Karin Apollonia Müller
DREAMFACTORY
The photographic fragments of this work derive from Karin Apollonia Müller’s recent series Venice, created shortly before the pandemic and her departure from Los Angeles. She initially compiled the material into a slideshow on her website. In this presentation, the images deliberately resist a linear narrative structure and remain intentionally fragmentary, allowing for the layering of multifaceted associations.
Within this formal and conceptual framework, the poster Dreamfactory emerges. It is both an atmospheric reflection and a visual approach to a fleeting state between perception and imagination. The interplay of sky, nature, and human presence evokes a moment of contemplation and timeless stillness.
At the same time, the vastness and openness of the scenery contrast with the density of urban space, provoking a critical engagement with the omnipresent allure and idealized promises of the fashion world.
Thus, a quiet counterpoint is created in the midst of a city like Berlin, whose visual overstimulation rarely leaves room for inner reflection. The work opens up space for individual interpretations and encourages an emotional engagement with the urban environment.
Karin Apollonia Müller is a photographic artist whose work addresses questions of identity, origin, and memory. In her images, she explores the fragile balance between the physical and the metaphysical, investigating how individual experiences intertwine with collective narratives to shape perception and meaning.
In 1995, Karin Apollonia Müller moved to Los Angeles and has since lived between California and Europe, where she works artistically and teaches. She has received numerous awards and fellowships for her work, including a fellowship from the Lannan Foundation in New Mexico and a project grant from the Getty/CALArts Grant in Los Angeles. Her works are exhibited internationally and are held in significant collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles. She has published Angels in Fall (Kruse Verlag), On Edge, and Timbercove (both published by Nazraeli Press).
From April to June 1996, Karin Apollonia Müller was an artist-in-residence at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles.
About the project
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Villa Aurora in Los Angeles, the artist residency has invited former fellows to design large-scale posters as individual artistic contributions to Berlin’s urban landscape. Displayed across diverse public locations in the city, the works forge a connection between art, urban society, and international perspectives.
Art in the City reflects the rich diversity of both Berlin and Los Angeles. The artworks draw on the unique character of specific neighborhoods, building symbolic and aesthetic bridges between urban life in Berlin and the Californian metropolis, while also engaging with pressing social and political issues.
The project seeks to make art more accessible to a wider audience and to strengthen the visibility of the cultural scene. Art in the City offers an inviting and unpretentious glimpse into the vibrancy and international relevance of Berlin’s arts landscape: Art for everyone – art in the city.
From May 12 to 25, works by six artists will be on view throughout Berlin. A second edition is planned for October.
The Artworks
With I am Your Temple, Werner Amann brings his Los Angeles–based portrait series to Weserstraße in Neukölln. In contrast to the youth- and trend-driven beauty industries of Berlin and L.A., Amann captures older bodies in quiet, intimate moments of everyday life.・Weserstraße/Fuldastraße
Ulu Braun’s Sunset Egonomy appears as a digital mural on Kottbusser Damm—a spiritual overload of West Coast myth, Silicon Valley twilight, and pop-media iconography. Martin Scorsese makes a cameo with ice cream; a piggy bank from a savings bank rests beneath a vision of automotive prophecy. Sunset Egonomy is both dreamscape and dissociation, promise and void.・Kottbusser Damm 1
For an artist, there's always something to do on an ordinary May day—buy a pasta claw, visit an exhibition, draw a snake, or get a haircut. In her poster The Artist, Ode to the Pen, Anna Haifisch offers a playful and personal perspective on life in metropolises like Berlin and L.A.・Skalitzer Straße/Kottbusser Tor
Paul Hutchinson’s collage Schöneberg 30 brings together texts and images from 2016 to 2025. Much of the material originates from the very neighborhood where the collage is on display—the northern section of Berlin’s Schöneberg district, once known by its postal code: Schöneberg 30.・Potsdamer Straße/Kurfürstenstraße
Karin Apollonia Müller’s Dreamfactory explores the relationship between sky, nature, and human presence. It evokes a moment of timeless stillness and contemplation, while the expansive openness of the scene stands in stark contrast to the density of urban space. The work challenges the seductive imagery and promises of the fashion world.・Hauptstraße 16
Freedoom of Speech, a photo series by Siska created during the artist’s 2022 residency at Villa Aurora, takes a critical look at the shrinking space for free expression in both Germany and the U.S. Inspired by the Old English typeface often seen on L.A. streetwear, the visual language in the work becomes a pointed intervention—highlighting the fragility of liberal democracies.・Yorckstraße 49
Overview Map
Supporters and Partners
Art in the City is generously funded by the Senate Chancellery of Berlin.
With friendly support by Kulturplakatierung
Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V. is funded by the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media.
