New Art Installation Allows People To Climb, Destroy, Drink

An in-door pyramid made of 72,000 bottles of Efes Turkish beer allowed contemporary art museum visitors to explore the space while enjoying a complimentary beer. The bottles were stacked in boxes as a series of steps in the center of the room, and by the end of the night many of the cases lay torn and bottles broken across the floor. The creative project’s theme centered on colonialism, tourism and the relationship between a monument preservation and its deterioration.

French-born, Berlin-based artist Cyprien Gaillard constructed the pyramid within the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. The instillation references the colonial excavation of the Pergamon Altar, a structure from antiquity which was taken from Turkey by Germans during the 19th century. Similarly, this structure is made from imported Turkish beer and presented in Berlin for Germans to both enjoy and destroy. Alcohol was thus deteriorating the participants body and minds as the pyramid suffered the same fate. In this way, the art instillation integrates a fun creative space for visitors, and an educational awareness of historical issues.

Cyprien Gaillard