Category: Exberliner-Art
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The Exberliner Guide to Berlin Art Week 2013
TONIGHT! Berlin Art Week is in full swing and Fridey Mickel has compiled a guide to make sense of the sensory overload. Read on and take your pick of her picks as the art world takes over (Sep 17-22).
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Artist to watch: Roey Heifetz
Art Week is upon us and its sheer breadth might seem crushing. Roey Heifetz, an artist exhibiting at Preview through the Israeli Embassy, has been making impressions in Berlin for a year now, and is one of many reasons to wade through the art sea.
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All’s fair in art
Artforum might be no more than a memory, but starting this week, on Sep 18, three Berlin art fairs will carry the torch as the official kick-off to the second annual BERLIN ART WEEK (Sep 17-22). Fridey Mickel has the lowdown.
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“I know where the naked bodies should be placed”
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE! A new exhibition by French photographer Ruben Brulat, whose work explores the connection between the nude human body and grand landscapes of natural elements, is on display now at Urban Spree through Sep 22.
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Römer holiday
Artistic partners in work (and life) Römer + Römer will debut their newest exhibition, Sambódromo, depicting scenes from Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, on Sep 7 at Galerie Michael Schultz.
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Sound to art: Ari Benjamin Meyers
INTERVIEW. Before his first solo exhibition on Sep 7 at Esther Schipper, composer and conductor-turned-artist Ari Benjamin Meyers talks about combining art and music, and why his experimental work is no different than Justin Bieber – except better.
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Checking in with… Stephan Jung
INTERVIEW. With technically complex paintings that articulate light and colour as clearly as an LCD screen, Jung’s appreciation for contemporary technology is obvious. His exhibition at Exile opens Sep 6.
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“Trust is all there is”
INTERVIEW. Lauded sculptor (Sir) Anish Kapoor’s first solo show in the city explores changing states through his imposing, emotive works and use of crimson. See deep red on the entire ground floor of the Martin-Gropius Bau, running until Nov 24.
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“We are living in incredible times of amnesia”
INTERVIEW. French-Algerian artist Kader Attia meditates on repair, culture, colonialism and impermanence through a decade’s worth of objects presented in five acts in his first solo exhibition in Germany, running though Aug 25 at KW.
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They are the robots
Straight out of Computerwelt to the art world! Po-faced electronic pioneers Kraftwerk are offering a look at their distinctive take on 3D – visitors to Sprüth Magers can see eight of their charmingly creaky concert videos for free until Aug 31.
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Dark side of the toon
Musician and artist Toby Goodshank’s first solo exhibition is a colourful riot of mad-eyed pop culture references with a distinctly sinister feel – don’t miss the closing this evening!
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Gallery to watch: Invaliden1
Still bearing the name of its original Mitte address, this hard-working gallery has put itself squarely on the art map over its eight years, with bold exhibitions offering artists considerable creative freedom. This month: Argentinian Nicolás Robbio.
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Chase away the dog days
Claudia Chaseling’s small but powerful mixed media sketches bring fresh colour to gallery/shop hybrid The Storefront Collection for the summer months.
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“It’s a kind of sunshine”
Messages from Reality, Volume 2, an exhibition celebrating Estonian art giants Enno Hallek, Andres Tolts and Leonhard Lapin, is a colourful shot in the arm. See Pop Art in a bright new light before it closes on July 13.
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Fresh air at KW
Kunst Werke Institute for Contemporary Art welcomes new head curator Ellen Blumenstein with a grand “Relaunch”, restoring the humanness of the earlier eras of KW. Check out the breath of fresh air on display now through Aug 25.
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“Stop being concerned with yourself!”
INTERVIEW. Artist and art-networker Thomas Eller, through his past positions at ArtNet, Temporary Kunsthalle and foremost as an artist, has collected lots of experience (not to mention contacts) from the Berlin art landscape.
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Party: Atelierhaus Mengerzeile turns 20!
Since its inception in 1993, Atelierhaus Mengerzeile in Treptow has thrived outside of the Berlin studio programme, receiving citywide acclaim and welcoming artists from all over the world. Celebrate 20 years with them on Sat, Jun 29.
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“The self-educated are know-it-alls”
Hansa Wißkirchen started his exhibition series “Salon Hansa” 20 years ago, curating elegant guerrilla exhibitions with self-educated artists. Now he has initiated a new, similar exhibition programme in Berlin with P.O.P. club owner Cornelius Opper.
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Lose your delusion
Much-plugged Greek-born artist Despina Stokou’s rather misguided first solo show is high on hype but low on real impact. Catch it and decide for yourself before it closes on June 22.
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Don’t shoot the messenger
Intrigued by the critical scorn directed at curators Christoph Tannert and Sven Drühl’s latest project, Fridey Mickel interviewed Tannert about Berlin.Status[2] to hear both a defence of the exhibition and a broadside against lazy art journalism.
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Shop till you pop
Artist and shop owner Yvette Mattern’s The Storefront Collection offers young, hip would-be collectors a chance to take home art from the not-so-unknown players in the art world. Even if you can’t afford anything, the shop is worth a look.
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Art is the drug
LAST CHANCE. Pharmaceutical giant Bayer boasts a sparkling collection of modern art – is it enough to shine up their less-than-gleaming image? Check out this roll-call of artistic innovation and decide for yourself before June 9.
