Ruhezeit explores the notion of rest among construction workers as a central metaphor to reflect on life beyond labor. Through sound, visual, and performative elements, the audience is invited into the intimacy of a building site—making visible the personal stories, family ties, and everyday struggles often hidden from view.
At the heart of the installation lies the Siestario, a “box within a box” that reproduces the protective architecture of construction sites. Conceived as a refuge, it challenges the logic of productivity and reclaims rest as a poetic, aesthetic, and political gesture. By foregrounding those who build cities but remain absent from their cultural imagination, the work insists on the urgency of pausing to consider exhaustion, resilience, and collective organization.
“I tell him to study because this is tough work. It’s exhausting. A pencil is lighter than a mason’s spoon or a shovel.”
—Claudio Ortellado, Argentine construction worker
Through artistic interventions, collaborations with unions, and local participation, Ruhezeit becomes a living platform for dialogue around labor rights, the role of women and queer communities in the sector, and the possibility of reclaiming time as common ground. The questions it raises—about the value of rest, the ownership of time, and trust in the collective—provoke reflection on labor conditions and the structures that sustain contemporary capitalism.
Previously presented as “Siesta” at the Centro Cultural Terminal Goes (Montevideo, Uruguay, September 2025) and Amigos del Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires, October 2025), the installation arrives in Berlin as a co-production between Ravenna/Borchardt and Karne Kunst, with the support of the Berlin-based architectural studio Sauerbruch Hutton.
BARDO Projektraum, Jessnerstraße 33, 10247 Berlin November 11 – 30, 2025 Opening: Tuesday, November 11, 6 PM Siestario (resting space): Wednesday–Saturday, 12:00–3:00 PM Exhibition visits: Wednesday–Saturday, 3:00–6:00 PM
Public Program | November 2025
📍 All events at BARDO Projektraum, Berlin
Public Program
11.11 — Opening of the exhibition Ruhezeit
Multimedia installation by the duo Mara Borchardt & Mariano Ravenna. A construction site becomes a living metaphor for the city and its invisible architectures.
12.11 — Pre-launch of Welcome to My Table
Welcome to My Table is a participatory art project gathering recipes, stories, and memories from women* with migratory backgrounds. Through screenings, illustrated zines, and a shared dinner, cooking becomes a space of care and resistance — where stories are served warm and conversation turns into community.
🕒 15:00–18:00 — Opening of materials and projections 🍲 18:00–20:00 — Collective pre-launch dinner 🎟️ By registration only → forms.gle/ebC1FV5zqsVPwcc56 Organized by Welcome to My Table within ABC Incuba by Sorora e.V.
13.11 — Your Noise Is My Silence — Experimental Concert
18:00–19:30 📍 Bardo Projektraum Ligia Liberatori and Gustavo Obligado build a landscape of voices, breaths, and vibrating objects at the edge between pause and precarity. Sound appears as a gesture of resistance — the trace of a body that insists, even within silence. 💰 Suggested donation
14.11 — “Pause: Reimagining a City” — Workshop
15:00–18:00 📍 Bardo Projektraum
Led by artist and dancer Beatriz Silva, this laboratory explores pause as an urban practice and political gesture. Through movement, writing, and navigating public space, participants create micro-rituals and collective actions that turn rest into a form of social imagination.
🎟️ By registration only → forms.gle/cyQcW741WL3i5p5r7 💰 Suggested donation 🌍 In English, German, and Spanish
15.11 — Conversation with the creators of Ruhezeit
15:00–17:00 📍 Bardo Projektraum
An open talk with Mara Borchardt and Mariano Ravenna, the artists behind the installation Ruhezeit. The conversation revisits the creative process and performative research at the core of the project — stories from construction workers, union dynamics, and the connections between body, city, and time.
🎟️ Free entry 🌍 In Spanish, with informal translation into English and German
20.11 — Talk: Rest & Regeneration in the Performing Arts
17:00–18:30 📍 Bardo Projektraum
A collective conversation with guest curators from the Dancetopia Art Symposium on rest, regeneration, and sustainability in the performing arts. Through shared experiences and strategies, we reflect on how to care for creative processes without losing momentum.
