Klára Hosnedlová transforms the Hamburger Bahnhof museum in Berlin into a bizarre and sublime new world

Cross the threshold of the vast historic hall at Hamburger Bahnhof museum in Berlin and you are transported into a bizarre, sublime 2,500 sq m realm that simultaneously seems to straddle ancient and future civilisations. Six giant hand-woven tapestries in flax and hemp hang from the ceilings; sandstone and glass sculptures protrude from walls, reminiscent of fossils, while the floor is partially covered with more than 3,000 concrete slabs set with epoxy resin ‘puddles’.

Entitled embrace, the monumental installation is the work of Klára Hosnedlová – a 35-year-old Czech artist – and her star is firmly on the ascendant. The installation is the first Chanel commission at Hamburger Bahnhof, from a series of three by different artists that will be funded by the Chanel Culture Fund over the next three years.

‘I love this space. It's super-specific but, on the other hand, it's one big open space: cold, heavy, and also quite masculine because of the metal girders,’ says the artist of the former train station complex that was built in 1846 to connect Berlin to Hamburg. It was transformed into Germany’s National Gallery in 1996 and houses the Contemporary Art Museum in spaces including the iconic hall. ‘I wanted to create something that's fragile: opposite of the structure. It was also about creating a forest of tapestries where you can hide, just be with yourself and feel embraced by the ecology. The work really has to occupy the space and it's very challenging,’ says Hosnedlová, who has created a humbling, terrific realm. Her work is audacious yet tender in its intricate detailing, such as glass sculpting, hyperrealist embroideryn (motifs are drawn from her video recordings of performances she has staged), hand-tufted and dyed sprawling tapestries that drape like animal hides.

Hosnedlová, who grew up in rural Moravia, began painting and drawing as a young girl, encouraged by her family, before enrolling at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts. Erasmus scholarships took her around the world, including a year at Canberra University, Australia. The giant, communist-era brutalist architecture of her homeland looms large in her imagination, as does Czech folklore, and she began exhibiting in underground spaces in Prague, overseeing every aspect from the making to the graphic design.

This installation is given ambient strength with a layered soundtrack that mixes a Carpathian all-girl singing group and Czech rapper Yzomandias, while the tapestries give off a hempy smell. Hosnedlová’s multidisciplinary practice, spanning sculpture, music, film and video, is impressive in its range and scale. She never sees a work as ‘final’ but part of a continuum that mutates over time. ‘In my practice, nothing is completely finished and I also curate performances within the works that I film that provide with me with ideas for future embroideries,’ she says.

Hosnedlová’s extraordinary installation, made in a series of different specialist studios in and around the region, has been a year in the making and this is her largest institutional solo exhibition to date. ‘For me, it's always so important to develop all my materials. I spend a lot of time just researching materials, combining materials, mixing the different mineral powders for the sculptures, to have the tone and surface as natural as I can,’ she says.

Her meta themes traverse utopias, the notion of home, the politics of shifting borders and how industry and artisanship co-exist in rural areas of Czechia. ‘Shining a spotlight is often transformational. So, we feel very lucky that we're able to accompany Klára at this critical moment,’ says Yana Peel, global head of arts and culture at Chanel. Elsewhere, Hosnedlová has just been commissioned for the inaugural work at the OMA-designed extension of the New Museum in New York.

With the Chanel Culture Fund, Peel’s aim is to tap into the projects, institutions and people that are driving the narrative forward. ‘Excellence could be in the form of Klára embodying this huge space. It could be a game designer in Brooklyn who wins the Chanel Next Prize,’ says Peel of the unconventional broad church.

The Chanel Commission at Hamburger Bahnhof marks a new chapter in the museum’s story, empowering artists to realise ambitious, large-scale projects. This edition is co-curated by Sam Bardaouil, director of Hamburger Bahnhof, and Anna-Catharina Gebbers. Corporate sponsorship of the arts is still relatively rare in Germany and, with cuts in arts funding, ever more needed.

The audaciousness of Hosnedlová’s installation makes it a great contender for the Chanel fund. In the five years since the fund's launch, Peel has initiated more than 40 projects with partners in 15 countries. ‘Not having our own foundation space allows the fund to be multipolar. What matters most? What's coming next? How do we figure out what is the urgency?’ she says of the agility and wide scope of the scheme, which spans sculpture, film, emerging talent, fine art, performance, podcast and research.

Projects include an expansive ecology research project at Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, the just-announced Chanel Center for artists and technology at CalArts in LA; and the appointment of Chanel Curator, Dr Flavia Frigeri, at The National Portrait Gallery, with the remit of upping the representation of women at the institution. At M+ in Hong Kong, the mission is to restore and preserve the golden age of Hong Kong cinema, and to that end, the Chanel Culture Fund created the Curator of Moving Image role. ‘In Taiwan, [meanwhile], what matters is performance art and we partnered with Taipei Performing Arts Center, designed by OMA, on a performing arts festival that will encourage the next generation in a medium that is so native to Taiwan,’ says Peel, who masterminds long-term partnerships and stages an annual summit for cultural leaders. At Shanghai PSA, the foundation is funding a contemporary arts library and creative hub, named Espace Gabrielle Chanel.

Hosnedlová’s installation represents a breakthrough in Berlin, and embrace will be a big draw during Berlin Gallery Weekend. ‘The city is a place where giving a woman [artist] a 2,500 sq m opportunity could really make a difference,’ Peel affirms. Expect a gigantic surge of the sublime.

Chanel Commission at Hamburger Bahnhof, ‘embrace’ by Klára Hosnedlová from 1 May – 26 October 2025

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