Hallen 06
Wilhelm Hallen, Berlin
6 – 14 September 2025

ChertLüdde returns to Hallen 06 with a presentation spotlighting two Latin American artists. In both presentations, plant life appears as a recurring motif that is either displaced or canonized within a global context.

In the main hall, Cuban-Ecuadorian artist Sofía Salazar Rosales (b. 1999) presents sculptures that respond to agricultural industries and trades of her home region. Highlighting the link between agricultural exportation and modernity, the pressure to appear “modern” and how exports can shape the cities we live in become a key focus through a series of architectural features that present objects important to the artist. Drawing on material culture and history, she explores how these everyday objects and goods can carry social, economic, and political stories.

For Salazar Rosales the banana, of which Ecuador is the largest exporter in the world, becomes an important symbol. In the sculpture They ask to stay (2024) bananas are contained in a black, beaded net that hangs from an industrial beam. As if they were awaiting export, Salazar Rosalez saturates the sculpture with an emotional weight of an object that does not want to leave. In Witness (2024-2025), Salazar Rosales replicates a banana stem in copper. First presented at the 17th Lyon Biennale curated by Alexia Fabre, this sculpture stands as the only remaining witness of this journey after all the bananas have been consumed.

Berlin-based Venezuelan artist Sol Calero (b. 1982) presents her work in Matchstick, bringing together bright watercolors and terracotta tiles in a lively portrayal of the Caribbean that references some of her recent projects. Often investigating social spaces as sites where identities are formed, exchanged, and reimagined, Calero draws on the vernacular architecture and cultural symbols of Latin America and its diaspora.

Calero’s paintings and drawings are often complimentary topics she addresses in her immersive, participatory installations. Reexamining the constructed notion of exoticism, the exhibited artworks portray plants and flowers frequently associated with the Caribbean. By amplifying these associations with bright colors and jungle-like composition, her paintings transform the image of the Caribbean into a vividly bright and idealized paradise. Vegetation can also be seen in a series of tiles that were originally displayed as part of Pabellón Criollo (2024), her outdoor pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. Now separated from the pavilion as unique pieces, these terracotta reliefs—shaped by Calero during her time in Venice—reflect her interest in architecture, materiality, and tradition, while marking a timely collaboration with a disappearing craft and inviting the viewer into a playful, layered environment.

Through these artworks, Latin American culture is expressed with distinct aesthetics and techniques that explore structures of displacement and identity. Together, their work invites reflection on how we perceive cultural identity within an ever-globalising world.

Photo by Giorgia Palmisano MBP