Wangechi Mutu’s installation “My Dirty Little Heaven” at the Deutsche Guggenheim (Apr 30th – Jun 13th 2010) is the first exhibition in Deutsche Bank’s new “Artist of the Year” program. For her solo exhibition, Mutu transformed the Deutsche Guggenheim into a suggestive environment which recalls both a protective cocoon and the improvised buildings found in Shanty Towns. She built organic-looking sculptural constructions from simple means such as gray, felt-like blankets made of recycled materials or brown parcel tape. The creations cover walls and floors of the exhibition hall and at the same time provide the framework and background for Mutu’s collages and her new video work “Mud Fountain.”

Wangechi Mutu’s installation is inspired by her memories of Berlin, among other things. During the period when she was attending a boarding school in Wales, Mutu visited Berlin as a member of a gospel choir shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her impressions of the material discrepancies between East and West Berlin, as well as of the citizens of the former GDR’s tremendous desire for products which they had known hitherto only from TV and which they seemed to worship like fetishes, were an important point of departure for the project at the Deutsche Guggenheim.

Deutsche Guggenheim, Unter den Linden 13/15, 10117 Berlin