Five Preludes by Saâdane Afif

The Fountain Archives began in 2008 as a collection of magazines, catalogues, and books tracing the reception of Marcel Duchamp's (1887-1968) urinal readymade, the work submitted to an exhibition in New York in 1917 that set off a debate about what art is, and never quite stopped. Over fourteen years Afif assembled a room-filling installation of bookshelves, ending the project in 2022 with the publication of a comprehensive index. Embedded within it are twenty-five song lyrics, written by artist, musician, and writer friends, each inspired by the Fountain project. These lyrics are displayed on the walls throughout the exhibition and serve as the starting point for a performance series running at various locations across Berlin between May and July 2026.

L'Humour noir, The Old, and Live

Three further works surround the archive. L'Humour noir (2010) is a replica of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the building that houses one of the world's great collections of modern and avant-garde art, turned here into a sculptural object and detached from its original context. It raises questions that Afif has been asking throughout his career: what does the museum inherit, and what does it transform? The Old takes Jeff Koons' 1980s series The New as its point of departure, inverting the language of novelty and commercial presentation. And Live is an ongoing, continuously updated poster display featuring Berlin cultural events during the exhibition's run, adopted as readymades and transformed into a quietly accumulating portrait of the city's cultural life.

About Saâdane Afif

Saâdane Afif, the exhibition's author.

Saâdane Afif was born in 1970 in Vendôme, France, and has lived in Berlin since 2003. His practice moves across installations, objects, concerts, and performances, drawing consistently on works and events from art history, music, and poetry. He exhibited at Documenta 12 (2007), the 8th Berlin Biennale (2014), and the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), and received the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2009. Solo exhibitions have taken place at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2010), the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main (2012), and the Kunsthalle Wien and WIELS in Brussels (2018). He participated in the exhibition and concert project Scores at Hamburger Bahnhof in 2016, and served as artistic director of the Bergen Assembly in Norway in 2022. The exhibition is curated by Gabriele Knapstein, Head of Collections and Deputy Director of Hamburger Bahnhof.

Plan Your Visit

The exhibition runs from 12 December 2025 to 13 September 2026. Admission is €16, with a reduced rate of €8. Children and young people up to the age of 18 are admitted free of charge. An exhibition catalogue of 108 pages, published by Silvana Editoriale Milano, is available at the Hamburger Bahnhof bookstore for €12.