MALA (Music Art Life And...)

MALA (Music Art Life And...) is a new nomadic off-space without a permanent location—a mobile space that emerges wherever art meets life. At its core are music and visual art as socially relevant practices that foster encounter, exchange, and participation. Functioning as a storefront without thresholds or admission fees, MALA makes art accessible in public space around the clock. The platform is conceived as a site for interdisciplinary formats in which art, music, and social questions enter into dialogue. For Berlin Art Week, MALA inaugurates its programme with ›Music of the Mind‹, an exhibition by the African American musician and visual artist Wadada Leo Smith.

MALA was founded by Paola Malavassi (*1978, San José, Costa Rica), a curator working at the intersection of art, music, and dance. She has curated numerous exhibitions alongside Kasper König at Museum Ludwig in Cologne, led the Julia Stoschek Collection Berlin, and served as the founding director of MINSK in Potsdam. Her curatorial projects include solo exhibitions by artists such as Noah Davis, Stan Douglas, Wilhelm Klotzek, and Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt. Together with Jason Moran, she co-curated ›I’ve Seen the Wall: Louis Armstrong on Tour in the GDR 1965‹, and has collaborated with musicians including Jason Moran, Robert Lippok, Steve Reich, Wadada Leo Smith, and Immanuel Wilkins. She also teaches at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin).