#1 Pop-up Kunsthalle zu Kiel
Wagehe Raufi. The Borrowed House - Shell in Transition

23 May to 31 August 2025

In the glass atrium of the Kunsthalle zu Kiel, a site-specific video installation by the Berlin-based artist Wagehe Raufi (*1990) is on display. The basis for this piece is her video artwork Ornamental Hermit, which she made in 2022 for the Kunsthalle Willingshausen. In it, a hermit crab moves into an abandoned shepherd’s house — a building similar to the one in which the artist lived during her residency in Willingshausen. While trying to settle in this environment, the hermit faces conflicts involving annexation, rejection and exhaustion.

For this new stage of the work, the hermit crab sets out on a journey and discovers the abandoned Kunsthalle in Kiel. The architecture of the building and the absence of its artworks stored off-site trigger memories and exploration through touch. The hermit crab – the artist’s alter ego – is the embodiment of the search for a way forward, without antennae but with a keen awareness of uncertainty and an overpowering urge to move. The creature’s restlessness is symbolic of the state of art in a world in which its sanctums are increasingly vanishing.

The installation combines computer-generated video imagery with field recordings of sounds captured by Raufi in the building itself. Transmitted via loudspeaker, these noises vibrate throughout the museum. Sculptural objects with thick, organic-looking skin grow in the room. They interweave to create a complex habitat made up of natural space, the closed Kunsthalle, a transparent terrarium and digital imagery. 

Due to the renovation of the Kunsthalle, the installation was designed for outside viewing and could have been visited 24/7 from the outside.

The Pop-up Kunsthalle zu Kiel series presents contemporary artistic positions at unexpected locations in the city of Kiel during the closure of the museum for refurbishment. New, site-specific productions are usually created in public spaces, in temporary uses or as guest performances. In this way, the closed Kunsthalle opens up to the urban community and invites visitors to experience art in everyday life.