Conversation
The Studio as a Portal
A conversation with artist Pallavi Paul and Carolin Köchling
Pallavi Paul, photo: Laura Fiorio
“To breathe is to remember our individual and shared pasts and to renew our pact with the future.” — Pallavi Paul
To mark the end of Pallavi Paul’s one-year residency at the Gropius Bau, the artist engages in a conversation with Carolin Köchling – former Associate Curator at Large –, who accompanied Paul’s time in the institution. In their talk, they touch upon the significance of encounter and time in the context of artistic production and reflect on the studio as a portal to connect people, places, epochs, breath, sensation, grief and love.
The Artist in Residence programme at the Gropius Bau activates the institution as a space of artistic production and dialogue. Initiated by the former Director, Stephanie Rosenthal, the programme relates to the site’s history as a Museum of Decorative Arts with numerous studios and workshops. By inviting international artists to work in a studio on-site, the residency gives room to co-shape the institution as a shared space. In response to that, Pallavi Paul und Carolin Köchling reflect on the durational encounters throughout Paul’s presence in Berlin, leading up to her solo exhibition How Love Moves.
Pallavi Paul is a New Delhi and Berlin-based visual artist and film scholar. Paul holds a PhD in Film Studies from the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. In 2024, she received a scholarship for film and video from the Berlin Senat. She was the Artist in Residence at the Gropius Bau and a fellow at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin in 2023. Also, she was a fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program in 2021/2022. Her work has been exhibited at Berlinale Forum Expanded, Berlin (2022); Colomboscope Festival, Colombo (2021); IFFR, Rotterdam (2020); HKW, Berlin (2020); The Rubin Museum, New York (2019); AV Festival, Newcastle (2018, 2016); SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin (2022, 2019); Beirut Art Centre, Beirut (2018); Contour Biennale, Mechelen (2017); Tate Modern, London (2013).
Carolin Köchling is an art historian and curator. She is Adjunct Curator at Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project. Previously, she was Associate Curator at Large at Gropius Bau in Berlin (2022–2024) and led the curatorial department at The Power Plant in Toronto, where she continued to advise on the exhibition program as Nuyten Dime Curator at Large (2016–2022). Before her time in Toronto, she held curatorial positions at Schirn Kunsthalle and Städel Museum in Frankfurt (2010–2015). She has curated exhibitions at Sesc Pompeia in São Paulo (2020) and MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt (2017) and was part of the curatorial team for the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2019).
This event is part of the public programme Six Days of Love, a series of cinematic readings, performances, conversational formats and sonic acts that accompanies the exhibition How Love Moves.