Installation and Video.
(Wooden frame structure with stretched black molton, white chalk, cardboard figures, white and black acrylic paint, white marker on glass window, flatscreen, video 7:03 min, headphones)
Text by curator Frances Breden:
We are standing in front of the gallery in the tower at Frankfurter Tor. On both sides of Karl-Marx-Allee, two towers mirror each other, symbolically evoking the historic Frankfurter Gate of Berlin’s medieval customs wall. The modernist towers were built in the early years of the GDR and form an architectural counterpart to the apartments below, which were conceived as “workers’ palaces” an expression of the idealism, or perhaps the propaganda, of the young state. Today, the tower dome can be rented for private celebrations, while the apartments have become unaffordable. Just a few streets away, the Amazon Tower rises above the entire ensemble, a building whose construction could not be prevented despite widespread protest.
A third tower appears on the glass door of the gallery, accompanied by images of the Tarot card The Tower illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith in England in 1910. A lightning bolt strikes the top, hurling a crown into the depths, while smoke and flames rise violently. Upon entering the gallery, we find ourselves caught in a kind of time loop. Three more towers stand before us, drawn in exaggerated, expressionistic lines grotesque and distorted, as if emerging from a dream. They are mounted on sculptures reminiscent of stage sets from a distant past. A king, wearing crown and robe, plunges into the void. The scene is overloaded, dramatic, almost theatrical.
As we approach the towers, we peer into an opening, a kind of window, in which a video by the artist is visible. She moves and dances as if on a tightrope in front of a labyrinth of towers. She repeats apocalyptic phrases in a bright American voice: offers from social media influencers selling tarot readings to their followers. We are caught in the endless loop of the algorithm, which feeds us glittering, seductive messages of an impending collapse.
In tarot, The Tower card is often associated with the sudden collapse of structures. Its imagery is said to depict God tearing down the Tower of Babel. The card can announce a dramatic turning point, whether a breakup, a dismissal, or the loss of security. At the same time, it is also a symbol of revolution. Towers are architectural manifestations of unequal power, often accumulated or violently appropriated.
Agustín’s work can be read as a humorous reflection on the present, a time in which fascism emerges from our screens and politicians behave like petty kings. She reflects on the cyclical nature of history and the merging of past, present, and future. The intrusive Social Media messages projected onto the towers repeat so frequently that they lose their meaning and fade into an indistinct sound. Modern fascism, devalued through constant repetition, is barely recognizable as such. Disguised as something foreign and new, it nevertheless remains as familiar as ever and must still be destroyed.
The installation was part of the group exhibition Hole*y Magic, 8.05.2025-24.08.2025, Galerie im Turm, Berlin
https://galerie-im-turm.net/exhibition/alicia-agustin-pedra-costa-mary-maggic-lauryn-youden/
Concept, Installation, Video: Alicia Agustín 2025
Curation: Frances Breden
Exhibition design: Carolina Redondo
📸 Phil Dera
(Parts of the video installation were produced by Kunstverein Hildesheim as part of the solo exhibition Funny yes but not Funny haha by Alicia Agustín, artistic direction: Charlotte Rosengarth)
