analog sound installation by YONT studio captures road trip nostalgia inside berlin’s KaDeWe

‘NOT A PASSENGER’ INSIDE BERLIN’S ICONIC LUXURY DEPARTMENT STORE

Inside the OMA-renovated halls of KaDeWe in Berlin, a striking pink set up offers an unexpected pause. Marking the launch of the limited-edition ‘Passenger’ collection — co-created by fashion brand Namilia, Telekom Electronic Beats, and British indie rock band Wet Leg — Berlin-based design practice YONT Studio has crafted an immersive, analog sound installation open from September 15–27, 2026. Taking its creative cues from Iggy Pop’s 1977 track The Passenger, written during his West Berlin years with David Bowie, the project flips the original premise of passive observation into an empowering manifesto: Not a Passenger. Spanning a compact 35-square-meter footprint, the spatial installation asks visitors to take the driver’s seat, inviting them to sit in up-cycled car seats and select from 140 curated cassette tapes to build their own auditory. 

‘We imagined an installation that feels like wandering around, observing or pausing, but always choosing what to look at, what to listen to next,’ explain Serdar Ayvaz and Coşan Karadeniz of YONT Studio in an exclusive interview with designboom. ‘Being a passenger means moving through the city while constantly being exposed to images, people, and sounds. Our installation places visitors at its center, creating a moment of pause or intimate interaction in a busy department store environment.’

‘Not a Passenger’ sound installation by Namilia, Telekom Electronic Beats, and YONT Studio | all images courtesy of Telekom Electronic Beats

BRIDGING TECHNO-QUEER SENSUALITY AND SOUND CULTURE

Not a Passenger combines the visual styles of Namilia, Telekom Electronic Beats, and YONT Studio into a shared design for a spatial pop-up installation, linking music, subculture, and fashion. The space hosts a limited-edition fashion collection co-created by Namilia and Telekom Electronic Beats. To give this collection a physical stage, YONT Studio translates a sense of road trip nostalgia into a sculptural intervention that bridges techno-queer sensuality with sound culture. Drawing on its signature scenography style with raw, monumental forms paired with custom stainless steel garment racks and up-cycled leather car seats, the Berlin-based practice creates an environment where visitors transition from passive onlookers to active participants.

‘Namilia’s techno-queer, kinky sensuality and Telekom Electronic Beats being an intersectional music platform were valuable ingredients for us,’ the designers tell designboom. ‘We took elements from analog music and fashion into architectural formal language; it’s fragmented but in a way connected. What came up feels something monumental but intimate. Human vs machine & vice versa.’

tapes demand manual handling, bringing tactile weight and deliberate patience back to the sound ritual

PINK FOAM, EXPOSED CABLES, AND THE NOSTAGIC RITUAL OF CASSETTES

At the heart of the installation sits a radial configuration anchored by a circular metal platform holding six up-cycled car seats. Around this central lounge are four monolithic volumes sculpturally crafted from styrofoam, treated with a mixed epoxy coating, and finished in a vivid, high-gloss pink car paint. Each unit serves a distinct purpose within the compact footprint: two units host integrated cassette players and headphones loaded with 140 curated tapes from artists like Madonna, Björk, Sade, and Kendrick Lamar; a third incorporates a full-length mirror, turning the niche into a private dressing room; and the fourth functions as a product shelf featuring custom hooks shaped like Namilia’s perfume bottle.

Rejecting slick digital interfaces and other high-tech systems often used in modern retail, the installation deliberately exposes technical infrastructure and leans into tactile friction. Tapes must be physically chosen, inserted, and rewound, reintroducing weight, texture, and patience to the listening process. 

‘The analog elements make the installation feel active and slightly unpredictable,’ YONT Studio explains. ‘We also deliberately allowed cables and technical components to remain visible. Normally, retail design tries to conceal this infrastructure, but here it becomes part of the visual language. The cables give the objects a nervous, almost bodily quality, as if the installation has its own internal system.’

rather than concealing technical infrastructure, exposed cables and hardware are integrated directly into the visual language

Accompanying the spatial intervention is the exclusive fashion capsule co-created with British indie rock band Wet Leg, featuring three distinct garments: a cap, a fitted top, and a T-shirt. Together, the physical collection and spatial environment explore themes of individual self-expression, collective identity, and the fluid interplay between fashion and sound culture. Telekom Electronic Beats’ participation underscores its ongoing dedication to nurturing creative cross-sections between contemporary art, fashion, and electronic music. By inserting a tactile, slow-paced soundscape into a fast-paced luxury retail store, Not a Passenger ultimately offers a nostalgic yet futuristic disruption. 

‘There is something powerful about a vision that doesn’t always fit into the given context, but sometimes contradicts or flips it,’ the studio adds. ‘So when visitors walk away, it should feel a little like waking up, stepping back into the real world. And a sense of road trip nostalgia.’

bridging object and space, the installation explores the fluid dialog between individual expression, shared identity, and fashion

project info: 

name: Not A Passenger
organizer: Telekom Electronic Beats | @electronicbeats
collaborator: Namilia | @_namilia_
design: YONT Studio | @yontstudio 

location: KaDeWe, Berlin, Germany
dates: September 15-27, 2026