Pink sculptures and cassette tapes define YONT Studio’s installation
YONT Studio created Not a Passenger, an immersive sound installation at Berlin’s KaDeWe department store, bringing analogue listening culture into a contemporary retail environment. Developed for Telekom Electronic Beats and fashion label Namilia, the temporary project occupied 35 square metres on the store’s second floor, where salvaged car seats, cassette players and sculptural pink structures formed a space dedicated to music and interaction. Presented from September 15 to 27, 2026, the installation accompanied a limited-edition fashion collection developed with British indie rock band Wet Leg.
The project takes its conceptual starting point from The Passenger, Iggy Pop’s 1977 song associated with his time in West Berlin. Its imagery of travelling through the city becomes a spatial narrative in which visitors determine their own listening experience. Six second-hand black leather car seats were arranged around a circular metal platform, offering an informal setting for discovering a collection of approximately 140 cassette tapes. The selection brought together established musicians, electronic music pioneers and recordings circulating outside mainstream streaming platforms.
Four monumental structures surround the central seating area, giving the installation an architectural presence despite its limited footprint. YONT Studio constructed these elements from sculpted polystyrene, finished with epoxy coating and glossy pink automotive paint. Their irregular surfaces reference the material character of Brutalist architecture, while the reflective finish introduces an aesthetic associated with automotive culture and nightlife. Two structures accommodate cassette players and headphones, another incorporates a full-length mirror for changing clothes, and the fourth functions as a product display with custom hooks inspired by Namilia’s perfume bottle.
The installation’s material language extends into its technical details. Exposed wiring, metal components and customised garment rails remain visible, contributing to an industrial atmosphere that connects the listening area with the surrounding fashion presentation. Cassette tapes introduce another physical dimension: listeners must select a recording, insert it into a player and engage with the duration of the music. This manual process encourages a different relationship with sound, allowing chance discoveries and interruptions to become part of the experience.
Founded by Serdar Ayvaz and Coşan Karadeniz, Berlin-based YONT Studio works across architecture, interiors, objects and scenography, maintaining close connections with the city’s music culture. Its approach to Not a Passenger continues ideas previously developed in projects such as Torstraße 220, where exposed architectural surfaces and specially designed sculptural elements contribute to an environment accommodating music, work and social gatherings. At KaDeWe, these interests appear in a more concentrated, temporary format, bringing the studio’s experimental material vocabulary into conversation with Namilia’s queer fashion identity.
Beyond its function as a retail installation, Not a Passenger considers how physical environments can encourage individual choice and shared cultural experiences. The combination of analogue technology, reused materials and participatory listening provides an alternative to the speed of digital music consumption. Within one of Berlin’s best-known luxury department stores, YONT Studio created a temporary setting where the act of selecting and listening to music became an architectural experience.
Photography by Juan Camilo Roa, with courtesy of YONT, shared with permission
