The Berlin Art Year – 2016

In a fascinating essay  that American author, critic and professor of film Chris Kraus wrote last year about what it is an artist can really get out of going to an art school, she mentioned the following:  “I've noticed a trend among students in certain liberal arts undergrad schools to move to New York or Berlin or L.A. after Grinnell or Reed College or Swarthmore. Not applying to grad school or art school is very neo-old school. And this is exciting.”

It is! Although in a different way then she meant here. Kraus named Berlin in the same row as New York and Los Angeles , as one of the most exiting art cities for aspiring artists to go to. She is right of course ( and not only because I live here). Like in NY and LA, there is so much happening here, art wise. And because we don’t want to miss a thing, here is an overview of the main events in the year to come.

transmediale:  February 3-7, in Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Crawle out from under wherever you are hiding for January, because the fun starts pretty soon! In February it is already time for the 29^th edition of transmediale,  a festival of digital art, culture and performance. This edition, named Conversation piece,  promises to be an active one, instead of a fixed programme with a static theme. With four directions called Anxious to See, Anxious to Make, Anxious to Share and Anxious to Secure, the festival aims to explore the space that is created between thinking and acting, the moment just before the jump from the highest diving board. A moment full of potential.

Gallery Weekend: April 29- May 1, various locations

With all this art in town, you would guess there is a booming art market in Berlin, but this is (although growing)not the case. That’s why in 2005 a group of gallery owners got together and invented Gallery Weekend. On a nice weekend in the spring, when the sun finally starts shining and temperatures are rising, art collectors from all over the world are invited, driven around and wooed with diners and parties to get Berlin on the collectors map.  For us normal folks it is a great opportunity to catch up on your gallery cruising because all the participating galleries open with new exhibitions and events at the same time.

9. Berlin Biennale: June 4- September 18, in Kunst Werke…or not.

Yes! And this year it is double fun, because it is biennale time. The ninth edition, curated by the New York based collective DIS, sounds very promising. When a curatorial statement says that the biennale may or may not feature contemporary art , Kunst Werke, which is its main location, may or may not swap square meters with the Berlin Mall and performance may or may not be the future of advanced interior design, you are probably in for a treat.

Berlin Art Prize: early summer or fall

Although there isn’t a definite date yet, due to funding issues, if all goes well, there will also be a Berlin Art Prize this year. It is is an annual award for contemporary art, and, what is really nice, open to all. No focus on young art (drag!), or only open for artist that have finished art school in the last 3 years (also drag!). The only restriction is that you have to live in Berlin. This does not mean, however that the bar is low. The selection is curated by a serious jury and the final exhibition from the first two years showed a great overview of Berlin art.

48 Stunden Neukölln: June 24-26, various locations in Neukölln
Like the Berlin Art Prize, the 48 Stunden (Hours) Neukölln Festival, that was founded in 1999, aims to put a range of art on display that does not have all the “normal”, formal restrictions attached to it.  It’s mission is to connect all forms of art with all layers of society, with an overall focus that it has something to do with or say about Neukölln. This year’s theme, Satt (being full, satisfied, and in a more negative way, that you had enough) explores this notion in for example the overflow of products in our daily life. What do we actually really need to be satisfied?

Rundgang Kunsthochschule Weißensee: July 16-17 and at the Universität der Kunste: July 22-24
This year the two major art school exhibitions are, thank the lord, not in the same weekend.  Now you have all the time to explore both  final exhibitions  a bit more peacefully. At the UdK, for example, there is so much to see every year, so much to take in. Now, if the weather is nice, you can also have a nice beer in the beautiful inner courtyard, instead of running to the next Rundgang.

Project Space Festival: Whole month of August, various locations
The boring summer months, art wise that is, are over! With the coming of the Project Space Festival in 2014, there is something happening every day in August, in a project space somewhere in town. The festival gives you the opportunity to get to know the non- or less-commercial spaces of Berlin. Each of the selected 30 locations get one day to surprise the public with an event, that can be anything from an exhibition to a performance, screening or, as I still don’t get, something with food.

Berlin Art Week: 13-18 september with abc- art berlin contemporary: 15-18 September, and more...

Right after the relaxing and slow summer months, the Berlin art scene kicks you hard with the Berlin Art Week mid-September. This week explodes with events, multiple openings of all the big institutions, talks and several art fairs. Of the latter it’s abc- art berlin contemporary you might want to check out, not only for the location in Station Berlin, but also because you have an overview of what are presumed to be the top galleries of the city. So, prepare yourself. Do not visit any exhibitions in the weeks beforehand, stay hydrated, eat chocolate and most importantly, enjoy.

