Can a Horse Stop the Highway? Niklas Apfel’s Blow Up – The New Horse Takes Over ELSE Klub

On May 29, Berlin’s ELSE Klub transforms into a space where sculpture, satire, and subversion collide, thanks to Niklas Apfel’s monumental installation, Blow Up – The New Horse. Presented as part of the KEYI MAGAZINE x ELSE Klub Party, this inflatable artwork is not just a visual centerpiece, it’s a statement.

Imagine a horse, five-and-a-half meters tall, made entirely of polyester fabric, billowing in the breeze, filled with air, soft, dynamic, and totally riderless. It’s absurd; it’s hilarious; it’s necessary.

Blow Up isn’t just big, it’s bold. It completely flips the narrative of traditional equestrian statues that dominate so many of our city squares. Where they scream power, conquest, colonization, this one whispers fragility, absence, and irony. The rider is missing. The horse is vulnerable. The wind decides how it moves.

Niklas, a graduate of the Berlin University of Fine Arts, is not interested in glorifying old power structures. Instead, he uses softness, movement, and sound to dismantle them.

Positioned along the Else path near the looming expansion of Berlin’s A100 highway, Blow Up – The New Horse becomes more than just a sculpture, it’s a soft monument of resistance, challenging infrastructure, outdated power structures, and toxic masculinity in public space.

Come for the Horse, Stay for the Party

The installation will be at the KEYI MAGAZINE x ELSE Klub Party on May 29, an all-day, all-night celebration of music, fashion, art, and performance. Alongside Apfel’s surreal sculpture, expect a fashion market, live acts, and a killer lineup.