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“Underground but safe”
El Segundo, opening May 31, at Urban Spree explores Berlin’s myths and reinvention as libertine playground. A cosmopolitan yet rustic, edgy yet quaint, den of dregs. A take-the-best-and-leave-the-rest stance of predisposed, supervised street culture.
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Martin Kippenberger: Sehr gut indeed
The infamous former manager of SO36 and founder of Sehr Gut magazine would have become a sexagenarian in February. The Hamburger Bahnhof hosts an ample collection of the legend’s paintings, photos and sculptures through August 18.
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“My explanation is the work itself”
INTERVIEW: Carsten Nicolai was only a pup of 18 when he had his first exhibition at Eigen + Art 30 years ago. The incomparable visual and sound artist rang in the gallery’s 30th anniversary with a brand new exhibition, ending this Sat, May 18.
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“I’m not really compatible with rich people”
INTERVIEW. Andreas Koch may have shut down his art space Koch + Kesslau in 2004, and for good reasons, but the Berlin artist continues to have a full palette. The newest issue of his art magazine “von Hundert” came out in mid-April.
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We are the world
Berlin might be the IT start-up capital of the world right now, but half a century ago, the original nerds hung out in Silicon Valley. HKW’s newest exhibition, The Whole Earth, opening Apr 26, traces tech history from California to Berlin.
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Art insanity! The ultimate guide to Gallery Weekend
With over 300 different exhibitions, talks and parties Gallery Weekend (Apr 24-28) might seem daunting. Lucky for you, Exberliner’s art editor brings you her picks of what not to miss from both the big names and newcomers to the Berlin art scene.
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“I try to work in a framework which I really know”
How can we disrupt the played-out tendencies and expectations of our western neoliberal society? Curator Stephan Köhler offers insight on his group show »Riss« at Hengesbach Gallery. Move fast to catch the tail-end of the show, ending April 20.
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“We force our audience a little bit”
INTERVIEW: Back in Feb 2012 we spoke to Ivo Wessel and Olaf Stüber, affable creators of Video Art at Midnight, offering a special platform to experience video art in a unique, unparalleled setting. Don’t miss the next VAM night on April 12.
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Every Friend of My Friend is My Friend
Curator Norma Mangione allowed the artists in the lengthily titled exhibition to play dream date with one another by selecting one of the other participating artists’ works to go with their own. See how they coupled at Chert through Apr 13.
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Douglas Gordon: Knives out
This isn’t the first time the (not so) Young British Artist and Turner Prize winner Douglas Gordon has played with knives: in 1993 he made 24-Hour Psycho. Now Sharpening Fantasy shows new visual-audio elements until April 28 at Blain|Southern.
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Ina Weber in Berlin: Hier today, gone in April
Joining the ranks of artists such as Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso, Ina Weber exhibits in Haus am Waldsee. Don’t miss her excellent show, “hier” through Apr 1, where she explores urban landscapes with a personal and innovative approach.
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RE-OPENING! Klemm’s in Kreuzberg
One of Berlin’s most important galleries has moved house from gallery-exhausted Mitte to Kreuzberg, where the scene is slightly fresher. Italian painter Bernard Piffaretti’s solo show christens the new space. It reopens on Sat, Mar 16.
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Party Arty turns 10!
Renaissance man and wordsmith Yaneq hosts a birthday bash celebrating a decade of merging visual art with club beats, video, performance, and poetry. Celebrate the decennial of the Party Arty project on Thu, Mar 14 at Prince Charles.
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Eat your art out
Fridey Mickel looks into what happens when galleries meet gastronomy. At Gartenstudio (Kreuzberg), Kantine (Mitte) and Zagreus Projekt (Mitte) people are in for heady concepts as well as heavy bellies.
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Last chance art! Hungry for more
Hungry / Hungry, the current exhibition at Galerie Jochen Hempel and ending this Fri (Feb 22), puts the chaos of the world into perspective. The mixed-media buffet is one of the best of the year, so catch it before the table is cleared.
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Opening! Drawing without drawing
An exhibition exploring the concept uses works touching on elements of typography, drawing, reduced colour palette, black line on white backdrop, and calligraphy. Opening Feb 15 at Gallery Christian Ehrentraut.
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Closing down the Guggenheim
Bid farewell to Berlin’s Deutsche Guggenheim, leaving us on Feb 17. The final exhibition currently on is a spectacular panorama of works by 20th-century art legends.
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World without Men: Helmut Newton
INTERVIEW! Newton museum curator Matthias Harder talks the shadowed side of Helmut and shedding new light on the work of the legendary fashion photographer. ‘World Without Men/Archive de Nuit” runs through May 19.
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Images of junkies and voguing
INTERVIEW! Jeremy Shaw is the artist behind the ubiquitous “Christiane F.” posters around the city in 2011, and is now featured in the KW’s “One on One” exhibition. Catch it before it closes its doors on Jan 20.
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Illuminating the mundane
INTERVIEW. One of four recent finalists in the revered Deutsche Börse Prize, Rinko Kawauchi’s photographs are now on display at the C/O Gallery.
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“I have no solutions”
INTERVIEW: Artist Tue Greenfort on his exhibition ERDGLAS and the contradictions of being climate conscious and winning a prize from a gas company.
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The Shuttered Society: The GDR through another lens
Looking inwards from the other side of the wall, this collection of photographs has had crowds pouring through the Berlinisches Gallery’s doors for weeks. Here’s our review.
