Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s new installation ‘The Kuutar Garden’ unfolds as a spatial environment rooted in more than four years of ecological fieldwork in Northern Finland, with the Botanical Garden of the University of Oulu and the region’s distinctive northern light serving as key influences.

Commissioned by Oulu2026, the European Capital of Culture, this immersive, site-specific installation reimagines Kivisydän, Oulu’s central underground car park deep beneath the city center, as a virtual world of botanical afterlife. Running from September 18th to November 30th, 2026, the work transforms two halls into a spectral garden, with musical elements of the simulation created in collaboration with Danny L Harle and Lugh O’Neill.

In this video, Steensen discusses the virtual world and physical installation of ‘The Kuutar Garden,’ as well as the sources of inspiration behind the work, ranging from Karelian-Finnish and Baltic-Finnish folklore to the plant collections and seed vaults of Oulu’s Botanical Garden.

Video by Mona Productions, produced by Monica Salazar, filmed and edited by Peter Cairns. Commissioned by Oulu2026, the European Capital of Culture.

Cyrill Lachauer’s new short film, ‘The Prologue’ (2026), follows some of the last remaining steam engines dating back to the Nazi era that are still in use in Bosnia’s coal-mining regions. Created in collaboration with producer/DJ Rhyw (aka Alex Tsiridis), who created the soundtrack, the 16mm film evokes the look and feel of century-old found footage, inviting a sense of an industry clinging to its final years.

Produced by the Sammlung Goetz and the Autotelic Foundation, ‘The Prologue’ is on view in Lachauer’s solo exhibition ‘The Sunset Route’ until September 27, 2026 at the Kunstpalais Erlangen, alongside photographs and films the artist created from 2020 to 2025 while traveling on freight trains through the USA, Mexico and Bosnia. Shown together for the first time, the works explore questions of freedom, self-determination and resistance, as well as colonization, exclusion and exploitation.

In this video commissioned by Autotelic Foundation, which weaves atmospheric footage and sound from ‘The Prologue,’ Lachauer and Rhyw discuss the collaborative making and scoring of the film.

Video by Mona Productions, produced by Monica Salazar, filmed and edited by Peter Cairns. Commissioned by Autotelic Foundation for their Art & Tech Today series.

Samia Halaby, a Palestinian artist, educator, scholar and activist, has been named the recipient of this year’s MUNCH Award. Presented by the MUNCH Museum in Oslo, the award recognizes her visionary practice spanning more than six decades.

Halaby’s explorations of abstraction encompass primarily painting, along with groundbreaking experiments with early computer animation, which established her as a pioneer of digital art. An activist since the 1970s, Halaby has organized around issues of class, race and Palestine, and has been a vocal critic of censorship in the arts—an obstacle she has personally faced and overcome. In this video, Halaby opens the doors of her studio in New York City and discusses her long-standing artistic and activist practice.

Established in 2024, the annual MUNCH Award honors artistic freedom, paying tribute to the artist’s role as a critical voice in society. This year’s award ceremony will take place at the MUNCH Museum on October 24th.

Video produced by MUNCH in collaboration with Mona Productions.

On September 24 and 25, 2025, with support from Autotelic Foundation, Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai) brings his signature minimalist precision and rhythmic intensity to Berghain. Accompanied by large-scale LED visuals, his set combines percussive material from ‘HYbr:ID’ (2021), the ‘UNI’ series, and ‘PARA’—a new body of work that explores evolving sonic patterns and generative structures.

In the lead-up to these two audiovisual performances, the Berlin-based artist and musician opens the doors of his studio to reflect on his work as Alva Noto, the interplay of sound and image throughout his practice, and his long-awaited return to Berlin’s iconic nightclub.

Video by Mona Productions, produced by Monica Salazar, filmed and edited by Peter Cairns.

At Parochialkirche in Berlin, Slater Bradley presents his latest exhibition, ‘Dragonslayer.’ Curated by Almut Hüfler, the show includes an eight-meter-wide, walk-in labyrinth made of 1,200 kg of honey calcite and chevron amethyst crystals, alongside pieces from the ‘Royal Star Shields’ series, which reference both major star constellations and historic pilgrimage sites.

New compositions by Dustin O’Halloran expand the work into a transformative experiential space of light, sacred geometry and sound, while Sunday glockenspiel concerts with Anna Kasprzcka allow ‘Dragonslayer’ to radiate acoustically into the city. The exhibition stays open through August 10, 2025.

In this exhibition video, the artist discusses the works on view, the significance of the church as a venue, and the intention for his works to function as energetic sources.

Video by Mona Productions, produced by Monica Salazar, filmed and edited by Peter Cairns.