Preis der Nationalgalerie 2015 - Winning performance is worth it, if you take the time

Until January 17th, you can admire the works of the four contestants for the Preis der Nationalgalerie 2015, on view in Hamburger Bahnhof. Four different bodies of work from the outside, but intrinsically speaking sort of the same: they are all room filling installations in which a specific environment is created to convey a message, by using a multitude of mediums. This is typical of this time: art no longer fits in one specific category, which makes the different fields of study at an art academy rather funny.

Florian Hecker

On show are two soundworks by Florian Hecker (1975, Augsburg), an activating installation by Christian Falsnaes (1980, Copenhagen), a presentation by the artist collective Slavs and Tartars (founded in 2006) and a performance by Anne Imhof (1978, Gießen), with which she won the price.

Slavs and Tartars

Her winning performance is called For ever rage and, as is the thing with performances, it is not on view. What is there is the remainder of the performance, the stage if  you will. In dimmed light (which made the host rather sleepy, he confessed),  concrete basins stand in the space with boxing balls hanging over them. Bottles with energy drink were standing in corners, accompanied by cigarettes. On the wall there are drawings and etchings.  In one of the basins lays a small screen on which you can see an earlier performance.

Anne Imhof, Preis der Nationalgalerie, installation view, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, 2015. Photo by galerie Deborah Schamoni

The performance is repeated on eight days during the four month exhibition period.  To really grasp the “what” that has won the price, you have to visit one of these. The last ones are on Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th of January. The duration is two hours, but an opera normally takes longer, so do not let this hold you back. And be warned: there are performers, turtles and buttermilk involved.

Anne Imhof - Performance

Anne Imhof

Works by the other contestants are on view, of which the interactive installation Moving Images  by Christian Falsnaes is highly entertaining. Upon entering, an employee approaches you, and explains how it works. You are invited to actively participate within the work, therefore you are becoming part of the performance. The room has screens on both ends. Different kinds of images are projected on them. Sometimes a group of people, sometimes only one. The voice -over gives instructions: to walk, to dance, to choose a screen to look at. At certain intervals, the voice-over stops and you are invited by the employee to approach the middle. There, a group discussion is started between the participants that are present. “How do you feel?”, is being asked.

Christian Falsnaes- Moving Image @ Preis der Nationalgalerie 2015. Hamburger Bahnhof

The visitor is confronted with your wish for being in the spotlights or your lack there of. Will you dance? Will you participate? Do you care what the other visitors think? Do you oblige to the voice over? Do you want to share how you feel?

Through this part of the activating installation, you enter part two: a waiting room with chairs. A curtain splits the room. Behind it you can hear mumbling, talking, sometimes walking. Only one person is allowed in. Inside, a personal encounter is waiting for you with a difficult decision to make at the end. I decided “no” and am still not entirely sure why..

Christian Falsnaes- Moving Image @ Preis der Nationalgalerie 2015. Hamburger Bahnhof

In my last blog entry, I talked about the gaze in relation to the work of Fiona Mackay. In her exhibition Close to at Klemm’s, paintings are staring and peeking at you. Here, the artist, although not physically present, takes this role on him.

He persuades you to do stuff. To take action. You have to make a decision. Are you going along with it or not?

Penis alert!

Just in time, I saw Close to by Fiona Mackay at Klemm’s. At first glance, the work by this young (1984) Scottish artist looks rather naive. Big canvases painted in a watercolor technique. Some paintings have a line pattern. Others have a big round spot of paint in the middle, resembling an iris, or tie-dye. The line paintings, made out of shy but attractive colors are  interchanged with these eyeball canvasses. Staring into one of the latter was rather mesmerizing. But no more than that.

On leaving the gallery, there it was…

A giant penis!

I had totally overlooked it. Suddenly, sexually charged images started to emerge from the line paintings.  And their color was no longer shy, it was nude! A gentle curve became a vagina. A swelling could be a nipple. And right beside them, all those staring eyes.

Sebastian Klemm, obviously a leg-person, saw stockings in the line paintings.  He told me that  for Mackay the connection between the work and the exhibition space was imperative. And although she normally asked writer friends to write the gallery text, she had insisted that the gallery staff wrote it this time. The result is a snap shot conversation. Like the glances one throws at someone across a room.

 

The disc- (or eye) paintings tie all the works together. Like observers,  they gaze at one another, male or female. Probing each others “bodies”. The question here, is who (or what) is the gazer and what is it that is being gazed at? The beholder seems to have walked into an intimate party, peeking at each other. It leaves the viewer with the sensation of being a voyeur.