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V_Museum: Russian virtual art at HBF
V_Museum simultaneously shows in a single space the work of six young artists standing for the sheer and inspiring diversity of the Moscow off-art scene in an “interactive” exhibition at Haus der Berliner Festspiele. Catch it before it ends, Dec 9.
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You might just be art
INTERVIEW: curator Susanne Pfeffer. One on One is more about the spectator’s interaction with the art than simply the art itself. While logistically complicated, nothing like it has been done before. It opens at KW Institute on Sun, Nov 18.
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“The topic is the birth and evolution of worms”
INTERVIEW: Katja Novitskova. Her sculptural forms use imagery and motifs from the natural world to create a comparison to the way humans have chosen to ensconce themselves within design and aesthetics. Her show opens on Sat, Nov 17 at Kraupa-Tuskany.
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A bunker of one’s own
Nazi bomb shelter, GDR warehouse, techno club, and since Christian and Karen Boros purchased the Mitte heritage-listed bunker in 2003, one the most intriguing sites to experience contemporary art. We take a peek inside.
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Beyond the internet
INTERVIEW: Aude Pariset. Not to be missed, one of the brightest lights of her generation talks to us about her multifarious practice on display in her solo show. The exhibition ends Oct 6, so catch it before the light goes out.
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Colonialism on display
Berlin holds one of the best collections of African art in the world but truth is, it is all stolen property. The excuse? The education and protection of world culture.
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Architecture and Ideology
Valerie Smith’s swansong, an ambitious HKW re-vamp, has just has one week left on the clock but there’s still time to catch it. In case you’re undecided, let us persuade you.
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Berlin Art Week: Who’s the fairest of them all?
The big art bang is upon us! From September 11-16, Berlin’s art scene explodes with fairs, fêtes and even food. Where to go? Exberliner knows!
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Tasteful tea-time eats itself
Queer performance-art collective NowMomentNow have organised a classic high tea with a twist for your delectation. Forget your manners and indulge in a satisfying mix of Foodgasm, photography and live performance.
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Diane Arbus at Martin-Gropius-Bau
There’s only one month left of summer, so if you haven’t seen the two mosted talked exhibitions of the season, it’s time to make your dates. Photography is the medium of choice. Read our review of Diane Arbus here.
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Larry Clark at C/O
There’s only one month left of summer, so if you haven’t seen the two mosted talked exhibitions of the season, it’s time to make your dates. Photography is the medium of choice. Read our review of Larry Clark here.
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“I don’t want to be ironic”
INTERVIEW. Scottish street artist Robert Montgomery confronts advertising with poetry. His newest works, which went on display in Berlin earlier this month, are at once touching, poignant and not at all ironic.
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A different way to fly
Escape to the outside world, via the single wing of an aeroplane: this summarises the latest exhibition on display by Slovak artist Roman Ondák called Do Not Walk Outside This Area. Today’s the last day to catch the exhibition, so catch if you can.
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Interrogation saviours
The multiform investigation agency S.A.V.E. hits 48 Stunden Neukölln at the bar Heroes for the weekend. Artists Ambra Pittoni and Paul-Flavien Enriquez-Sarano turn the investigator lamp on other artists.
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The kids are alright
INTERVIEW. In the wake of what many saw as a bloated, rhetoric-laden, excessively-political affair, artist Cecile B. Evans is staging an intervention, shedding a new light onto the central themes of this year’s Berlin Biennale.
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Light show
INTERVIEW. Young Berlin-based French artist Adrien Missika’s first solo show in Germany, The Sun Is Late, illuminates themes of light, time and perception at Galerie Crone. Catch the sun before it goes down on June 16.
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Craft-Werk
Mitten im Walde is a tiny handicraft heaven full of handmade furniture, design objects in clothes. A step up from all the other Berlin indie arts-and-crafty indie shops, they offers an assortment of beautiful goods to buy – or even rent!
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Pure magic or smoke and mirrors?
INTERVIEW. As part of Gallery Weekend at Isabella Bortolozzi, English artist Ed Atkins and Berlin-based Brit Juliette Blightman believe in magic.
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Berlin Biennale: Forget passivity
The 7th Berlin Biennale not only comments on politics – it provides a platform for political action and collective participation. The time has come to roll up your sleeves and get involved.
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Agitprop on Linienstraße: The 7th Berlin Biennale
INTERVIEW. Polish artist Artur Żmijewski on curating Berlin’s seventh Biennale: a regular at major exhibitions and biennials the world over, Żmijewski is known for ruffling feathers.
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Horvatland: App-solutely
Frank Horvat’s ‘A Trip Through A Mind’ takes on a new form of exhibition; perhaps the true star of it is the iPad. Lean back into a comfy chair and experience a trip through Horvat’s mind. Through Apr 29.
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Diva fever in Berlin
Elsa Quarsell comes to Bassy Club on April 25, for the raucous signing party of her new book, The Domestic Burlesque – a glossy coffee-table composition of burlesquers. The party brings the book to life!
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Art is John Lurie
INTERVIEW. The former Lounge Lizard exhibits in Berlin’s Martin Martens gallery and gives us a glimpse at his lesser known craft, painting, through Apr 29. Don’t miss!
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“I was sick of pretending”
INTERVIEW. Feminist figurehead Judy Chicago is best known for her work “The Dinner Party” which visually provided a place at the table for pussy. Check out the feminist icon at the huge Pacific Standard Time exhibition at Martin-Gropius-Bau.