See above a video highlighting the exhibition and symposium that took place from June 27–29, 2025 as part of Kunstverein Arnsberg’s ongoing two-year program ‘Swamping,’ in this video created by Mona productions.

Curated by Pauline Doutreluingne, the program began on June 27 with the opening of Patricia Domínguez’s exhibition ‘Liquid Mantras’ at Kunstverein Arnsberg, on view through August 23. The show addresses the privatization and loss of water in Chile, portraying water as a force of resistance with artworks functioning as ritual acts of empowerment.

In this exhibition video, the artist discusses the works on view, the significance of the church as a venue, and the intention for his works to function as energetic sources.

Video by Mona Productions, produced by Monica Salazar, filmed and edited by Peter Cairns

Monica Bonvicini’s multifaceted practice explores the intersections of architecture, power structures, gender and space. Her work interrogates the meaning of art-making, the ambiguities of language, and the boundaries and potentials tied to the ideal of freedom.

In this video, created collaboratively with Deichtorhallen Hamburg on the occassion of the group exhibition ‘HOW'S MY PAINTING?’, Bonvicini opens the doors of her Berlin studio, sharing insights into her long-standing practice. She discusses the evolution of her thematic concerns, the role of materiality and language in her work, as well as the place painting occupies within her multidisciplinary oeuvre.

‘HOW'S MY PAINTING?’ at Deichtorhallen Hamburg offers a comprehensive presentation of painting in all its forms, from traditional panel works to installative, deconstructive and conceptual approaches. It features 200 works by over 70 artists from the Falckenberg Collection⁠—including Monica Bonvicini, John Baldessari, Philip Guston, Charlotte Posenenske, Kay Rosen and Ouattarra Watts. The exhibition is on view until September 7, 2025.

Video by Mona Productions, produced by Monica Salazar, filmed and edited by Peter Cairns.

Trevor Paglen’s ongoing photographic series 'Unknowns' and an artist proof of his public sculpture ‘Trinity Cube,’ the original of which is installed in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone, are featured in the group exhibition ‘Survival in the 21st Century’ at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, which explores the foundations of life in the age of polycrisis. In this video, Paglen talks about the processes behind both works and how his practice, in general, aims to address the tensions between knowing and unknowing, or seeing and lacking an interpretive framework to understand what we are looking at.

With both of these ambitious and technically difficult-to-realize projects, Paglen wants to explore humanity’s interventions on the planet, pushing us to think about how we affect our environment in a more expanded sense. Developed by Georg Diez and Nicolaus Schafhausen in close cooperation with Deichtorhallen, ‘Survival in the 21st Century’ presents works by 37 artists and artist groups. The exhibition is currently open until November 5, 2024.

Video by Mona Productions, produced by Monica Salazar, filmed by Sean Hanley and edited by Peter Cairns.

Jakob Kudsk Steensen has created a new digital installation, ‘Boreal Dreams,’ for the ongoing exhibition ‘Northern Lights’ at Fondation Beyeler. The group show presents 74 landscape paintings made between 1888 and 1937 by Scandinavian and Canadian artists who share the boreal forest as a common source of inspiration.

‘Boreal Dreams’ examines the impact of the climate crisis on the boreal forest—the world's largest forest and one of the fastest-changing ecosystems—as well as the consequential shifts in our inner worlds and the ways we sleep, move and dream. Using gaming technology, Steensen constructed virtual worlds based on ecological field studies and through collaborations with sound artist Matt McCorkle, dream researcher Adam Haar and scientists at Northern Minnesota’s Marcell Experimental Forest, among others. The immersive installation, located in the park of the Fondation Beyeler, is complemented by an online experience freely accessible at borealdreams.live.

‘Boreal Dreams’ is on view until May 25th, 2025. Watch the video for a glimpse of the artwork, as well as behind-the-scenes insights into the artist’s practice.

Video by Mona Productions, produced and directed by Monica Salazar, filmed and edited by Peter Cairns.

In this video, presented collaboratively with Deichtorhallen Hamburg on the occassion of their group exhibition ‘Survival in the 21st Century,’ Yalda Afsah offers a peek into her studio in Berlin. The artist discusses her practice, which predominantly revolves around film and photography, and her interest in working between observation and staging. Afsah also talks about the two video works presented at Deichtorhallen—’Curro’ (2023) and ‘Vidourle’ (2019)—both of which exemplify her interest in the relationships between humans and animals, as well as the themes of power, care and control that emerge from these interactions.

Developed by Georg Diez and Nicolaus Schafhausen in close cooperation with Deichtorhallen, ‘Survival in the 21st Century’ explores the foundations of life in the age of polycrisis through works by 37 artists and artist groups. The exhibition is on view until November 5, 2024.

Video by Mona Productions, produced by Anna Russ, filmed and edited by Frank Zerban.