Blessing Neukölln

I started this project while walking through Neukölln, when I noticed abandoned metal frames from chewing gum vending machines - remnants of everyday urban life, nearly invisible and overlooked. In these structures, I found new meaning: transforming them into street altars, temporary spaces of protection and resistance.
Inspired by the South Italian and Latin American traditions of milagros and ex-votos, each altar becomes a votive offering to the city itself, a gesture of blessing, remembrance, and hope in a time of instability. “Blessing Neukölln” is a series of street installations created using the metal chasing technique on aluminum.
For 48 Stunden Neukölln, I will create an altar inside and outside the exhibition space and extend it into the surrounding streets. Small milagros will appear both inside and outside, forming a subtle network of protection around the location.
Visitors are invited to encounter these objects as contemporary offerings, not tied to a specific religion, but to shared vulnerability and resilience. The work also continues the series “Milagros for Holy Women” and introduces a new piece dedicated to an all-seeing eye watching over Neukölln.
Blessing Neukölln moves between sacred and profane, private devotion and public space. It asks what rituals remain possible in a secular city, and how small gestures of faith, loss, and hope can quietly reshape our surroundings, if only for a moment.