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Pictoplasma explosion: an interview with Peter Thaler
Pictoplasma curator Thaler knows what makes characters more than cartoons. The colorful character fest hits Berlin April 11-15.
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Ryoji Ikeda at Hamburger Bahnhof
Proving simplicity is key Ikeda’s db runs through April 9. Don’t miss your last chance to enter his sculptural, experiential and utterly immersive world this long weekend.
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Get Plastered
Keep A Breast immortalises your breasts in plaster and turns them into art in the name of breast cancer awareness. Boys, don’t be shy! You’re invited too.
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Found in Translation
Exhibiting nine international artists and throwing up the buzzword ‘globalisation’ as a creative starting point, be sure to catch this intriguing collection at the Deutsche Guggenheim before April 9.
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He eats scum: an interview with Nick Zedd
Downtown low-budget shock king Nick Zedd on why his movies aren’t pretty. Showing at the KW Institute through Apr 9 as part of You Killed Me First, the Cinema of Transgression.
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Jew chic
So far the fine-dining experience has yet to be truly evaluated, but, morbid fetishism aside, the Jüdische Mädchenschule offers stylish homage to the Jews of present with its art space, cuisine, and historical theme.
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Oliver Laric: Destroying an image
INTERVIEW. King of clipart and master of the Mariah Carey mash-up, the Berlin-based Austrian artist prepares for his first Berlin solo show now on at Tanya Leighton,
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Digital art and media deception
A new exhibit called Avoid, Control, Accept, Transfer featuring work by multimedia intellectuals AIDS-3D kicks off today at the fledgling Kraupa Tuskany Gallery. Don’t miss it!
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Digital folk hero: An interview with Olia Lialina
Influential digital artist Lialina on this year’s Transmediale and why the internet is not a “neutral object machine”. Part of the ‘in/compatible’ symposium program from Feb.
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Transmediale 2012
Berlin’s most exciting digital media fest starts today and ends Feb 5. So check it out! What started as a DIY festival showcasing electronic media work is now one of the most important happenings in the city.
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“Life kind of forced me into photography”: Gundula Schulze Eldowy
INTERVIEW. Eldowy documented the stark, dark, honest side of GDR Berlin. With two exhibitions a city’s more complete portrait is pieced together.
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Gundula Schulze Eldowy
Famed photo gallery C/O presents Eldowy’s provocative and harrowing portrayal of life in the GDR. Don’t miss your opportunity to see the iconic photographer’s gritty shots from behind the Wall.
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Paparazzo extraordinaire!
From the iconic to the offensive, one of two highlights at C/O gallery right now is Ron Galella’s portrayal of what lies behind the glamour of the celebrity lifestyle in glorious black and white. Skip OK! mag, this is the real deal.
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“My Mind Only Works When I’m Outside”
INTERVIEW. Every hour during her 30-day hikes, American Mirra would pause and make an ink rubbing, leaving the creation of her work to the chance.
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The Museum of European Cultures reopens
As the Euro crisis sees the continent fall into deeper self-reflection, this anthropological gem, re-opening after two and a half years of renovations, fosters intra-continental understanding.
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How to draw: Berlin!
Berlin has never lacked for either aspiring artists or people willing to take their clothes off for money. But this winter you can bring these two things together in a creative social setting at a couple of live drawing workshops.
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Last chance oil-art before the holidays
Two shows proving oil still has a pulse in the city are drawing to a close – right before the holidays. Get your last bit of art-voyeurism in before the city culturally quiets down.
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Take a piece of the street home
As the Crow Flies’ opening on Dec 16 at Mother Drucker Gallery is an opportunity to take some of that giant Berlin street art and more home in the form of silkscreen prints. Don’t miss out!
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Web on the wall
INTERVIEW: French artist Juliette Bonneviot. The 28-year-old’s internet-inspired exhibition is currently on display at Circus Gallery. It ends Dec 17, so don’t miss it.
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Disassembling Bambi
INTERVIEW: Polish artist Mirosław Bałka. His exhibition Fragment, a selection of video works taken from footage of journeys to concentration and death camps, is on display at Akademie der Künste.
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Thicker than water
Taryn Simon’s A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters is the collection of bloodlines across the globe in a meticulous construction of narratives of family feuds, disorder and absence.
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Who is Ai Weiwei?
An exhibition in Martin-Gropius-Bau goes some way toward penetrating the myth of the man who helped design Beijing’s National Stadium and publicly criticised China’s ruling Communist party in the same breath.
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More than okay
In her exhibition Okay at Galerie Helga Maria Bischoff, American Joanne Grüne-Yanoff takes meaning-saturated animal-derived materials and constructs a playful series of beautiful objects around them.
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Vision of the futures
Interview: Tomás Saraceno. Cloud Cities at Hamburger Bahnhof is Saraceno’s ongoing investigation of a possible future, or futures. The exhibition is monumental and personal at the same time.
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“When I’m lucky I find myself on the verge of invention”
With two solo exhibitions and one group show, you’ll be seeing a lot of Thomas Scheibitz in Berlin this fall. We asked Scheibitz about his process and his recent work.
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The intricate genius of Hokusai
Head to the Martin-Gropius-Bau and you will see why Katsushika Hokusai is rated among the world’s most important artists.The exhibition of the master’s work ends Oct 24. Go!
