Mitte, Berlin
Felix Kiessling
Zucker
Alexander LevyAlexander Levy is pleased to present Zucker, a solo exhibition by Felix Kiessling. In a reduced and focused presentation with three work groups on view – Arbeit (2025), Du (2025) and Sitzgelegenheiten (2025). The exhibition examines how the body, understood as a permeable and affective medium, inscribes itself onto its environment. Thereby unsettling fixed boundaries of self and space; revealing the subtle dialogue between material presence, memory, and socially constructed frameworks of perception. In Arbeit (2025) raw aluminium plates are etched through a biochemical corrosive reaction between the surface and bodily fluids. Chemically processed sweat – collected by the artist from himself, his partner, and their son – is applied to the aluminium with textiles. Others less defined, bare traces of the endogenous salts and acid applied over time. The resulting coincidental organic figures resist conscious composition becoming instead a raw record of contact and physical intimacy. Du (2025) a heat-camera installation in the format of a bathroom mirror invites a reflection not just on the surface of the self, but on the unseen processes beneath: circulation, warmth, flux. The camera can capture beyond physical contours, revealing the instability and insubstantiality of what is considered form. Du is a meditation on materiality: we are not fixed entities, but shifting impermament matter. The final work, Sitzgelegenheiten (2025) and Mono Bench (2025) a collaboration with furniture designer Frederik Fialin consist of two sculptural chairs the visitor is invited to sit on. One is partly a found object and a reimagining of 1960s Berlin public concrete benches. The other is based on the same logic of utility, reproducibility, and durability, but translated into a new material realm. The raw aluminium contact surfaces react over time to visitors' use, amplifying the exhibition's focus on bodily presence, physical traces, and the interplay between beings and material. In a reality mediated by digital interfaces and artificial frameworks, Zucker offers a direct encounter with the body as catalyst and medium, a grounding experience in the physical and chemical processes of life.