The artist René Kluge, born in 1992 in São Paulo, Brazil, first encounters his passion at an early age, when immersed in the tropical nature and vast residential areas around him, he finds the connection to his artistic side by doing bird watching, discovering the corners of the city and travelling. While colorfully portraying a stunning variety of feathers on every side of the ocean, his iridescent creativity covered more and more subjects, from abstract environmental details to architectural perspectives, and unreachable landscapes. This led to the editing of his first photography book “Falkland Islands” in 2020 as a documentation of the breathtaking beauty of the homonymous islands. After moving from South America oversea to Spain and Portugal, now René lives in Berlin and takes his first artistic step in Europe with this permanent photography exhibition at EDGE Grand Central Berlin, in a venue that brings together design, smart technology and wellbeing, in an international setting.
We believe that a purposeful coworking space must project the colorful minds of the coworkers in each one of its details.
Concept
Every space is a frame. Whether with plants, pictures, sculptures, paintings, a pattern on the wall, or the strategic placement of the furniture, when it comes to designing any kind of room, we tend to define the character, almost the personality of the space through its visual appearance, as we try to make it look comfy, cozy, chic, professional, vintage, practical, sophisticated, hipster… Our mind is deeply influenced by the perception of the surroundings, and accordingly, so are our emotional state, intellectual performance, and physical stress. By following this concept – coherent to the development of all EDGE buildings – we put together a selection of photos aiming not only at being appealing to the eye, but also a visual incentive for the personal motivation.
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stories on flexible work?
Want to read more about our stories on flexible work?
EDGE Workspaces’ meeting rooms were designed together with the experts of neuroscience. These spaces are named after the phases of a project – from the draft, through the conception, to the finalization and the maintenance of the latter. With this in mind, we created six concepts that share title and meaning with our meeting rooms, in order to create a solid connection between the spaces, their decoration and the intention of the coworkers.
- Touch Base
- Alignment
- I’ll Be Back
- One More Thing
- Rocket Science
- Quick Catch Up
- Follow Up
Touch Base
Everything starts with a base: a building, a painting, a society, the plan of a journey, a relationship, or even something as simple as a cake. And surely does a project too. With our feet on the ground, we give birth to the rational structure of an idea, even when we’re just dreaming big. Actually, the bigger the castle is – the one we dream about -, the more stable must the foundations be. The first steps off the beaten track may look obscure and muddy, the ideas may dry out on the way and the expectations may lie on the floor. By recollecting all the pieces along the way, we can step up to the next level. Whether it is a concrete base or a cookie dough one, every good thing must stand on solid ground. So do projects.
Looking back on the project, René remembered:
“When we start a project of any kind, we usually throw our sight directly on the goal and how it will look like in the end. We tend to forget about the first step. Here I want to show that we should enjoy the process from the very beginning, because that is also part of its beauty. Sometimes this step is the first victory of every project.”
Alignment
Ideas come and go, they move around, stop by for a second, they jump on each other, they fill up with colors, they fade away, crawl on the floor and hide behind curtains. And then they align. When people’s thoughts align, creation begins, and reality takes form. This fundamental variety of togetherness is the balance needed to take action – the perfect ratio between abstractness and concreteness. Just like planets in the sky with their polychromatic surfaces, or the energy flow through the 7 rainbowlike chakra gates of our body in the Oriental culture, intellectual alignment happens, and it happens here.
René sees this as:
“the combination of different elements that come together as one single concept. This selection comes from a mixture of styles, patterns and colors, and I’ve combined them in a harmonious set up. Some of those photos look fresh, some old, some polished, some rough…but together they form beauty.”
I’ll Be Back
How often do we need to take a break from an activity to recollect our ideas, our energies, or find new inspiration? We may “call it a day”, we may take time to “let it settle”, every now and then we need to “metabolize” a fact, or we may just want to “sleep it off”. That’s when the magic happens. Ideas change, just like expectations, situations, perspectives and conditions. Sometimes we just need to wait for the right time and the right place and be back on the topic in a different moment with a different perception, to realize that something is indeed possible. Just like the seasons change, everything is constantly tending towards a new equilibrium. Evolution takes time.
Drawing a parallel with this theme, René observed that
“sometimes it’s important to take one step back, to take two forward. These stairs represent the going forward, going back, going up, going down, to reach the goal at the end. Circling back is necessary for completion.”
One More Thing
Perfectionists share a whole concept within three words: one more thing. Details are important and convey the intentions of the creator: the quality and the success of a work depend strictly on them. Details tell us how much time was invested in a project. Details show how much effort was put in elevating its quality. Details reflect the deepest wish of the author. Details captivate the audience and its gaze. Only when the project reaches its readiness, right when the product is about to be finalized, and the extra touch is given, the perfectionist needs to add one more thing. Which then brings to one more thing, which is followed by one more thing, until only one more thing is missing…
René’s idea on this project is
“to show that when everything looks like it’s done, there might still be one free spot left, one item missing that gives the final glow to the whole.”
Rocket Science
The goal is set, the ideas are calibrated, the trajectory has been defined, wings open up and your project is ready to take its flight into the unknown. Unlike rockets, which require a success probability close to 100% in order to be launched into space, our daily missions are a constant risk: from the word choice during a small talk with a colleague, to the financial plan of your company for the next quarter. You don’t know what the outcome of your decision is, until you free it from your mind and let it take off in the real world. But if you started from a good base, if everything was aligned, and if details have been taken care of, with a bit of luck your project will finally see the stars.
As for René’s experience
“it takes courage to take the first step. It can be rocky, shaky, complicated, but if you decide to take it, you can reach new heights and it will all come naturally once you’re soaring in the sky.”
Follow Up & Quick Catch Up
A project doesn’t end when it’s published: that’s only the beginning. Once it is out there, you’ll have to take care of the whole palette of external stimuli surrounding it: marketing, promotion, critical reception, performance, improvement, tracking, analyzing, reporting… the background becomes the focus, and the whole project conception becomes a silhouette at the mercy of the infinite shades of time and place. Success is still in your hands! Flexibility and quick adaptation must be practiced with regular follow ups on your beloved project.
“The time of day influences the picture a lot, but the subject doesn’t change”, said René.
Conclusion
The commitment of EDGE Workspaces goes beyond the simple aesthetics and the need of decoration: we want to give a meaning and a face to the purpose of coworking. At the same time, we are always on the search for talents and newcomers who need exposure and the motivation to keep going.
Not only did the EDGE Workspaces’ purposes match those of René, but also the right timing helped us making this collaboration possible. René’s timeline of projects matched the need of EDGE Workspaces to give a new exclusive touch to the spaces, always developing and moving forward, as he is.
