by Lars Holdgate // Oct. 23, 2025
A monotonous humming, a sudden but expected jerk and the pause that follows welcome you into Monsieur Zohore’s solo exhibition at KOW Berlin. The sequence resumes and the cogs are set in motion. ‘Wirbelsturm Marianne, Susanne, Sabine, Hildegard’ consists of the whirling blades of four fans hung on a wall, shifting their attention from side to side. Each one wears braids adorned with beads and silver sea shells. The fans are also interwoven themselves, braided together. Those that hang freely, hang resolutely, while straggling hairs dance calmly. They are synchronized–at least two of the fans face each other for the duration of any one pause–like heads conversing but not really listening to one another. The names in the title of the work tell us all we need to know about these characters.
Monsieur Zohore: ‘Wirbelsturm Marianne, Susanne, Sabine, Hildegard,’ 2025, installation view at KOW // Courtesy of the artist and KOW, Berlin, photo by Ladislav Zajac
From the turning fans, I move towards the tiny spinning kebab spit, which is on the verge of being swallowed up by the vast space. It stands quietly but proudly in the corner of the room by the window that reaches from floor to ceiling. Besides the strange proportions, the scene is reminiscent of an odd kebab shop where the meat has been replaced by kitchen roll, a material that reappears in almost every work on show here.
Growing up in the 2000s, TV and advertising taught me to be fascinated by kitchen roll: from its use in making paper mache on Art Attack to the Plenty ads featuring the Zorro-esque “Juan Sheet.” We rarely had it, and almost never the type with cute pictures printed on it–we would have to use a cloth instead. I came to appreciate kitchen roll as a kind of wasteful luxury, but one that fulfils an important role in maintaining the order of a kitchen, with its ability to erase spills and accidents. It was peak domesticity: a weapon against dirt.
Monsieur Zohore: ‘Der Geschmacklose,’ 1976–2025, mixed media on Döner-Grill, 47 x 31 x 32 cm // Photo by Ladislav Zajac
Beyond merely appealing to my personal memories, Monsieur Zohore here invokes collective histories as well as a cultural imaginary that is employed in negotiating identities. Drawing primarily, if not exclusively, on German and American contexts, the artist creates collages that are composed of historical images, scenes from popular culture and snapshots from daily life.
Pumuckl, iron crosses, flowers, skeletons, Mesut Özil, James Brown, women in bikinis, flames, eyes, Monsieur Zohore dressed as a dalmation, Bruno Ganz in ‘Wings of Desire,’ references to street renamings with pictures of Audre-Lorde-Straße and Manteuffelstraße, an EU flag, plastic bags, people in blackface, Werner comics, a hand grabbing a turban, lithographies depicting scenes from plantations and slave ships and, if I am not mistaken, Count Orlock’s shadow. Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ and Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog’ are reimagined in the show, as well–the former with yellow maple leaves and Nazar eyes, the latter with its protagonist depicted as a Black man. And there is so much more. The works give the impression of old billboards–layer upon layer upon layer of weathered posters that begin to stain, crumble and peel–exposing the past as an advertisement for the world we live in today.
Monsieur Zohore: ‘Die!, Meerjungfrau,’ 1922-2025, installation view at KOW, 2025 // Courtesy of the artist and KOW, Berlin, photo by Ladislav Zajac
Humor, sadness, panic, fear, anger, repression, fetishization and power are soaked up by the kitchen roll. Its absorbency creates vivid and emotive backdrops that bleed into one another. Against deep tones of blue, black and red, random but intentional splashes and slashes of acid decorate the works, almost extending out on to the drips of paint on the gallery floor. The occasional flicker of white acts as a contrast that actually feels like a space of nothingness. At one point the kitchen roll has taken on a transluscent yellowy shimmer that looks like the ghost of deep fried foods.
Most of the works’ surfaces are a bit bobbly or have elements protruding from the canvas, adding a haptic-dimension that goes beyond its confines. This, combined with the chains in ‘Fischers Fritze fischt frische Fische, frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritze’ flying out at me, made me feel dizzy. The temptation to feel soothed by the motion-sensor-activated Big Mouth Billy Bass singing “I Will Survive” and “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” quickly subsides as I process the historical images of racist violence.
Monsieur Zohore: ‘Fischers Fritze fischt frische Fische, frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritze,’ 1833-2025, installation view at KOW // Courtesy of the artist and KOW, Berlin, photo by Ladislav Zajac
Emotional paradoxes are activated repeatedly. Two pairs–one black and one white, the other green and red–of semi deflated paper mache balloons lie limply on the floor. It’s like the aftermath of a children’s party. After a few days of playing with the balloons incessantly, enthusiasm starts to dwindle. The balloons lie around for a few weeks, slowly deflating, no longer play-worthy. It would also be a shame to throw them away. Is it me or the balloon caught in the liminal state between joy and sadness?
Monsieur Zohore: ‘Whether the Weather,’ 2025, installation view at KOW, 2025 // Courtesy of the artist and KOW, Berlin, photo by Ladislav Zajac
The exhibition requires a selective process: the sheer amount of images, references and themes invoked make it deeply personal–it engages the viewer affectively on the basis of individual associations generated by lived experience, cultural memory and psycho-social consciousness. Of course, this means that cognitive dissonances (re)appear in the balanced conflicts that the collages house, making the works seem somewhat chaotic–in what they are expressing, how they are expressing it and the form this communication takes within the space. Sterile lighting and distances between works make the gallery feel empty. But once you get into it, it turns out the ratios are well proportioned and a natural zigzag opens up to guide you. The approach to each piece is a bit like a camera zooming in. As you get closer, the impression of mania starts to subside and the composition guides your eyes around each work in a methodical manner. The structure draws attention to the paradoxes the artist expresses: order and chaos–how very German, how very Berlin.
Exhibition Info
KOW
Monsieur Zohore: ‘Whether the Weather’
Exhibition: Sept. 11–Nov. 1, 2025
kow-berlin.com
Kurfürstenstraße 145 (entrance Frobenstraße), 10785 Berlin, click here for map
