Ownership of Memory and Images: Xavier Robles de Medina and “SOURCE” at Galerie Noah Klink
Who can own an image, a representation of a body, or a narrative of history? Who decides what gets archived and remembered, and who remains on the margins of that narrative merely as a “subject”? As the excitement of Berlin Art Week begins to envelop the city, Galerie Noah Klink plays host to a jarring exhibition that pursues these very questions. Xavier Robles de Medina’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, titled “SOURCE,” meets viewers between September 11 and October 10, 2026.
Bringing together brand-new paintings, sculptures, and documentary materials in this selection, Robles de Medina navigates a broad trajectory extending from colonial archives to popular culture, and from contemporary media to personal memory. In an oil-on-wood work featured in the exhibition, a multitude of distinct images converge side by side—ranging from a shot of Zoe Saldaña on the set of James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash to a bronze female figure of Surinamese origin held in the vaults of the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and dated prior to 1850. The artist candidly confronts us with how exoticization, desire, class, and economic power render certain bodies visible while ignoring others.
Drawing also from his own queer and transnational identity experience, Robles de Medina rejects the seemingly neutral, cold facade of archives. By reconfiguring familiar visual sources, he shakes the power structures holding ownership over history. Opening its doors with an inauguration on Thursday evening, September 10, the exhibition stands as one of the unmissable stops to refresh our minds on the politics of images in Berlin this autumn season.
Exhibition Note from NO-26 Editor
Artist: Xavier Robles de Medina
Exhibition: SOURCE
Venue: Galerie Noah Klink (Berlin, Germany)
Dates: September 11 – October 10, 2026 (Opening: Thursday, September 10, 18:00 – 22:00)
Aura: A political Berlin Art Week selection constructed with paintings and sculptures, bringing together colonial archives, stills from the Avatar set, and objects in museum vaults to question the politics of ownership, identity, and representation.
