Open Studios | Trick-Reich

The exhibition takes place in the temporary gallery TrickReich, a company for film and special effects as well as animatronics founded 20 years ago by Christoph von Lengerke. Located in a backyard in Berlin-Moabit, TrickReich is a place where the artistic ideas and long-standing experience of its two artists converge and materialize.

The workshop is not only used for the production of innovative film props, but also forms the basis for their individual creative processes. For the group exhibition and showcase, TrickReich transforms from a workshop into an exhibition space, while still offering insights into the creative working processes and allowing visitors to look behind the scenes.

The aesthetic and functional aspects of the materials become visible in the works presented here, and the special atmosphere of the workshop—shaped by Nico’s and Christoph’s long-standing collaboration and shared history—provides the ideal setting for presenting the diverse works of the artists.

 

About the Artists

plazebo: We are a young collective that seeks to explore things—together or individually—in depth. It is important to us to use different forms of artistic expression: visual art, painting, photography, video art, performance, dance, acting, fashion design, and music. Plazebo is not tied to a specific location—between Berlin and Karlsruhe, a wide network, including a circle of friends around the main members of the collective, comes together. Through the mutual exploration of different artistic directions, we have found an exchange with one another. The fact that we all come from different disciplines gives us the opportunity to question and learn from each other. We want to create accessible art, meaning we open spaces in which people from different social backgrounds, educational contexts, lived realities, and creative scenes can find a place.

The visual artist Christoph von Lengerke (*1966, Berlin) lives and works in Berlin. In his artistic practice, he focuses on the in-depth exploration of materials and their inherent properties. In doing so, he makes fleeting kinetic phenomena visible, combines elements of opposing states of matter, and creates collage-like material connections. Originally coming from the field of film props, special effects, and pyrotechnics, Christoph von Lengerke has established himself as a versatile artist. His work spans a wide range of media and techniques, including glass, metal, kinetic art, video, and action painting. This showcase presents a diverse selection of his older and more recent works. His artworks make ephemeral moments tangible, inviting viewers to reflect on the transience and constantly shifting states of our environment, to look closely, and to reveal what usually remains hidden.

Nico Tobias Nitsch (*1971, Vienna) has worked in the field of model making, animatronics, and puppet construction since 1998. He presents a selection of his artistic works, characterized by a combination of sound and kinetics. By combining found objects with newly created elements, his work often builds bridges between analogue and digital, old and new, the spiritual and the mundane. He designs and constructs wooden, sounding prayer machines, self-playing instruments, and fully automated sound objects that could simultaneously originate from a distant future and an undefined past. His retro-futuristic objects reflect a deep interest in the development of technical processes, which he connects with precisely placed aesthetic elements. His works invite the viewer to perceive, listen carefully, and wonder whether even discarded electronic parts might contain a spirit.

GlassConnectionBerlin e.V.
Glass art connects—that is the idea behind GlassConnectionBerlin e.V. As a non-profit association, the studio in Berlin provides access to the art of glassblowing for everyone. GCB hosts open studio events and offers classes for both beginners and professionals.

Artists such as Jesse Günther, Lena Becerra, Anna Zachariades, and Stefan Stirner have worked in the studio. Jesse Günther—a glass artist, educator, and fellow at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York—serves as an example of the diversity and high level of artists who use the studio as a creative space.

The studio is a place of encounter—open to all who wish to explore or artistically engage with glass as a material.