by Aoife Donnellan // June 20, 2025
The history of Bärenzwinger Berlin is unique. The space opened as a bear enclosure in August 1939, housing Urs, Vreni, Lotte and Jule, who were all gifts from the city of Bern to mark the 700th anniversary of Berlin’s founding in 1937. Since then, the small brick building in the middle of Köllnischen Park has been buried under rubble, restored, filled with new bear inhabitants, seen the birth of 38 bear cubs and finally repurposed to become a space designated for cultural purposes in 2017. Bärenzwinger’s annual program for 2025/2026, ‘Handle (with) Care,’ aims to examine a variety of social practices in the context of changing historical and political policies. Their current group exhibition, ‘This, too, is a way of keeping each other close’ is the second instalment under this annual theme, featuring works from Field Narratives, Sarnt Utamachote, Theresa Weber, Zhou Yichen and Lauryn Youden. In keeping with the exhibition’s themes of observance, this year also marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Schnute, the last bear to be kept in the Bärenzwinger. Curated by Maxime Lübke and Annika Reketat, the exhibition highlights the intimate particularity of grief and memorialization, examining the rituals of those who may be absent from dominant public mourning practices.
Lauryn Youden: ‘A Process of Grieving,’ 2020 // Photo by Cleo Wächter
The first work we encounter, ‘A Process of Grieving’ (2020)–one of two works by Lauryn Youden in the show—sets a caring and purposeful tone. The curious wooden shrine contains a collection of candles (one burned), some coins, clay, photos of the artist and her dog, as well as Sailor Moon memorabilia. Walking into the central space, a skylight illuminates Theresa Weber’s ‘Woven Spirits’ (2025), a blue textile, altar-like installation with wax masks, beads and chains. Surrounding this central work are three rooms blocked partially by barred entrances, requiring the visitor to duck through a small opening in each gate to engage with the works. In the middle room, a Game Boy sits on a plinth, inviting visitors to play. Zhou Yichen’s work ‘Grandma’ (2024) is a dedication to the artist’s Grandmother, who passed away last year. It allows the player to move through a digital recreation of his grandmother’s house in order to feed and bathe her, go on walks and give her her favourite drink, among other actions. It recounts the time the artist spent living with his grandmother after she fell and needed more help. This miniature world that allows the artist to relive a meaningful time in their relationship is a digital monument to the intimacy of intergenerational care.
Zhou Yichen: ‘Grandma,’ 2024 // Photo by Cleo Wächter
On the right-hand side, Youden’s work ‘Dark Water’ (2020) is installed in one of the small tiled rooms. The cell is lit by flickering electric candles on free-floating shelves that surround four black beanbags. Youden’s voice lilts through the room, with a relentless heartbeat-like sound behind her gentle and steady voice. Youden is speaking about the interest she had in angels as a child, as well as about her grandmother as a guardian angel figure. “Hold a large black candle in your right hand / picture filling it with all of your anger,” her voice instructs her past self. Youden’s work is a letter to her grandmother Joyce about their shared experiences—“your illness became mine”—reaching her voice into the past to speak with her. As Youden’s voice becomes quieter, the clicking sounds of the flickering candles become apparent. Your mind drifts to the bear that used to lie down in the same space.
Sarnt Utamachote: ‘I dont want to be just a memory,’ 2022-24 // Photo by Cleo Wächter
On the left-hand side, Sarnt Utamachote’s moving video work ‘I Don’t Want To Be Just a Memory,’ (2024) reflects on the mourning practices of queer communities in Berlin. The work hovers on moments between friends, remembering people who have passed away and imagining alternative practices for collective grieving. One participant notes, “two days in a club high are not enough, we need intimacy every day, we need love every day.” This sense of honoring someone’s memory through connection and togetherness is articulated succinctly by another participant, “she will always be dancing in every club that I go to.”
Theresa Weber: ‘Woven Spirits,’ 2025 // Photo by Cleo Wächter
It rained during my visit, which brought a particular romantic quality to the works installed outdoors. In the bear’s garden, the rain loosened the paper of hn. Lyonga’s ‘How We Sit in Our Mother’s Gardens’ (2025). This installation of audio, works on paper and performance invites us to reflect on their mother’s garden, through a series of meditative actions. Beginning with going alone into the outdoor section of the enclosure, the visitor is invited to listen to an essay at the foot of a tree and water the roots using a nearby water jug. The greenery twitched around me, catching rain droplets as I followed the artist’s tender instruction. Lyonga encourages you to reflect and sit in comfort or discomfort with whatever you might find. In the center of the work is the bear’s empty outdoor pool.
hn. lyonga: ‘How We Sit in Our Mother’s Gardens,’ 2025 // Photo by Cleo Wächter
Across the way, on the other side of the enclosure, a video and installation work are attached to an open gate; ‘Props for Rituals of Mourning’ (2025) by Lene Markusen. Four performers in golden clothes appear on a sand dune, holding purple wooden boards, turning them to reveal photos of loved ones who have passed away. The same purple props are scattered around the garden space, staring back at us, inviting us to project our grief onto them.
Lene Markusen: ‘Props for Rituals of Mourning,’ 2025 // Photo by Cleo Wächter
Grief leaves a trace on all of the surfaces of our lives. This gentle and meaningful exhibition invites visitors to collect their thoughts, engage with their communities and embrace collective mourning. It highlights the political dimensions of who is remembered and memorialized, as well as the personal intricacies of ritual, even allowing our thoughts to tenderly encompass the non-human lives lived in this space.
Exhibition Info
Bärenzwinger Berlin
Group Show: ‘This, too, is a way of keeping each other close’
Exhibition: May 29–Aug. 10, 2025
Event: Fête de la Musique, Saturday, June 21; 4pm
baerenzwinger.berlin
Rungestraße 30, 10179 Berlin, click here for map
