Treibende Kräfte, group exhibition in Berlin

Exhibition curated by Bettina Klein at MOONS c/o LAURA MARS GALLERY

Lada Nakonechna, Mykola Ridnyi, Dana Kavelina, Olha Marusyn, Library of Visual Phenomena (Olga Gaidash / Eugene Shimalsky)

October 2–25, 2025
Opening: Thursday, October 2, 7–9 pm
Live performance by Olha Marusyn starting at 7.15 pm in front of the gallery.

MOONS c/o LAURA MARS GALLERY
Bülowstraße 52 - 10783 Berlin - lauramars.de
Opening hours: Wed-Fri 1-7, Sat 1-6 pm

With the exhibition Treibende Kräfte, Laura Mars Gallery is launching a new series of exhibitions and events that will take place at irregular intervals under the title MOONS.

The title Treibende Kräfte implies in German both a self-determined, dynamic forward movement as well as being driven by forces beyond one’s control. The conflict between these states characterizes a currently prevailing mood that has also manifested itself in many artistic works in recent years. The exhibition features sculptures, photographs, videos, and paintings from the years 2011-2025, most of which are being shown in Berlin for the first time. Two of the artists live in Ukraine, while all the others have been in exile in Germany since 2022. While some works refer specifically to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, others focus on longer-term, sometimes international social and political developments.

The exhibition accompanies the international conference (Un)Safe Plurality: Ukraine and Beyond, held at the Institute for East European Studies, Free University of Berlin, on September 30–October 1 in cooperation with the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL). Both events conclude the project (Un)Disciplined: Pluralising Ukrainian Studies – Understanding the War in Ukraine (UNDIPUS, 2022–2026), conducted at the Universities of Greifswald, Giessen, and Regensburg.