'You are invited to build something, maybe to demolish something. You are invited to build with others. You are invited also not to build and just stay looking at others working,' says Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelyte of her installation of 400,000 wood cubes at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. The cubes, chunked from trees from her homeland, spread out and pile up in the 2,500 sq m space like a giant construction site awaiting human hands
While architect Friedrich Neuhaus conceived the space as a handsome train station in the mid-19th century, with ease of travel in mind, Lapelyte has transformed what is today a voluminous gallery into a place of interaction and experimentation.
Although the vision might initially suggest ‘kindergarten’, the artist touches on many aspects within her work – community, improvisation and creation among them. The installation is accompanied by live performances featuring locals singing poetic verses that Lapelyte, musically trained, has translated into moving scores. The exhibition’s title, ‘We Make Years Out of Hours’, borrowed from Jürgen Paape, a German electronic music producer and DJ, invites one to slow down and appreciate the impact of rumination and playful action.
Lina Lapelyte
'It is perhaps the small things that count – the one tiny cube that measures ten by ten – when we build together, turning a space into a landscape, into an environment, into a building. When we have a voice of one, it's one thing, but when we have a choir, it becomes another thing. For me, this work is very much about believing in small gestures, in small connections, in our relationships as well; in humanity,' says Lapelyte.
She held an open call for performers. 'There is a sailor, there is a theatre producer, there are some dancers, singers, actors, and some who had never performed. Then we all try to find a way to be within the piece and it's beautiful how we open up, accept the other, and that's what the work is about.’
The sculptural/polyphonic installation is the second Chanel Culture Fund commission at the museum, following 2025’s project with artist Klára Hosnedlová. The three-year programme supports female artists with big visions who create at scale.
‘In the industrial age, people would be running around to catch their trains. What we see here is very dedicated and distilled,' says Yana Peel, president of arts, culture & heritage at Chanel. She first came across Lapelyte’s work in 2014, but it was her operatic piece, Sun & Sea (Marina), for the Venice Biennale in 2019 (winning the Golden Lion) that cemented her reputation as a leading voice. For that piece, set on a faux indoor beach, performers in sunhats and swimsuits sang about the impact of climate change. That stealthy subversion of expectations and genres is a Lapelyte hallmark.
'Deep in my heart, I am a musician, but for me, music was never just about performing a score. For me, music is also about listening and how we listen to the world. Music is a metaphor,' she says. ‘We Make Years Out of Hours’ was gestating in her mind when the invitation for the commission arrived, and Hamburger Bahnhof provided the ideal immersive space with the vaults creating superb acoustics. 'The Chanel Culture Fund generously invites an artist to envision an artwork that probably would be hard without that kind of support and openness,' she adds.
As Peel says, it is great to see so many extraordinary female artists taking up significant space right now: Rose Wylie, Tracey Emin, and Klára Hosnedlová among them. 'Lina’s vision is a non-monument in a sense and really brave,' says Peel, who collaborates with Hamburger Bahnhof directors Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath on the commission.
The Chanel Culture Fund does not build museums or permanent collections, explains Peel, but strengthens existing institutions essential to their home cities. It currently has 42 projects across 15 countries. 'We invest not with the next quarter in mind, but the next generation,' she says of the distinct cultural patronage.
In November 2025, Chanel opened the Espace Gabrielle Chanel at Shanghai’s Power Station of Art, designed by Japanese architect Kazunari Sakamoto. It is the first public art library dedicated to contemporary art in Mainland China. Recently, the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland and the Chanel Culture Fund announced the appointment of a Chanel Botanical Curator, the first of its kind at a major arts institution.
As Lapelyte’s installation in Berlin suggests, big change, both societally and personally, starts brick by brick and in incremental steps – and ideally, with sonic interludes.
‘Lina Lapelyte. We Make Years Out of Hours’, until 10 January 2027, smb.museum