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Images of war
In a city saturated with its own history of political terror, the 10th anniversary of September 11 saw major Berlin art spaces C/O and KW revisiting images of terror to explore our cultivated mistrust of an image-mediated reality.
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Social net, artwork
Sep 19-23 is Social Media Week all over the world. What has Berlin contributed to our constant digital update-ification of the world? Artconnect Berlin!
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Preview in review
As art fair week hits Berlin with four fairs in five days, the scenester of the bunch is always going to be PREVIEW BERLIN (Sep 9-11), the “emerging” art fair, now in its seventh year. Annabel Brady-Brown gives you a walkthrough.
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Introducing art month: Art fairs round-up
Festival overload continues! In the wake of the Art Forum fiasco, Berlin’s other art fairs scramble to pick up the pieces, pull in the dough and help redefine the city’s cultural (and commercial) moment.
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Temporary culture factory
In the beginning of May, Christophe Knoch started the Mica Moca Project Berlin, an experimental, multi-platform cultural programme in the kind of ramschackle digs that Berliners love so much, in an old safe factory.
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Beyond Heidestraße
Five years on, the Heidestraße Gallery Mile has become a high point of the Berlin art scene. Although big names have come and gone the independent compound continues to thrive.
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“There’s too much coolness going on”
Interview: Amir Fattal. The Israeli-born visual artist brought art to Tape Club four years ago. In January he brought it to Funkhaus. We talked with Fattal about his vision for Berlin’s art scene.
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Glamour for hire
Fashion is an industry that assigns ‘genius’ status to its style gods, and the cult of Helmut Newton proves that this tendency extends to fashion photography. The latest Newton sermon comes in the form of Helmut Newton Polaroids.
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Instant Gratification
Interview: curator of the Helmut Newton Foundation, Dr. Matthias Harder. Helmut Newton Polaroids offers a rare glimpse into the creative process of one of the most influential fashion photographers of the 20th century.
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Es war einmal im Osten…
Maik and Joep met 14 years ago in the (literally) underground club Berlin-Tokyo. In June 2001, they transformed Dutch artist Koen Delaere Maik’s 90sqm club space at Ostkreuz into an art exhibit, and Autocenter was born.
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Moabit in black and white
Interview: Majla Zeneli. In 2009 she found herself living in Moabit. Four months later she opened a studio for Mezzotint printing and now she’s bringing artists to her gallery and making Moabit a major part of Berlin’s art scene.
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A place for artists
Berlin’s very own English-language, art-centric social network is set to launch in the middle of next month. Has the time of stumbling the dark internet alleyways between Craigslist and Kleinanzeigen finally come to an end?
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In the studio with: Anef, silkscreen artist
Leaving France for life among the dirty, squat-punk streets of Friedrichshain, Anef lives the Berlin dream.
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Berlin’s six-week Kunsthalle
In October 2010, Berlin’s mayor announced a project to showcase the city’s artistic production. Five young curators explored Berlin’s art world and developed a program. The end result is the exhibition based in Berlin.
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Roma art finds a Kreuzberg home
In April Galerie Kai Dikhas opened, becoming the first permanent address for contemporary Roma and Sinti art in Germany, and perhaps the world. The exhibition ends June 19. Don’t miss it!
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Get stranded
Whether you’re nostalgic for long Sunday afternoons spent at grandma’s or just want a cheap, fun way to get some new jewellery, Perlerei can help. It’s the place to go for beads, clasps, strings and all the other baubles.
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The Steiner Art Tapes
Interview: Mike Steiner. Before the modern-day artist enclave explosion in the former East, Steiner opened an artist hotel in the West, followed by his Studiogalerie where avant-gardists played with video.
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Escaping shadows
The first show at Blain|Southern, the new gallery from Haunch of Venison founders Harry Blain and Graham Southern, comes in the form of Turning the Seventh Corner by Tim Noble and Sue Webster.
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The Brits are back
Interview: Sue Webster. Turning the Seventh Corner features influential artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster and inaugerates the former Haunch of Venison head honchos’ new gallery: Blain|Southern.
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“We are the army of invaders”
Interview: Esther Schipper. What’s behind the decision to relocate from Mitte to Schöneberg Ufer? Is it the end of an era or a new beginning? For Schipper, it’s all history.
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Berlin’s art bazaar
The seventh edition of Gallery Weekend consumes the Berlin art world this weekend, boasting more galleries than ever showing off the best they have to offer.
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The navigational medium
MoMA comes to Berlin, presenting over 300 works on paper in pencil, watercolor, charcoal, acrylic, body fluids, soot, oil paint, plant extracts, ink and spray paint.
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What a serious horror writing a play “hello man from kebab house” (Josef Kramhöller)
Jochen Kienzle’s show is centred on photographer Josef Kramhöller, cast as a Kafkaesque avatar of himself.
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Character comrades
Pictoplasma Festival is coming: Mitte gets hi-jacked for a week for an unmissable celebration of illustration, animation, sculpture, music and loads more.
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The physicality of sound
INTERVIEW: Rebecca Saunders. One of the composers to watch in Berlin’s vibrant contemporary music scene, Saunders blends dense clusters of sound for her musical and architectural collage, chroma.
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The other side of the lens
Interview: actress Margarita Broich. The photographic work of Broich is the focus of When the Curtain Falls, opening March 18. Broich’s photographs capture actors in the moments just after performing.
