Berliner Salon: Obama, Brotherhood and XV. Rohkunstbau
After Obama’s electrifying speech at the Siegessäule this past Thursday, it seems appropriate to mention the fifteenth installment of Rohkunstbau, a trilogy entitled THREE COLORS- BLUE WHITE RED, the final chapter of which (RED) opened two weeks ago at its new location at Villa Kellermann on the Heiliger Lake in Potsdam, which the press release describes as possessing “a layered and ambiguous aristocratic, bourgeois and proletarian history.”
The exhibition coincides with the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly’s Declaration of Human Rights, which states, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” The participating artists, Marc Bauer, Guy Ben-Ner, Richard Hamilton, Britta Jones, Alexandra Khlestkina, Jonathan Monk, Jose Noguero, Bettina Pousttchi, Cornelia Renz and Brigitte Waldach, were asked to create work that addressed their understanding of “brotherhood” in the politically-charged, geographically fragmented and fundamentally combative climate of our contemporary times.
From the press release, “At no time in recent history has the idea of an international brotherhood of man been under greater threat. The United Nations, the promulgator of ‘endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood,’ appears today to be a deeply troubled organisation. Within Europe a sense of a shared human endeavour seems equally problematic and put into doubt and question. Contemporary artists engaging with the subject matter becomes as a result a prescient means to discuss and open up issues related to what was once taken as a given, namely the brotherhood of life declared as the meaningful manifestation of our shared human existence.”
THREE COLORS- RED is on view until October 5th. For more information on the exhibition, click here. Schoenes Wochenende.
Berliner Salon: Fashion Week and the Paparazzi
Yesterday inaugurated Berlin Fashion Week, which will continue through the weekend, bringing a number of “celebrities” to town, as well as designers, models and the ubiquitous hangers-on. It’s a pretty well known fact, however, that Berlin Fashion Week often leaves much to be desired, both in the way of big name runway shows, and big name industry insiders. Fortunately, the Helmut Newton Foundationhas taken it upon itself to mount an exhibition celebrating old-guard glamour and the cult of celebrity, so out-of-towners and locals alike can still indulge in some good old fashion voyeurism.Entitled Pigozzi and the Paparazzi and with “approximately 350 b/w and colour prints by Salomon, Weegee, Galella, Quinn, Angeli, Secchiaroli, Pigozzi and Newton, the exhibition presents the forerunners and central figures of the “classic” period of paparrazi photography—and provides a visual commentary about the evolution of this phenomenon. The exhibition offers an overview and critical look at the history of a photographic genre dedicated to fame and sensationalism,” according to the press release. In light of the present-day hysteria surrounding public figures, Pigozzi and the Paparazzi offers a more serene, nostalgic and somehow romantic version of celebrity sovereignty, back when it was dignified.The exhibition runs through November 16th. To view additional images from the show, click here. Schoenes Wochenende.
Berliner Salon: Richard Serra at Kunst Werke
Last weekend Kunst Werke opened an exhibition of films by Ricarda Roggan, Albrecht Schäfer and Art:21 Season 1 artist Richard Serra. Serra’s part of the exhibition, entitled Thinking on Your Feet (in reference to a 2005 documentary about the artist by Maria Anna Tappeiner), is comprised of 5 videos shot by Serra between 1968 and 1976. The press release touts this exhibition as the first devoted solely to the artist’s cinematic work and quotes Serra as stating, “Seeing Chelsea Girls and Yvonne Rainer’s hand film, I felt that making film was open to me. Up to that point, I’d felt a deference for film, and maybe I was a little bit frightened of it; I wouldn’t have picked up a camera… I probably had to shoot these films so as to make the difference to sculpture clearer to me.”
Thinking on Your Feet is on view at Kunst Werke until September 7th. To learn more about the exhibition click here. Schoenes Wochenende.
Berliner Salon: Sugimoto at the Neue and Street art in F-hain
As previously posted, Hiroshi Sugimoto’s retrospective opened today at the Neue National Galerie. Having seen the show in the context of Mies van der Rohe’s brilliantly minimal architectural monument, I can honestly say that Sugimoto’s work has never looked better. The installation is lovely and the clean lines of the Neue perfectly compliment the Japanese artist’s tendency for monochromatic refinement and pristine geometry.But, for those who are more interested in the lowbrow aesthetics of the public sphere, as opposed to the highbrow conceptualism of the institution, tomorrow marks the opening of the street art festival Urban Affairs, which will combine action painting, site-specific installation and original artwork by some of the graffiti genre’s most notorious activists. El Tono and Nano 4814, both of whom were recently commissioned by the Tate Modern to create large-scale on-site murals, will participate in the festival. Other notable urban artists on view include Dolk, El Bocho, Alias and Nomad, plus there will be an after party in the beer garden immediately adjacent to the venue, a converted former brewery located in the predominately punk neighborhood of Friedrichshain (F-hain) that boasts an unglaublich 900 sq. meters of exhibition space. Considering Berlin’s reputation as a graffiti mecca of the urban art world, this opening is not to be missed.In other news, there are fire works going off in Berlin right now, which is helping this American feel almost disturbingly at home. The American Embassy opened today after a prolonged construction coma and George Bush Senior himself is in town to do the inaugural honors, in an ironic nod to all of us Expats who left America to avoid the Bush family in the first place. Regardless, happy 4th of July! Schoenes Wochenende.