Watcher, or being watched, the visitor is both. This is disturbing, because most paintings don’t look back. It makes the act of looking part of the exhibition.  The gaze could be the wanted object here, the object of desire. Because who doesn’t want to be seen?

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Gallerytour Potsdamerstraße - 10 October

On Saturday October 10th, Gallery Quest submerged itself, together with eight other art fanatics in the gallery scene around Potsdamerstraße. The gallerytour started at Esther Schipper gallery (soon to be joined with Johnen Galerie), where we explored the work of Mexican artist Gabriel Kuri (1970). He selects materials and found objects, that seem to have no value and makes new compositions with them.

Gabriel Kuri, An old niche for your new need @ Esther Schipper

The installations and sculptures talk about traces, about objects that people leave behind. Like straws that you can buy with 50 in a box. There is no original object here, and they are treated as such. An individual straw has no value, is interchangeable, and easily discarded. Kuri picks them up and puts them in the niches of his sculptures. Like people do when there is no trashcan around. A somewhat curious act, of shamefully trying to give it a place anyway.

Barry Johnston, Upside Down Liberation 2: Mosquito Communion @ Micky Schubert

Next on the route are Galerie Micky Schubert and Société on the Genthinerstraße. Micky Schubert shows work by LA-based American artist Barry Johnston (1980). His work is difficult to grasp because of it's many references. With an opening performance he activated the work, and now we are left with the "stage". Poetic texts can be found in stacks on the ground, they hang on the wall and are laying on the gallerist's table. They are the core of the work and your entrance key. The hypnotic song texts are urging you to  keep going, keep on dancing. They are hinting to the free state you are in while partying, totally loose of everything, no consequences until tomorrow.

David Rhodes, Untitled'15 @ Société

At Société there are paintings on view by NY-based Canadian artist David Rhodes (1983) that hurt the eyes. He uses a high chroma yellow paint that bounces almost as much light back as a white surface does. The image is thus not only contained on the canvas but also floats in the room.

Šelja Kamević, Position Absolute @ Tanja Wagner

Next is Galerie Tanja Wagner in the Pohlstraße. The exhibition by Bosnian artist Šelja Kamerić  (1976) is made out of three parts and shows beautiful poetic works that are related to her background, growing up in a war-torn country. The photo collages talk about the little knickknacks you have in your drawer, the little stuff you keep on taking with you every time you move instead of throwing them away. They are presented in a clean way, on a flat surface, with numbers next to them. The accompanying text is a poetic exploration of their heritage, use or purpose.

The second part consists of perfect stone spheres, which can be found "in the wild" in Bosnia and in other places all over the world. There origin is unknown. In Bosnia they are believed to guard the spiritual balance in the world and therefore should not be moved. The spheres in the gallery are engraved with coordinates of places in Bosnia where war atrocities where committed and a spiritual balance was nowhere to be found at that time.

Šelja Kamević, Position Absolute @ Tanja Wagner

The three boxes in the window are the third part and refer tho the help packages Kamerić and her family received during the Balkan war. Their contents varied from old newspapers to used candles to cans of food that where over date. Despite their uselessness, the artist still remembers them in a positive manner, because they still sort of felt like presents with a moment of excitement about what was to be found inside. You can ask yourself what one would really need in times of despair.

In galerie Arndt we got more familiar with contemporary art form Southeast Asia. Korean artist Jeewi Lee (1987) showed traces from her home in the form of traditional rice paper floors. She let parts of floors send over, dirty, with spots and tried to clean them with good aggressive German cleaning products. Now, new traces from the cleaning got left behind, and of course not all old traces could be removed. Some stains, like in life, are here to stay.

Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo, Silent Salvo @ Arndt

Indonesian artist Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo (1978) has an interesting way of working, throwing paint onto a layer of hot raisin that he has mixed with ashes from the vulcano Mount Merapi. The result is a surprise: the part that lies under is what we look at on the wall. It leads to very vibrant images with a lot of depth.

Across the street in the courtyard of Potsdamerstraße 77-87 where Tagespiegel used to be, is, among others, Galeria Plan B located. On view is work by Roemanian artist Şerban Savu (1978) which deals with the border between art, art history and reality. Savu is a skilled painter who paints everyday scenes with referrals to art history. Like the painting "Ceci n'est pas un tableau" which shows a painting of a construction scene, hanging on his studio wall. Watching a painted painting in Savu's style, which he never made, hanging on the painted wall of his studio, hanging in a gallery space, hints for example to all the images we see in everyday life which are not recognized as art but could be if we paid more attention.

