Esra Nagel

Pale Blue. Zine Launch 

On 29 October 2026 Pale Blue., a zine developed as part of the UdK seminar Pale Blue will be launched at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art. The zine will be accompanied by a student presentation that is then open to the public until 01 November 2026. 

Pale Blue was a seminar by the UdK Wood Workshop and the UdK Section for Exam and Exhibition Organization and was organized in cooperation with the Berliner Forsten and the KW Institute for Contemporary Art.  
 
Participating Students: Zocha Bryksy, Ying Chen 陳瑩, Nico Dasenbrock, Ana Maria Draghici, Hande Şevval Emirmahmutoğlu, Loki Forster, Laura Hagemann, Camillo Häusle, Sonya Kurilo, Nine Schröder, Linda Schwanz, Robin Warmbrunn 
 
Pale Bue. Zine Launch:  
at KW Institute for Contemporary Art 

Auguststraße 69, Berlin
29 October 2026, 6 – 10 pm

Presentation:
Friday, 30.10. to Sunday, 01.11., between 12 – 6 pm


The seminar Pale Blue examined practical approaches towards ecological transformation and the artistic methods, narratives and styles that accompany them. For this the students moved between two different contexts: First they worked at KW with artist Asad Raza, who is transforming a plot behind the main exhibition hall of KW into a scent garden for his commission 2075. For this plant species were selected that are expected to be able to thrive in Berlin’s climate in 2075. Then the students visited forester Hannah Riedel in the forest district Saubucht, Grunewald and accompanied her and her team during their everyday work. This included deciding which trees to cut down, pulling logs out of the forest with the help of horses, or maintaining research and monitoring stations in the district. 

Through this practical and manual participation, we wanted to learn more about the methods and tools used in both places. What goals are being pursued in garden and forest? How is the relationship between human and more-than-human nature being conceptualized? What concepts of future are prevalent? 

For his KW commission, Asad Raza is imagining a future fifty years from now. And also in the forest, plans are made for decades ahead. The seminar contrasted those monumental time scales with a brief and cursory mode of working. Spread across the semester and the different contexts the students received four artistic assignments, each of which they were asked to work on for about 1.5 hours. Working with the assignments provided a methodical structure for the seminar; both reflection and production are embedded within them. The collectively edited zine Pale Blue. collects the students’ contributions to the assignments and also contains two interviews with forester Hannah Riedel and artist Asad Raza. 
 
Project Management KW: Alexia Manzano and Lusine Khurshudyan
Project Management Berliner Forsten: Hannah Riedel 
Project Management UdK: Esra Nagel and Akiko Bernhöft
 
Seminar and Concept by: Esra Nagel 
Project Assistance: Miriam Döring 
Graphic Design and Consultation: Sophie Pischel