The Hamburger Bahnhof was one of Berlin’s major terminus stations in the 19th century – a place of arrival, departure and transition. To this day, this history shapes the museum of contemporary art in the heart of Berlin. Like Berlin itself, the Hamburger Bahnhof is full of complexity and contrasts, with change as its constant.
CHANEL Commission: Lina Lapelytė. We Make Years Out of Hours
Lina Lapelytė’s performance We Make Years Out of Hours transforms the Historic Hall of Hamburger Bahnhof into a space for collective action and singing as part of the second CHANEL Commission. The exhibition transcends boundaries between sculpture and performance, the individual and the collective: 400,000 wooden cubes spread across the floor, stack into piles, connect into architectural and then hill-like structures. The blocks move through the hands of performers and visitors, continuously reshaping the wooden landscape. We Make Years Out of Hours is a living monument to time, care, and coexistence. By actively involving the audience, the participatory format emphasises the concept of the open museum as the theme of Hamburger Bahnhof’s 30th anniversary.
The Historic Hall of Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart becomes a shifting landscape of 400,000 wooden cubes. 12 performers and visitors build temporary structures accompanied by sound. Voices fill the space with songs. The lyrics are based on poems by 15 international authors from the early 20th century to the present. These include the poet Khalil Gibran (1883–1931), the writer and painter Etel Adnan (1925–2021), the poet and film director Forugh Farrochzad (1935–1967), the poet Layla Sarahat Rushani (1952/4–2004), the poet Mahmud Darwisch (1941–2008), the lyricist Ocean Vuong (born 1988), the poet Ilya Kaminski (born 1977), and the poet and author Arundhathi Subramaniam (born 1973). Short lines about community, formation, love, loss, and hope form the libretto of the work.
Like the exhibition space itself, the work also becomes a place of constant change. The 10 x 10 x 10 cm cubes made of spruce and pine move through the hands of performers and visitors. Structures emerge and disappear. Each new form requires another to give way. The work raises questions about what remains and what passes away. It also asks who decides what is built and what must be removed, and whose lives carry the weight of these changes. The title „We Make Years Out of Hours” describes the significance of the part for the whole: hours become years, individuals become a community.
The 400,000 wooden cubes used in the installation and performance will become part of a public artwork in Eisenhüttenstadt in 2027 as part of Lina Lapelytė’s project for Die Neuen Auftraggeber.
Performances
The performances take place during the exhibition period on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 2 pm to 5 pm.
Concept, Music & Direction: Lina LapelytėSoundtrack Composition: Lina Lapelytė with Daniel BürknerField Recordings: Peter CusackSound Engineering & Diffusion: Thorsten HoppeChoreographer: Alice ChauchatDramaturgy & artistic collaboration: Cian McConn, Florine LindnerSingers: Nérika Amaral, Daniel Belasco Rogers, Josephine Brinkmann, Mustafa Çiçek, Afran, Ruby Haffar, Talin Hajintsi, Cat Jones, Camilla Therese Karlsen, Toto Knoblauch, Paula Kramer, Ligia Liberatori, Niusha Nasim, Lisa Newill-Smith, Ruben Nsue, Cian McConn, Tom Oldham, Mata Sakka, Sandra Sarala, Doris Schließer, Luca Schüssler, Shao Shin Frieda Luk, Yuri Shimaoka, Maria Vanieieva, Michael Wenzlaff, Barbara WiebkingCostumes: MukuMusical Score: Thomas OldhamBench Design and Production: Mantas Peteraitis Architecture Studio
The Artist Lina Lapelytė
Lina Lapelytė (born 1984, Kaunas, Lithuania) is an artist and composer whose practice is rooted in performance. Working between Vilnius and London, she collaborates with trained and untrained performers to create collective acts of singing that question systems of silencing and invite vulnerability. Among other places her work has been presented at Festival d’Automne/Bourse de Commerce (Paris), BAM, MOCA, and the Venice Biennale. She is best known for the opera Sun & Sea (with Vaiva Grainytė and Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė), which won the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Exhibition Catalogue
Accompanying the exhibition, the 19th edition of the Hamburger Bahnhof catalogue series is being published, edited by Silvana Editoriale Milano, comprising 112 pages, available at the Hamburger Bahnhof bookstore and through the Buchhandlung Walther König webshop for €12. ISBN: 9788836664092
Curators
The exhibition is curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, Directors of Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart.
The CHANEL Commission at Hamburger Bahnhof is an annual commission empowering artists to realize ambitious, large-scale projects. With its unparalleled scope and vision, the collaboration boldly reimagines the museum’s iconic 2,500-square-meter Historic Hall, transforming it into an immersive, thought-provoking arena. After Klára Hosnedlová in 2025, Lina Lapelytė will realize the second edition of the CHANEL Commission in 2026.
The CHANEL Commission at Hamburger Bahnhof is made possibleby CHANEL Culture Fund.
Supported by Hamburger Bahnhof International Companions e. V.
The exhibition is part of the 30 Years of Hamburger Bahnhof anniversary programme. In 2026, Hamburger Bahnhof celebrates its 30th anniversary with a programme bridging the site’s history and its future: eight special exhibitions, a new collection presentation, as well as performances and concerts that extend the museum’s reach into the city. Highlight will be the anniversary weekend, 13 to 15 November 2026, featuring an international conference on the future of contemporary collection museums and a 30-hour continuous opening of the museum.
A special exhibition of the Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin