The staircase in KW Institute for Contemporary Art is a walkable sculpture by Margherit Moscardini. Each of its 561 stones is engraved with a number—a reference to its legal status. Moscardini initially gifted the stones to stateless, supranational, and extraterritorial organizations and nations—such as universities, Indigenous groups, and autonomous regions—who were then asked to donate them back as building blocks for the staircase. A series of certificates, also on view, indicate that the stones now belong to no one. With this sculpture, Moscardini materializes a thought experiment on national law within the framework of an art institution: How can “neutral” objects be created—objects that do not belong to the state whose territory they physically occupy?

The Stairway’s design is reminiscent of the courtyard of the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in East Jerusalem. The principle of the Status Quo applies there, which regulates equal access to multi-religious sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Originally established in an Ottoman decree in 1852 and upheld in later peace agreements such as the Berlin Treaty (1878), the Status Quo continues to enable a legal space aimed at fostering non-hierarchical coexistence among people of different faiths. Moscardini transfers this idea from the sacred to the civic, creating an experiment in national law and the commons within an artistic framework: a space made of “stateless” stones. She explores what forms of universal citizenship might be possible—ones rooted neither in territorial affiliation nor kinship. And she reminds us of something often forgotten amid the privatization of public space and debates on migration: that we are all guests on a planet that once belonged to no one.

Text: Alicja Schindler