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until 20.12. | #4852ARTatBerlin | AOA;87 contemporary presents from Friday, 21. November 2025 (Opening: 20.11.) the group exhibition „SALON: MAU R | AOA;87 X DŸSE“, an anniversary exhibition about ruptures, conviction, and the end of the illusion of sugarland.
“Unprepared. Unreflected. Naive. And dumb.”
This is how DŸSE’s song Keine Mauern mehr ends – and with it, an entire narrative: the German reunification fairy tale that, in its euphoria, painted over the cracks. Sugar on every corner – and teeth long stuck in concrete.
The words hit hard. No pathos, no pop – a reckoning. A reminder that freedom doesn’t fall from the sky, but requires conviction.
SALON: MAU R is AOA;87’s response to this – and simultaneously a manifesto for the gallery’s fifth anniversary. Five years of dialogue, friction, courage. Born from an idea, from a conviction.
The exhibition positions itself as a Salon des Refusés of our time – a place for discussion rather than decoration, for artistic conviction rather than conformity. Inspired by French salon culture, it opens as a hybrid space between art, music, politics, and society – a hub of diversity.
DYSE © Maren Michaelis
At its center stands the project MAU R by DŸSE – an artistic-political statement against the right, for democracy and the courage to embrace contradiction. The songs tell of the turn of 1989/90, of its broken promises, of awakening from euphoria. The sound carrier is not a classic album, but an object: a “Berlin Wall” made of PAGEL concrete, hand-cast at a 1:10 scale, containing a cassette with EAST and WEST sides – artwork, archive, and statement in one.
Around 40 artists have designed individual segments – some of which are shown in this exhibition.
Helga Schmidhuber, Mauervögel (Wall Birds), 2025 | Photo: Künstlerstudio
SALON: MAU R presents positions that form the foundation of AOA;87 – from Helga Schmidhuber and Holger Schmidhuber to Noriko Ambe, Onome Ekeh, Ida-Marie Corell, Margarete Adler, MARCK, and Numero Cromatico – bringing them into a dialogue that is more than a retrospective: sound and silence, chaos and clarity.
AOA;87 is not celebrating a smooth anniversary. But five years of movement – as conviction.
Vernissage: Thursday, 20. November 2025, 6:00–9:00 pm
Talk during opening: Peter Richter (Author and Journalist), Axel Matz (Krakenduft), Jarii van Gohl (Dÿse), Angela Kohlrusch (AOA;87)
Exhibition dates: Friday, 21. November – Saturday, 20. December 2025
Live Painting, talks, music and drinks: Saturday, 6. December 2025, 12:00 – 4:00 pm
To the Gallery
Image caption title image: Holger Schmidhuber, LOSE EVERYTHING ON THE WALL, 2025 | Photo: Künstlerstudio
Exhibition SALON: MAU R | AOA;87 X DŸSE – AOA;87 | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galerien | ART at Berlin
