Werner Otto Hall, Kunsthalle, Hamburg
June 21, 2026
It opens with the figure of choreographer and performer Chiara Bersani curled up in a corner of the Kunsthalle’s Werner Otto Hall. The size of the space, emphasised by gold-coloured columns in its walls, only emphasise even more just how tiny she looks. The silence is intense, the stillness adds to the expectation that something, who knows what, is going to happen. Bersani almost looks like she could be a sculpture, part of the museum’s collection. Except that there’s the occasional twitch of her fingers, a small movement of her toes. This sculpture lives and breathes.
In Seeking Unicorns, Bersani, who was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a congenital brittle bone disease, opens up new different perspectives on movement and presence. And she certainly has presence. Even almost still, she demands to be watched, demands that you don’t just look, you observe closely.
The challenges brought by Bersani’s condition are clear, but they are almost immediately put in the background as she slowly comes to life and gives herself fully to the performance. As she inches her way forward on her hands and knees, there is a fragility and a vulnerability for sure, but also a strength. Certainly, you feel, a sense of purpose.
Photo Alice Brazzit
In some ways, not a great deal happens, but it’s all heavily detailed and meaningful. The pointing of an otherwise flexed foot as it is raised appears to be a quite deliberated motif. Seeking Unicorns is also remarkably calming and in a way, rather uplifting. Watching Bersani is a very positive experience.
She pauses. Looks. Smiles. There’s a laugh. She moves herself between the legs of one lady watching. Warm smiles are exchanged. As she continues her journey around the space, you sense she’s looking for a reaction. Almost daring us to respond outwardly. She’s playing with us. It’s impossible not to meet her eye when she comes before you. I keep coming back to presence. Her big eyes draw you in.
Unicorns are hard to find. Bersani is searching for sure. Is she a unicorn seeking other unicorns, or is she looking for something as equally elusive as the mythical animals? She’s searching for sure.
What could be unicorns are heard calling in the soundscape. Bersani’s movement becomes more animated. Having made her way to a trumpet that has been laying off to one side, she picks it up and calls back. A conversation ensues with trumpet and sax off stage. And then she leaves to join them. Silence returns as we digest the magic we have experienced.
Photo Philipp Meuser
Prior to Bersani’s solo performance I caught the closing moments of A Human Song, a large-scale participatory event developed by fellow Italian choreographer Chiara Frigo, co-founder of Zebra Cultural Zoo, staged on the Kunsthalle’s outdoor plateau.
This large-scale participatory art project involves people from the local area of different ages, cultures, and backgrounds. In a piece of art collectively created in the moment, they come together as a sea of bodies, a human wave, wandering back and forth across the space. Those watching are gently invited to join in. Almost all agree to do so.
It all evoked a remarkable sense of peace, of spirituality even. Not so much a song as a hymn.