🎟️ Free entry 🌍 In English, German, and Spanish
21.11 — Pause: Reimagining a City — Laboratory II
Second session of Beatriz Silva’s laboratory, where collective actions are integrated into the installation. 🕒 15:00–18:00
22.11 — Yapping While Napping — Performance
16:00 & 17:00 📍 Bardo Projektraum
Performance by Tereza Holubová on active rest and its paradoxes under productivity logics. Between stillness and tension, the body searches for a guilt-free pause in a world that never stops.
💰 Suggested donation 🌍 In English
27.11 — Workshop: The Sensitive Collage Project
15:00–17:00 📍 Bardo Projektraum
Workshop guided by Vanessa D. Neuber, combining collage and meditation as practices of pause and listening. Among images, papers, and silences, a space opens for individual and collective regeneration — where creating also means caring.
🎟️ Registration required → forms.gle/979M45xW6BMEd99g7 💰 Suggested donation 🌍 In English
27.11 — Vozes — Performance
18:00–19:00 📍 Bardo Projektraum
Performance by Mayara Baptista, where body and voice intertwine in a terrain of breaths, pauses, and fractured sound. Between beauty and exhaustion, Vozes turns vulnerability into creation, making air itself a space of resistance.
💰 Suggested donation 🌍 In Portuguese and English
28.11 — Escucha Precaria / Precarious Listening
14:00–15:30 📍 Bardo Projektraum
Sound activation and conversation with Alejandra Borea on listening as labor and resistance. A reflection on how fatigue, vulnerability, and hierarchies shape our attention — and how listening can become a political act.
🎟️ Free entry 🌍 In Spanish
29.11 — From Cleaning to Cooking to Revolution — Walking Tour
14:00–16:00 📍 Meeting point: Karl-Marx-Allee (details upon registration) A performative walk by Parallel Berlin tracing the footprints of the women who rebuilt Berlin after the war. Across rubble, kitchens, and monumental boulevards, this slow walk brings forward the invisible histories of female and migrant labor that sustained the city.
Ravenna/Borchardt Group The collective creates artistic projects that encourage participatory reflection on the Argentine political context and its global connections. Their work blends image and writing to awaken public sensitivity and generate dialogue around the complexities of current social conditions.
Mariano Ravenna, architect — translates people’s desires into design, balancing needs, limitations, and possibilities to create spaces where individuals feel comfortable and empowered.
Mara Borchardt, political scientist and cultural manager — approaches cultural production as a collective process requiring diverse voices, negotiation, and participation of those directly affected.
Contributors Idea: Ravenna/Borchardt Photos, videos & installation design: Mariano Ravenna Texts & interviews: Mara Borchardt “Music to Watch”: Hugo de Bernardi Audiovisual production: Facundo Manini Graphic design: Jacqueline Schaab General production: Luz Miraldi Press: Tidea
Local team at BARDO Projektraum Curator: Marcela Villanueva Mediation: Beatriz Silva Aranda Production: Elisa Basilissi Communication: Myriam Martínez
Karne Kunst is a Berlin-based curatorial platform dedicated to amplifying the voices of women*, migrant, and queer artists through exhibitions, residencies, and cultural programs that question dominant narratives and promote collective forms of creation. Founded and directed by Marcela Villanueva, Karne Kunst operates at the intersection of art, feminism, and decolonial practice—connecting Latin American and European artistic communities through collaborations, publications, and social engagement.
Bardo Projektraum is an experimental art space in Friedrichshain, Berlin, that hosts exhibitions, performances, and interdisciplinary encounters. More than a gallery, it functions as a living laboratory for artistic and curatorial research, exploring topics such as migration, identity, care, and sustainability. Bardo offers visibility to artists with migrant backgrounds while maintaining an atmosphere of openness, experimentation, and dialogue with the local community.
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