[The Fleas of] The Elephant in the Room

Collective Storytelling Walk with Daniela Medina Poch

In spoken English

Not many people know that fleas are frequent guests on elephants’ bodies. They feed on their skin and tickle them, provoking them to scratch themselves with their long trunks. Yet the cause, the fleas themselves, often goes unnoticed; their tiny size grants them the power of invisibility. The elephant, however, knows them well, because it feels them. To what extent do fleas shape the movements of the elephant?

Likewise, not many people know that the apparently empty Bersarinplatz in Friedrichshain was once intended to host a colonial monument honoring the soldiers who fought to expand the territories of Germany around 1932. How could they know, if the monument is not there, but in Bremen? The monument, shaped like an elephant, has since been reframed and now carries a layered and contested history. Bersarinplatz remains apparently empty, at least to the human eye. Much lies beyond the scope of vision: the bacteria on our hands, the spiders on our ceilings, the neighbor next door, or the news we choose, for one reason or another, not to see.

“The elephant in the room” is an expression used to describe something that is clearly present yet collectively ignored. [The Fleas of] The Elephant in the Room is a suggestive title that points to the tiny forces subtly shaping larger structures, that might be visible to some and invisible to others. Through this collective storytelling walk, we will explore the relationship between the monumental and the minute, the visible and the invisible, and the unnoticed dynamics that shape perception. We will consider how speculative tools such as imagination may contribute to recognizing worlds beyond our own.

You are warmly invited to join a storytelling walk from Galerie im Turm toward Bersarinplatz, where we will navigate three narrative threads around visibility, invisibility, and everything in between.

Start: 6 pm at Galerie im Turm

ABOUT

Daniela Medina Poch (b. Bogotá) is an artist, researcher, and educator whose practice explores situated, intersectional, and interspecies forms of knowledge through artistic research, writing, and pedagogy. Her work has been presented internationally at institutions and events including MUDAM Luxembourg, The Listening Biennial (Berlin), CCA Berlin, the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá, SAVVY Contemporary and documenta fifteen (Kassel). In 2025, she participated in the 12th Colombian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica, conducting artistic research on water ecologies and situated knowledge. She is co-founder of Babel Media Art and founder of Embodied Climate Agency. Daniela studied at Escola Massana (UAB Barcelona) and holds a Master’s degree in Art in Context from the Berlin University of the Arts. She is currently part of the curatorial team at Gropius Bau in Berlin.