In Berlin´s political and financial centre lies a hotel based on the collective work of fifty artists. But it wasn´t always like that. Arte Luise Kunsthotel just happened to be in the right place at the right time. SuperLounge stayed the night.
Arte Luise Kunst Hotel is a small yet influential player in Berlin´s thriving art community. The concept is simple: fifty rooms, fifty artists, one room each. In room 512, artist Theresa Mars is playing with contrasting dimensions: the bathroom is over–dimensioned, with a sink for giants and a showerhead from heaven. A white corridor takes us from the entrance door to a large walk–in closet. To the right is the bedroom.
Above the bed rises an enormous black and white collage of bodies, shapes, destinies and moments, and the clutter almost makes us dizzy. On the opposite wall hangs a similar piece, colorful and vibrant as a stark and at the same time complementing contrast to the grey dreamlike landscape over our sleeping heads. In the corner of the room lies a book in which the guests can write their own personal greetings directly to the artist.
Kerstin Berger founded Luise in 1999, only an arms–length from the former Berlin wall. As a gallerist, she nurtured a dream about a hotel where the artists would themselves create the character of the rooms. And the network was already in place.
– My friends thought I was crazy to open up a hotel in this neighbourhood, says Kerstin Berger in the hotel lounge area, in a red couch under the hotel´s giant trademark horse mule sprung out of the northern wall.