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Berlin’s top chicks: Art babes
When it comes to the art world women seem to deploy more influence than power, as taste-shapers at home and key players on the international field. Part of our BERLIN’S TOP CHICKS package from THE BERLINER FRAU issue.
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Tacheles: The saga continues
LATEST NEWS! On Apr 16 there will be a demonstration by Tacheles e.V. in front of Tacheles at 15:00 called Die Mauer Muss Weg against a new wall erected in Berlin, this one only in Mitte.
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Meet the artists
Come inside the graffiti covered walls of Berlin’s most famous Kunsthaus (or tourist trap) with four of Tacheles’ long-term residents.
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Der Traum vom Fliegen
Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s The Art of Flying is an attempt to explore perhaps the most common subject of a wistful afternoon’s childhood fantasy: the dream of flight.
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Get bent
A publication by women and for women, or at least by and for women who are queer-leftist-artist-feminists. The latest issue has playful food-fetishists, interviews, and new takes on menstruation.
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Go west, young man
The Bob Mizer EXILE show, and re-opening exhibition, is a research project as much as an art exhibition, the first attempt to comprehensively identify the artistic vision Mizer captured beneath the California sun.
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Persona stripped
Gerhard Kassner’s Berlinale Portraits 2003-2010, on display and updated daily at the Hotel Bogota, reveals larger than life personalities sans the façade – the result of only brief encounters.
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Angels disguised as lust
The Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition at C/O Berlin displays images of drooping penises, erect flowers, children and leatherboys but in classical form as only Mapplethorpe knew how.
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The revolution will not be Facebooked
Interview: Stephen Kovats. The transmediale artistic director is packing up his laptop following this year’s fest after five years at the helm. Digital suicide and WikiLeaks are on the radar for his last year.
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Canary Islands fly north for the winter
Masks, strange noises, dancers and crazed interior designers. An eclectic clique collaborate for Neurospasta, Dis-play’s showcase of digital artists from the Canary Islands.
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Berlin-Paris: allied art
Taking in establishment figures and emerging artists alike, the third edition of Berlin-Paris sets out to have it all ways. But is the ego stroking necessary?
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Homage to a lost friend
Interview: Klaus Staeck. An anti-establishment man working in the context of the art establishment, Staeck is using his influence to pay homage to his old friend, Sigmar Polke. We spoke Staeck about the man and his art.
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Best of 2010: Another critical year
Street art recognition comes to the proper streets this year, everyone loves treating Damien Hirst like the Ed Hardy of art and people go crazy for Kahlo. And that’s only some of the best.
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Imagine there is a heaven…
A chat with… Björn Dahlem. Dahlem’s exhibition, Die Theorie des Himmels III – Focus Imaginarius, explores the fertile gaps in the rational terms of reason. He explains his role as creator and where religion fits in for him.
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RIP: Haunch of Venison
HoV was the docking station for London-school major-league commercial artists… until it closed with the Yoko Ono show last month. What happened?
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A chat with… Willem De Rooij
“I find it exciting to make two entities clash.” Berlin-based, Dutch-born artist Willem De Rooij discusses his latest exhibition, a project that took four years to realize.
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Nan Goldin: The somnambulist’s foray
Goldin’s exhibition at the Berlinische Galerie is a foray into decadent 1980s that so many of us mourn without ever having tasted. The 80 selected photographs are now on display.
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Ancient art, fresher take
Pony Pedro’s new gallery space seeks to give silk-screen printing a more prominent role in the city’s art scene, giving Berliners a chance to view the medium somewhere warm and accessible to commercial buyers.
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Knowing the world
As the Berlin Year of Science comes to an end, the immense Weltwissen exhibition attempts to track 300 years of scientific progress and asks, “Where are we now?”
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The art that was forbidden
Eleven sculptures unearthed while digging out the new U5 station in front of the Rotes Rathaus tell the story of thousands of pieces of ‘degenerate art’, purged by the Nazis in the 1930s and ’40s. They’re now on display at the Neues Museum.
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Sensing SOMA
A meeting with gods? Through Reindeer urine? Carsten Höller’s grand exhibition posing as a science project, stimulates all human senses – for those lucky enough to afford it.
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Soto
Try to contain your jealousy, girls – Soto hits all the right notes, bringing together men’s wear from a worldly mix of fashion brands. From now on, Berlin boys have no excuse not to sharpen up their act.
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Twenty Glass Shattering Years
Goldrausch’s program for female artists goes beyond traditional art education, opening Berlin’s art scene to women from all over the world.
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Hitler: Volksvillain
Hitler and the Germans: Nation and Crime suggests that the man who ruined a certain type of moustache was not some charismatic monster but a manmade villain – the product of immense popular support.
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Model cities
Models can be much more than design tools – they can be political statements, nostalgic mementoes or just plain art. Dan Borden talks about the REALSTADT exhibition taking place at the new Kraftwerk Mitte venue.
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Portraits of war’s children
Lebensborn – an insidious Nazi scheme to preserve Aryan blood by aiding or forcing desired couplings. Kriegskinder is the photographic work of Einar Bangsund and Fantom e.V.: showing these Lebensbornkinder as they are today.
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Color’s lyrical possibilities
Deutsche Guggenheim’s Color Fields exhibition brightens the Berlin winter. But does it say anything?