Berliner Salon: Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno at DAAD Galerie
The streets of Berlin have been unusually rowdy these past few weeks, with the screams of belligerent football fans reverberating off every wall. As is customary in this country, a home team victory is ceremoniously followed by bleary-eyed Germans taking to the streets, in their cars no less, and driving around drunk while laying on the horn, waving flags out their windows and yelling nonsense at any pedestrian unfortunate enough to be on the sidewalk at this historic hour. It’s “a cultural experience,” albeit slightly disturbing and undoubtedly dangerous, but soccer is a religion over here and this is how the locals worship. After Germany’s victory over Turkey last Wednesday, in a match-up that hit quite close to home considering the continuing controversy surrounding Turkish immigration in Deutschland (and especially in the country’s capital), Berliners are gearing up for the final game on Sunday and even the art world has been invaded by football fanaticism.
DAAD Galerie is currently showing a video by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno entitled Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, which follows the legendary French footballer’s every move with 17 cameras during a 2005 match against FC Villareal. The resulting portrait serves to further idolize Zinedine Zidane, a polarizing figure in the football world, whose final match- the 2006 World Cup championship game against Italy- will always be remembered for the notorious head-butting incident, in which Zidane attacked an opponent who had apparently disrespected his mother and/or sister, and was thrown out of the game. Depending on your perspective it was either staggeringly heroic or appallingly disgraceful.
Although there’s no head-butting in Gordon and Parreno’s piece, it is reminiscent of Paul Pfeiffer’s (Season 2) series The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which captured professional basketball players in iconic poses, illuminated by the court’s glaring lights, their bodies glowing in artificial halos surrounded by legions of followers. Similarly, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait depicts the soccer star from the eyes of a fanatic, elevating a mere mortal to the ranks of the Gods. Whether or not you agree that these players deserve their deification, the fact remains that come Sunday, the entire city will be praying for some kind of divine intervention on the soccer field. The losers will be sacrificed and the winners will be immortalized. Regardless of the outcome, stay away from cross walks once the final whistle blows. Schoenes Wochenende.
Berliner Salon: Shilpa Gupta at BodhiBerlin and Galerie Volker Diehl
The buzz in Berlin right now is around Indian media artist Shilpa Gupta’s first exhibition(s) in Germany, with concurrent shows opening tonight at two local galleries. BodhiBerlin, the recently-opened, first European branch of the contemporary Indian art gallery Bodhi Art (which also has spaces in Mumbai, Singapore and New York), and Galerie Volker Diehl (which recently opened a Russian outpost) have consciously bridged Berlin’s urban divide to “allow both Berliners and an international audience further access to [Gupta’s] particular use of regional and political geography in which she tackles issues that include notions of borders within and in-between media, religion and nations,” according to the press release.
BlindStars StarsBlind, as the exhibitions are titled, will incorporate Gupta’s signature interactive mediums, as well as more static works such as photography, all dealing with topical political issues concerning widespread terror tactics and suppression, as inflicted by both external and internal societal factions and through international media platforms. Her critique of man-made boundaries erected through geopolitics and religious fundamentalism is a particularly loaded concept for this unusual collaboration between BodhiBerlin and Volker Diehl, the latter being the first Western art dealer to establish a gallery in Moscow, appropriately titled Diehl + Gallery One, which opened in April with an exhibition by Art21 Season 4 artist Jenny Holzer that closes tomorrow.
BlindStars StarsBlind runs through August 2nd at both Galerie Volker Diehl and BodhiBerlin. For more information about Shilpa Gupta’s exhibition and accompanying monograph, click here. Schoenes Wochenende.
Berliner Salon: Sensitive Thinking Post-Basel
Berlin was oddly still this week. It seems everyone has gone to Art Basel. Although I’m sure Basel is the circus of fabulous wealth, beautiful objects and pretty people that it always is, I also know that Basel has an ugly side, as all art fairs do.
For those poor souls actually working the fair, trapped inside all day, smiling politely, repeating themselves inanely, desperate to close the (next) deal, