A Triptych of Faith and Chaos in Berlin’s Rebellious Embrace: “The Space of Discomfort” at Galiläakirche

In Berlin, sometimes stepping into a church means not just praying, but holding up a mirror to the world that has come off its hinges. Starting February 14, the Galiläakirche in the heart of Friedrichshain hosts the pop-up exhibition “Der Raum des Unbehagens” (The Space of Discomfort), curated by Julian Kirschler. As Ödön von Horváth famously put it: “Actually, I’m a completely different person, but there’s never been time for that.” This exhibition stages precisely the discomfort of that “other self” for which the time never came.

The story that began in a former slaughterhouse in Pforzheim now arrives in Berlin as its “small but potent little sister.” Blending with the iconic texture of Friedrichshain’s Rigaer Straße, the exhibition mixes religious symbols with pop-art aesthetics and a sharp critique of capitalism. If the corridors of our building carry a faint smell of smoke and a metallic taste today, know that the invisible boiler room beneath Galiläakirche is running too hot.

Galiläakirche sheds its identity as a conventional place of worship and transforms into Kirschler’s provocative “toy world.” The exhibition is not interactive in the conventional sense, yet it makes the viewer an unwilling accomplice—directly confronting what humanity has done to the world “in the name of the Father” (in nomine patris).

From Toy Narratives to Peep-Show Booths

The works in the exhibition produce noises one is not accustomed to hearing in the silence of a church:

Exploding Last Supper: The world’s most famous table explodes inside a peep-show booth in exchange for a coin. White sticky fluids, guns, pregnant matryoshka dolls… Kirschler implants the lust of consumer society straight into the heart of the sacred.

Flat Earth and Automobiles: A wooden cross designed as a flat world carried by three classic cars, complete with a road itinerary. No better illustration could exist of the shallow endpoint to which our fetish for progress has brought us.

Dollar-Spewing Cruise Ship: A colossal cruise liner darkens the sky, spewing dollar bills from its smokestacks instead of smoke. In the background, the melody of “Dir Gott so nah” echoes faintly.

World Premiere: The Yellow Plastic Banana

The most enigmatic piece in the exhibition revolves around a world premiere centered on a yellow plastic banana. These kinds of absurd gestures—carrying Berlin’s underground energy into art—perfectly embody the mischievous intelligence that resonates so deeply with the spirit of our “Apartment.”

This exhibition is less a technical installation than a “field of effect.” While Kirschler hollows out religious symbols and fills them with the plastic waste of the modern world, he also quietly nods to Friedrichshain’s notorious gentrification pains. The viewer who enters the church feels less like someone in an exhibition and more like someone waking up the morning after a party celebrating the end of the world.

Exhibition Title: Der Raum des Unbehagens (The Space of Discomfort)

Artist / Curator: Julian Kirschler

Dates: February 14 – March 1, 2026

Location: Galiläakirche, Rigaer Str. 9, 10247 Berlin