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Argentina’s history in art
Akademie der Künste’s South American excursion feels like idealized commercialism, but the works are beautiful.
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Changing tack…
Did Dimitri Hegemann just save Berlin’s art scene? Was its structure crumbling? Kraftwerk Mitte opens its doors with Realstadt, an architectural exhibition of German cities over the past 50 years.
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“Resistance is always late. If it’s on time, you don’t need it”
Interview: Billy Childish on being Childish. The English artist, punk rocker and prolific novelist explains that “any decent artist either lives outside England or is a weirdo”.
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The far side of near
A chat with… THOMAS STRUTH. The versatile, famed German photographer goes to the far sides of the planet to bring something to his newest exhibition in Berlin.
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MMX: The end is just the beginning
Berlin has been compared to New York in the 1970s and 1980s, but do we really want Mitte to become the SoHo of the 2000s? MMX’s last show questions the identity of the art scene.
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First NSK Citizens’ Congress
The world’s first soil-less state touches earth for the first time at the First NSK Citizen’s Congress at Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
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Berlin’s European Month of Photography
The six-week European Month of Photography festival pastes Berlin’s topography into a city-wide ‘scrapbook’. From its hub at Berlinische Galerie, exhibitions radiate out into 100 venues of various kinds.
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Tina Berning & Michelangelo Di Battista: FACE/project
Reassembling the fashion industry production line, Berning and Di Battista give a look at the industry through art – but inside out.
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Art Forum
© Gwenneth Boelens: Remnant, Klemm’s, Berlin.“The atmosphere at Art Forum is relaxed but concentrated. Professional people do not seem to be in such a rush, the way they maybe are at other fairs. A lot of things happen around the fair, too: you have the opportunity to bring people to the galleries, and to organize…
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Kunstsalon
© Carl Smith“Because Kunstsalon allows unrepresented artists to participate, it has a certain vibrancy and home-grown feel to it that attracts a lot of people who are interested in art but are not necessarily part of the ‘art scene’. For an artist like myself (I have works ranging in price from €50-€5000), being there in…
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Six days, six fairs
October is art month all over. At Berlin’s six art fairs international collectors collide with the young art producers. Here’s our guide to what’s what.
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Preview Berlin
© Károly Keserü, Patrick Heide Gallery“Preview brings together an exciting mix of young galleries with consistently strong programming. It is also a size that is easier to digest and to enjoy than the larger fairs. Preview is also a fair that is always up for ‘thinking outside the box’.” Patrick Heide, Patrick Heide Gallery, London.…
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Art Berlin Contemporary (ABC)
© Anna & Bernhard Blume, Buchmann Galerie“ABC has an interesting format that is somehow more precise than an art fair; you can also buy the works, which makes it interesting for us. It is also connected to the Gallery Weekend, which we also do and like very much.” Erik Herkrath, Buchmann Galerie, Berlin. Exhibiting work…
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Stroke.Artfair
When October 7 (18-23:00), October 8-9 (13-23:00), October 10 (13-18:00)Where Station-Berlin, Halle 5, Luckenwalder Straße 4-6, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Gleisdreieck, Tel 0157 7388 1151How much €8Background In 2009, Marco Schwalbe – street-artist and owner of Berlin-Munich mural gallery Intoxicated Demons – launched Stroke, the first art fair devoted to urban art.In a nutshell Painting, advertising graphics,…
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INTERVIEW: The three faces of Preview Berlin
The directors of the art fair that really captures what Berlin is about, Preview Berlin, sat down with us for a chat about how they keep it so fresh!
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Preview Berlin: Thinking outside the booth
Now in year five, Preview Berlin will be holding its ‘cutting edge’ ground Tempelhof’s Hangar 2… with a new conceptual space and first-time exhibitors from postcommunist art scenes.
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Yoko Ono: “I have so much love because the whole world hated me”
INTERVIEW: Yoko Ono’s solo show opened last month at Haunch of Venison with a polysemous title, Das Gift (the poison), and a bullet hole in shattered glass.
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Interview: Dor Guez
ON NOW! Arab or Jewish? Israeli photographer/video artist Dor Guez’s ID card says “Jewish”, but his family history is not as straightforward. With his solo exhibition Al Lydd, he paints a counter-narrative of Palestinian culture.
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Marianne Breslauer: Moments Unnoticed
IN PICTURES! In the 1920s, a generation of women took charge of the freedoms offered between two world wars. Breslauer’s photographs mastered the emergent style, “Neues Sehen”.
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TKH: white cube or white elephant?
After a short and chaotic life, Berlin’s Temporäre Kunsthalle died of natural causes on August 31. We assess the TKH’s ephemeral existence… and its legacy.
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MMX’s Show VI
OUR PICK: MMX is going art-mad this month, with 44 artists/performers. It’s a sort of revolving door policy: one artist leaves each week, but only after curating a replacement show.
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Mona Hatoum
IN PICTURES! A child of Palestinian refugees who fled to Lebanon in the wake of the 1948 war, Käthe-Kollwitz-Preis winner Mona Hatoum’s most striking work riffs on scattered identity.
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Stranger than fiction
“I‘ll come back to the Museum of American Art when I find out where it is,” wrote one visitor in MoAA’s guest book. Geographically, it’s at No. 91 Frankfurter Allee, but getting in isn’t so straightforward…
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A chat with… multimedia artist Ján Mančuška
Sadly Ján Mančuška died in Prague at the age of 39 after struggling with illness for a long time. Sam Williams had a chat with him last summer regarding his 2010 Berlin exhibition.
