The fleeting as a constant

Artworks spread over three floors: with an area of over 5,000 m² and extraordinary spatial situations, Kühlhaus Berlin is a fascinating place to exhibit art. For example, some of the paintings are attached to steel beams running along the ceiling and thus hang in the middle of the room. The Kühlhaus, located near the Gleisdreieck train station, was built in 1901 and was the largest cold storage complex in Europe at the time. Today, the building, which has been a listed historical monument since 1989, is used for exhibitions, concerts, and events. Those interested can also explore the premises in a virtual 3D tour. From October 2 to 5, around 40 artists will present selected works there in the exhibition Bridging Cultures.

One of the participating artists is Gerlind Hentze. She is showing a large selection of her artistic work, including figurative paintings, sculptures, and abstract wax works on cardboard. In her work, Hentze searches for the fundamental substance of human life by reducing the superfluous. She deals with human perception and memory, which only depict fragments of life and the past, thus becoming metaphors for transience. “In the process of remembering and forgetting, transience is the only constant,” says the artist about her work.

Her abstract wax works are characterized by rhythmic repetitions that prove to be changeable rather than fixed structures. The search for freedom and the infinite possibilities that life offers encounter obstacles and face the consequences of paths already taken. The multi-layered inner life of human beings, influenced by numerous external factors, finds its visual translation in Hentze's works.

Gerlind Hentze lives in Glienicke/Nordbahn in Brandenburg. She has shown her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions and has been nominated for several awards, most recently for the German Art Prize in the sculpture category. In 2016, she won first prize in the painting category at the European Cultural Competition of the Spanish Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in Jerez de la Frontera.