Unit - Shirin Sabahi

Galerie Pankow at the Gate

Shirin Sabahi – Unit

Pforte
Danziger Straße 101/103/105

Opening on Thursday, August 20, 2026, at 7 p.m.

Exhibition runs from August 21, 2026, through October 4, 2026

The exhibition *Unit* revolves around Shirin Sabahi’s former apartment building in Kreuzberg, as well as its attic conversion and renovation between 2019 and 2022, which can be seen as a consequence of the top-down approach of an increasingly deregulated Berlin real estate market. Central to the exhibition is the eponymous sculpture *Unit* ( 2026): a cardboard kitchen set—discovered during an open house in the partially renovated building—is stacked vertically in the entrance hall as a ready-made, thereby taking on an ambivalent visual quality. Photographs of the construction phase are displayed next to the sculpture, while a window installation from her series *Window Session* (since 2016) bathes the room in subdued, construction-site-like light. In this way, the exhibition offers a rearrangement of the Kreuzberg building and highlights the logic of real estate flipping that surrounds it—standardization, interchangeability, and a flawless first impression. 

“Unit” is curated by Cara Michel, a research intern at Galerie Pankow. The exhibition constitutes the third and final part of the “Domesticity” series, a collaborative project with Lars Holdgate, a research intern at Galerie Parterre, and Zhijian Lyu, a research intern at Galerie Prater.

Shirin Sabahi is a Berlin-based artist who works with film, sculpture, and installation. Her site-specific work explores objects and spaces over time, raising questions of access, transformation, and resilience. Her subjects include, among others, museums, memorials, parks, swimming pools, and street scenes.

Events

Pforte x PLACES
Screening, Open Air at the Pforte
August 29, 2026, 8:30–10:30 p.m.
The Dilapidated Dwelling, Patrick Keiller (2000)
PLACES is organized by Shirin Sabahi and Pitt Wenninger

Pforte x HEMMA
September 13, 2026, 8:00–10:00 p.m.
Short Film Program, Open-Air Screening at Pforte
HEMMA is organized by Vigga Wæhrens and Anna Pezzoli

Free admission to the exhibition and the accompanying program. The exhibition runs concurrently with Galerie Pankow’s regular program.

Instagram: _pforte

Email: pforte@ba-pankow.berlin.de