‘I stood waiting’ ‘for some minutes’ ‘in this very’ ‘alive darkness—’ ‘the air so vibrant,’ ‘the trees awake’ ‘There were flowers,’ ‘mixed grasses,’ ‘growing lower’ ‘in the dark,’ ‘& I was relieved’ ‘to be near them’ ‘after so much time’ ‘where nothing grew’ ‘Then’ ‘I heard a song’ ‘faint & blurred,’ ‘a slow song’ ‘I heard it’ ‘as if through walls’ ‘As if’ ‘there were a room’ ‘next to where I stood’ ‘& someone,’ ‘a man,’ ‘sang inside of it’ ‘The tune was sad,’ ‘& attracting’ ‘I approached it—’ ‘where its source seemed to be—’ ‘& it moved away from me’ ‘just a’ ‘short distance’ ‘This happened twice’ ‘Then I understood’ ‘I was to follow it:’ ‘& so it led me—’ ‘through deep woods’ ‘& clearings,’ ‘for’ ‘a long while’ ‘The voice sang’ ‘the same melody’ ‘over’ ‘& over’ ‘mournful’ ‘& intimate’ ‘in a language’ ‘I didn’t recognize—’ ‘or didn’t think I did:’ ‘it was hard to’ ‘hear the words—’ ‘Till at last we’ ‘reached a meadow’ ‘where the song’ ‘ceased to sound,’ ‘pale & empty’ ‘with trees around it’ ‘Then I sank to’ ‘the ground’ ‘& fell asleep for’ ‘a long time’ ‘But when I awoke’ ‘of course’ ‘it was dark’
Alice Notley, The Descent Of Alette [‘I Stood Waiting’], 1992
In its seventh year, Mint reopens its doors following a major renovation. We proudly welcome you to our new exhibition space and to the neighbouring bar and experimental music venue of Fylkingen.
Artist Tolia Astakhishvili has been invited to curate the inaugural exhibition, marking this new beginning. At the threshold of a different order, visitors are invited to descend the stairs, entering rooms where the elements of the renovation—new surfaces, functions, and lighting—are immediately obscured by the works that inhabit them.
ground grow cool under feet unfolds as a site-specific and materially driven intervention, where the artists position architectural elements, sculpture, drawings, sound, and repurposed objects. The exhibition includes new commissions by Annie Hägg, Dylan Peirce, James Richards, Tamusa Zarkua and Tolia Astakhishvili.
The situation is ambiguous in character; profane and eternal, tangible and forever lost. Surfaces bear the imprints of bodies and events, amplifying sound of footsteps, carrying objects of unsettled identities. They connect to lost functions, and the more enduring time we call history.
When we consider something to be looked at, we assume a certain authority by giving it a name of singularity, making it appear fixed, and knowable. Yet this static position is challenged as we move through space and discover that the surface can also be experienced from beneath, constructed by the things we live off, with and from.
In this show, space is liminal and time is a trickster, making your attention a bridging guidance between what is seen and imagined all at once. Senses and positions are creators in their own right. It recalls Marx’s argument that what distinguishes humans from other creatures is our ability to consciously transform the material world—a unity of thought and action. Seeing, perceiving, and understanding are themselves forms of creation. As Marx writes “The forming of the five senses is a labour of the entire history of the world down to the present.” To study it is to stand on shifting ground.
Tolia Astakhishvili (b. 1974 Tbilisi) lives and works in Berlin and Tbilisi. Previous, recent solo exhibitions include figure of the child, Mumok, Vienna, (2026) a wound on my plate, Emalin, London, to love and devour, Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, Venice, (2025); Result, LC Queisser, Tbilisi; between father and mother, SculptureCenter, New York (2024); The First Finger (chapter II), Haus am Waldsee, Berlin (2023); The First Finger, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2023); and I Think It’s Closed, Bielefeld Kunstverein, Bielefeld (2023).
Her work has been included in exhibitions at Para Site, Hong-Kong (2026); Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris; MoMA PS1, New York (2025); MACRO Museum, Rome; galerie frank elbaz, Paris; Condo Complex, London (2024); Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich; Molitor Gallery, Berlin (2023); Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin; Felix Gaudlitz, Vienna (2022) Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (2019); Cabinet, London (2018)
Annie Hägg, (b. 1995 Växjö) lives and works in Stockholm and Berlin. She studied at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Working across moving image, text, and sculpture, her practice is unified by a recurring interest in what generates movement, direction, and light. Her work has recently been shown at Italienska palatset, Växjö; TEKS Studio, Trondheim; and Inter.plc, Copenhagen, as well as at various self-organised locations such as Painting Practice and Amaze Gallery, Stockholm. She also frequently collaborates on staged productions as a scenographer and performer, including projects at Les Salles du Carrousel, Paris, and Folkoperan, Stockholm.
Dylan Peirce (b. 1977 Paris) is a multidisciplinary artist who works in the field of sound, experimental photography, sculpture, video and installation. Selected exhibitions, performances and interventions: KW, Berlin 2003 (GE) ; Vleeshal, Middelburg 2011 (NL); Rennes-Biennial for Contemporary Art Rennes 2012 (FR),Bonner Kunstverein Bonn 2024 (GE), Haus Am Waldsee Berlin 2024 (GE), Sculpture Center 2024 (US), Macro Rome 2024 (IT), PS1 2025 (US), Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation 2025 (IT), Mumok Vienna 2026 (AU) // Teaching: Sound and Installation – UDK Berlin – 2018/2025 – Sound Design and Composition Workshops HFK Bremen 2020/2025 and Dresden HfBk 2020/2025 // In 2022, he released his debut album “Pindrops” on the Berlin label Digital In Berlin.
James Richards (b. 1983 Cardiff) works in Berlin. His practice encompasses expanded film, video, and installation. Richards provocative and visually seductive moving-image works collage together a wide range of source material, ranging from intimate home movies, archival footage, and television signals to rich musical soundtracks. Richards often collaborates with other artists either as composer, visual artist, or curator. In 2026 Richards curated the Mint Poetry Festival, With My Dog Eyes. Selected solo exhibitions include: Fevers, Sylvia Kouvali, London (2026) and Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (2025); Our Friends in the Audience, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2024); When We Were Monsters, Haus Mödrath, Kerpen (2021); Alms For The Birds, Castello Di Rivoli, Turin (2020). Richards’ work has been presented in major international group exhibitions. In 2017 he represented Wales at the 57th Venice Biennale and was awarded the prestigious Preis der Nationalgalerie in 2024.
Tamusa Zarkua (b. 1997 Tbilisi) is a multimedia artist living and working in Tbilisi. She graduated from the Visual Arts, Architecture & Design School (VAADS) at Free University of Tbilisi in 2021. Her practice spans sculpture, object, installation, and moving image. Tamusa has presented her works across a variety of institutional and self-organized contexts—including Past to Betray, gallery CH64, Tbilisi, 1.9999… Oxygen, Tbilisi and independent initiatives such as Saddle is My Only Land. She has participated in different artist residencies, including Weltkunstzimmer, Düsseldorf, Germany, and Rivers connect at sea, photography and multimedia museum, Tbilisi.
Dylan Peirce, Stepping Room, 2024/2026 Found mirror, 4-channel sound installation, 14 minutes
