WHERE?

Eierhäuschen / Spreepark
Kiehnwerder Allee 2
12437 Berlin

COST?

Admission: free