reviews paola yacoub & michel lasserre
Paola Yacoub & Michel lasserre:
Das KeMPinsKi bristol hotel berlin
m ars, berlin
27 october – 15 Decem ber
This show is about a hotel. There are six beautifully framed
photographs of its corridors and lounges, mounted in the
rich tonality of their motifs; a printed list of people who have
previously stayed there; and a video screen with more images.
The hotel depicted is rather grand and conservatively elegant,
a luxurious and plush residence for those away from home who
do not have to economise. A lounge is furnished in dark woods
that are complemented with rich tapestries and lamps in a
classical vein; another room is set up for a formal dinner, awash
with glistening crystal and porcelain; even the corridors’ rich
materials and ornaments, their columns and coffered ceilings,
signal status and wealth. The list of former guests adds to this
image of first-class hospitality, ranging from Fidel Castro in 1953
to Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 and 1992
respectively. The fact that heads of states and other influential
politicians stayed at this hotel ranks it high among the city’s other
multistarred hotels. The images on the flatscreen hanging above
the row of photographs are floating impressions of the hotel
lobby, as if it were a promotional video.
This show is about history. It weaves a storyline through
a series of rather-anonymous-looking spaces, binding them and
providing context. It denotes the Kempinski Bristol Hotel Berlin
not only as a historic location by virtue of its lasting existence,
but because it played an important part in the history of Berlin, of Germany and thus of the world. This was
Corridor with Columns, 2007,
c-print, 55 x 65 cm.
the hotel where those who shaped the conflict between East and West stayed, functioning like a metaphorical
courtesy mars, berlin
trench in the Cold War. Castro and Reagan might have stridden along the same corridors or received guests
in one of the lounges – one before he came to power, the other afterwards – and John F. Kennedy might have
sat down for a meal after he famously pronounced himself a Berliner (just five months before he was murdered
and so publicly mourned). The Kempinski Bristol was their base in the city, the physical connection to their
legendary histories.
This show is about reference. Paola Yacoub and Michel Lasserre examine in this exhibition the various
possibilities of representation. The digital screen stands as a reminder of similar technology in many hotels,
referring to itself and the constant provision of information, and showing pictures of a possible location within the
hotel. The list of famous visitors is an arbitrary historic marker, concentrating on a specific series of events. The
photographs, apart from their lavish presentation, are typical snapshots, skewed and slightly out of focus. Closer
inspection also belies the depicted grandeur, showing a clear discrepancy between the modernist structure of
the spaces and their ornate decorations, between purpose and design. It seems as if interchangeable spaces
were clad with notions of old-fashioned elegance and other historic references. Yacoub and Lasserre bring all
these elements together and at the same time take them apart. Their show is about telling stories. Axel Lapp
artreview 124
JAN_REVIEWS.indd 124 4/12/07 15:37:37
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