CHANEL Commission at Hamburger Bahnhof

Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart launches the CHANEL Commission, a major three-year partnership with the CHANEL Culture Fund supporting large-scale contemporary art projects. The inaugural commission, embrace by Klára Hosnedlová, runs from May 1st to October 26th, 2025, transforming the museum’s historic hall into a utopian landscape. Blending flax fibers, embroidery, cast glass, and concrete, Hosnedlová’s most ambitious work to date features soaring tapestries and sculptural reliefs inspired by Berlin-based performances.

Hosnedlová’s ambitious installation explores themes of home, utopia, and the passage of time within shifting political landscapes. The exhibition features monumental nine-meter-high tapestries, large-scale embroideries, organic reliefs, and sculptural interventions crafted from flax fibers, cast glass, sandstone, and concrete. Central to the installation is a series of embroidery motifs derived from film and video recordings of performative interventions staged by the artist in Berlin, drawing from cultural memory, architecture, and literature.

Among the key works presented is a collection of concrete slabs and iron structures that evoke the architecture of the communist era, grounding the utopian vision in a historical context. Another highlight is a set of embroidered reliefs that reinterpret motifs from 20th-century European cinema, reimagining intimate narratives through textile-based interventions.

Rooted in the museum’s former life as a 19th-century train station, the CHANEL Commission explores themes of movement, transformation, and cultural memory. By reimagining the 2,500-square-meter hall, this collaboration sets a new standard for institutional commissions, providing artists with a platform to push creative boundaries.

“As a groundbreaking initiative, the CHANEL Commission reaffirms our commitment to bold, thought-provoking contemporary art,” say museum co-directors Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath. Yana Peel, CHANEL’s Global Head of Arts and Culture, adds, “With its scale and ambition, this project places Berlin at the center of the global conversation on contemporary art.”