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Innen Stadt Außen
OUR PICK: Olafur Eliasson’s show comprises a city-wide web of installations: at Martin-Gropius-Bau, there are rooms of coloured “fog”, a hall of mirrors and an electrical storm performed by a dancing hosepipe.
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Magnum: Shifting Media, New Role of Photography
OUR PICK: A lot has changed since 1947, when the world’s foremost photo agency was founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson. C|O sums up 60 years of photojournalism’s biggest names.
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Stuart Brisley: “I often take off my trousers to reduce the notion of male power”
DON’T MISS: Performance artist Brisley has always sought out the hidden or discarded – the homeless, food, excrement. He’s winding down his first German show in 20 years.
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World Press Photo 10
LAST CHANCE! The spine-tingling, prize-winning images in Willy-Brandt-Haus’ exhibition do more than illustrate news stories: they turn photojournalism into fine art.
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Art Barter 2010
Art’s most radical experiment comes to Berlin: bid (with services!) on unnamed, uncaptioned, unauthored and unpriced works… that may or may not be by somebody famous.
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June art round-up: boxers, bubbles and eight crates of beer
From Jan Christensen’s alcoholic balancing act to Richard Wilson’s 1000°C steel box – not to mention the Biennale – there’s plenty in town to get art enthusiasts hot and bothered.
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Louise Bourgeois: “Pain is the business I am in”
Ninety-eight-year-old French artist Louise Bourgeois died in New York on May 31, as some of her work was being shown at Berlin’s Double Sexus exhibition – billed as the “last exhibition led by the artist herself”.
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“Living here abstracts everything”
LAST CHANCE! British multimedia artist Mathew Hale came to Berlin before the hype hit – 10 years ago – with his partner, the visual artist Tacita Dean. A local show proves his art is still as unfathomable as ever.
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Interview: Jo Baer
NOW SHOWING: As she hopped from New York to London to Amsterdam, from Minimalism to Radical Figuration, painter Jo Baer has always searched for new ways to “‘do the right thing’”. Now she’s on to “fusion art”…
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The Aga Khan’s treasures
OUR PICK: The Ismaili Muslims’ spiritual leader is displaying 200 pieces from his private collection – one of the world’s oldest and most valuable collections of Islamic art – for the first time ever.
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Interview: Art Spiegelman
No self-respecting comic retrospective – let alone a Jewish one – could do without the work of Art Spielgelman, author of “Maus”: the Jewish Museum’s includes a few original prints. But isn’t Spiegelman more than a ‘Jewish artist’?
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Conversation Pieces
Just like 18th century group portraits (the original ‘conversation pieces’), Johnen Galerie’s show engages a diverse collection of artists in a series of dynamic exchanges.
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MMX: a breath of fresh air
On Linienstraße in Mitte, once a hive of cutting-edge artistic activity, trendy galleries have displaced the squats and affordable housing. But slick rooms don’t guarantee better art: that’s why MMX is so refreshing.
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Rudolf Stingel’s LIVE
At the Neue Nationalgalerie, Mies van der Rohe’s sober, minimalistic entrance hall has been transformed by an ornate carpet and a golden chandelier – the epitome of what the Bauhaus crew couldn’t stand.
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A chat with… Vera Mercer
Born in Berlin in 1936, Vera Mercer was a trained dancer before she moved on to photography, Paris and the Nouveau Réalistes. Now, Mercer creates extraordinary still lifes of food – and she is returning to the city of her birth for a retrospective.
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Interview: Emil Holmer
Mixing traditional media like charcoal and oils with spray paint, scraps of porn found on the street and South African tabloid headlines, Emil Holmer’s Dead Letters paintings are a series of neon horror stories.
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Utopia Matters
From Marx to the Modernists and beyond, utopia was something to strive for – a goal that could be incorporated into everyday life. Here in Berlin (some would say a utopia in its own right), Deutsche Guggenheim has taken up the subject.
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A chat with… Bertrand Gadenne
When he was little, Bertrand Gadenne always knew he wanted to be an artist. As an adult, he has moved from medium to medium – from painting to slides and, later, videos.
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Interview: Nicholas Provost
The Belgian artist/filmmaker Nicolas Provost grew up under the influence of Serge Gainsbourg, his cousin (a local rock star) and French cinema. His work glides from nostalgic found footage to cutting edge experimental filmmaking.
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Interview: Phil Collins
In his complex, engaging and very often funny works, the Berlin-based 2006 Turner Prize nominee Phil Collins (not to be confused with the former member of the band Genesis) balances heightened social engagement with playfulness.
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A chat with… Honor Harger, transmediale.10 curator
Honor Harger started her career as an artist and curator on the airwaves in her native New Zealand, with the experimental broadcasting project Radioqualia.
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A chat with… Lucia Rojas Egaña
The Chilean artist Lucia Rojas Egaña works in many capacities: as a documentary-maker, video artist, creative collaborator and collector of trash. She is based in Barcelona and recently completed a residency at Kreuzberg’s GlogauAIR.
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Interview: Thomas Demand
By taking photos and transforming them into models made from cardboard and paper, the German artist Thomas Demand translates two-dimensional objects into three-dimensional ones. Then he brings the models back to their original state by photographing them.