soft cycles: daniel hölzl fills berlinische galerie with inflatable ‘breathing’ monoliths
the exhibition 'soft cycles' is composed of recycled fragments from daniel hölzl’s earlier inflatable works across berlin. The post soft cycles: daniel hölzl fills berlinische galerie with inflatable ‘breathing’ monoliths appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
inflated Temporality suspended at berlinische galerie
At the Berlinische Galerie, artist Daniel Hölzl opens a new chapter in his ongoing conversation with space, structure, and impermanence. For the museum’s 50th anniversary, the artist has installed ‘soft cycles,’ an architectural intervention that fills the void above the main entrance with 800 cubic meters of gently shifting air. The installation hovers in the threshold, its sculptural monoliths suspended between expansion and collapse.
Daniel Hölzl constructs ‘soft cycles’ from pieces of earlier inflatable works, all previously situated across Berlin. At Berlinische Galerie, these fragments, crafted from white parachute silk, are gathered into a single translucent volume. This temporary skin encloses what once were doors, vaults, or corners, reframing memory as spatial tension. With each breath, the structure shifts, and new forms begin to unfold within the old.
images © Clemens Poloczek
daniel hölzl sculpts Structures with rhythm
The choreography of artist Daniel Hölzl’s ‘soft cycles’ plays out in timed repetitions at Berlinische Galerie. Air is absorbed and released according to an engineered sequence, activating the form like a lung. Daniel Hölzl situates this rhythm within the architecture of the gallery, where exhibitions, like the installation itself, are temporary and perpetually renewed. The building becomes a participant in the cycle, inhaling fragments of the past and exhaling new constellations of space.
In the hands of Daniel Hölzl, the materials carry their own logic of erosion. The parachute silk is durable, yet chosen for its delicate translucency. It registers each inflation as a gesture toward disappearance. At Berlinische Galerie, the fabric’s softness sits in contrast to the museum’s robust concrete and steel. What emerges is a negotiation between the fixed and the fluid.
Daniel Hölzl fills the entrance of Berlinische Galerie with a site-specific, inflatable intervention
balancing the Material and Ephemeral
Berlinische Galerie itself becomes a co-author of ‘soft cycles.’ Hölzl’s installation echoes Fritz Balthaus’ 2004 marked space – unmarked space, an embedded line of stonework across the plaza. Where Balthaus traces the footprint of the absent building, Hölzl fills the air above it. This vertical expansion reframes the museum’s entrance, reorienting attention toward the space that architecture leaves behind.
The air inside ‘soft cycles’ is at once a structural necessity and a carrier of memory. Daniel Hölzl approaches volume as a medium of change. Within the Berlinische Galerie, the inflating mass becomes a kinetic archive, holding traces of past exhibitions, prior forms, former sites. With each cycle, that archive is reordered, collapsed, and rebuilt again.
Living and working in Berlin since his studies at Kunsthochschule Weissensee, Daniel Hölzl takes the city as both subject and source. ‘soft cycles’ mirrors Berlin’s continual reconstruction, where no surface remains untouched for long. Hölzl pulls from this urban condition without dramatizing it. His response is quiet and grounded in material empathy.
‘soft cycles’ is composed of recycled fragments from Hölzl’s earlier inflatable works across Berlin
the structure breathes in and out at set intervals, creating a continuous spatial rhythm
parachute silk forms a translucent membrane that contrasts with the museum’s solid materials
the work responds directly to Berlinische Galerie’s architecture and past artistic interventions
Hölzl uses air and light as primary elements to reconfigure memory and space
the installation cycles through fullness and collapse, revealing impermanence as form
‘soft cycles’ draws attention to the evolving nature of cities materials and exhibitions
Daniel Hölzl positions architecture as a temporary condition shaped by repetition and change
project info:
exhibition: soft cycles
artist: Daniel Hölzl | @hoelzldaniel
gallery: Berlinische Galerie | @berlinischegalerie
location: Berlin, Germany
on view: April 25th — September 29th, 2025
photography: © Clemens Poloczek | @clemenspoloczek
The post soft cycles: daniel hölzl fills berlinische galerie with inflatable ‘breathing’ monoliths appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
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