Şerban Savu, Pictures at an exhibition @ Galeria Plan B

Last stop is the renowned Blain/Southern gallery where old and recent photo's by German film giant Wim Wenders (1945). It is interesting but also dangerous when an artist starts working in a new medium. Are these pictures hanging here because they are really new and improving or are they hanging here because they are made by Wim Wenders? In an interview with Deutsche Welle he talks about the joy of taking photo's. Making films is a group project, he states. Photo's he can do all alone, no explanations needed. His images are big, about time moving on, places that remain, but not always stay the same. Hopper's emptiness can be found in some of his American photo's, of which the photo's of abandoned drive in movies that hang upstairs are the best.

"How the new came into the world"- Alicja Kwade in Haus am Waldsee

Alicja Kwade (Poland 1979) seems to be everywhere this year. In Berlin we could see her work GoldVolks at abc- art berlin contemporary. At the same time, an overview of her work called Monolog on the 11th floor opened in Haus am Waldsee.

Artist Talk in Haus am Waldsee, 30 September 2015

The exhibition is a accumulation of her ten year art practice, since she graduated form the Universität der Kunste in 2005. And as she explained herself during the artist talk, it is a chance to see "how the new came into the world". This "new" refers to the objects, which are the result of the transformation of an idea into a physical form. The thought that became a work of art. 

One of her inspirational sources, and very visible in this exhibition, are scientific processes. When she comes across something that triggers here, she does what a lot of us would do; google it till you can't google no more.

 Eadem Mutata Resurgo 3, 2013

An example is the discovery made by Jacob Bernoulli in the late seventeenth century, that the spiral can be found everywhere in nature. This theory literally found it's shape in the work Eadem Mutata Resurgo 3 ( transformed I rise again as the same), (2013). It is a curled door, that may also refers to life, that also spirals in the same circles over and over again. Kwade states the spiral as one of the most intriguing forms, because it has no beginning and no end. It could go on forever.

Less obvious are the strange trumpets, who got nothing to do with music and everything with the theory of wormholes (for my non Star Trek friends; this is the theoretical possibility of the folding of space, creating a tunnel between two distant regions). These copper shapes are connected to tubes that go through walls and through the ceiling, making of the entire Haus am Waldsee an Alicja Kwade universe.

On view untill November 22th

Gallerytour 10 oktober - Potsdamerstraße

Wat was het leuk, de gallerytour van afgelopen 16 september! We verkenden de omgeving Checkpoint Charlie waar ter gelegenheid van abc- art berlin contemporary de deelnemende galeries s'avonds de deuren openden. Blogger Emma Wijninga van wattedoeninberlijn.nl was ook mee en heeft een hele leuke recensie over de gallerytour geschreven.

Het werk van Nik Nowak bespreken @ galerie Alexander Levy. Foto: Isabella Lichtbilder

Er nu komt een vervolg!

Wat gaan we doen?
Een keer in de maand bezoeken we een zogenaamde kunsthub: een plek in de stad waar veel galeries samen clusteren. Ga mee als je zin en tijd hebt.  Doe alle gallerytours om een goed overzicht te krijgen van het omvangrijke hedendaagse kunstcircuit in Berlijn. Of ga met een losse tour mee, bijvoorbeeld in de wijken die jij interessant vindt. Aan bod zullen komen: Potsdamerstraße, City West, omgeving Kotbussertor, omgeving Rosa Luxemburgplatz, Auguststraße/Linienstraße, Neuköln, omgeving Checkpoint Charlie en als het lukt ook Wedding.*

Op zaterdag 10 oktober kun je mee om de kunstschatten en galeries van het moment op en rondom de Potsdamerstraße te ontdekken.

Alle praktische info op een rij:
Wat: Gallerytour Potsdamerstraße
Wanneer: Zaterdag 10 oktober van 11:00-14:00 uur
Met wie: Kunstfanatica  eh –historica en schrijfster Laureline van den Heuvel
Waarom: Krijg toegang tot de onoverzichtelijke  Berlijnse Kunstzene onder begeleiding van een kenner, leer de hedendaagse kunstschatten per wijk kennen, bespaar jezelf de tijd van het uitzoeken van namen, openingstijden en routes, krik je hedendaagse kunstkennis op tot ongekende hoogtes
Wat kost dat eigenlijk:
- €20, - pp en € 10,- voor studenten (neem je studentenpas mee)
- Ga je voor het eerst mee? Dan kost het ook maar €10, -
Dat is echt tof zeg, ik wil mee! Hoe geef ik me op? Stuur een e-mail naar:
laureline@gallery-quest.com

*Programma en volgorde zijn onder voorbehoud en afhankelijk van de interessante tentoonstellingen van dat moment.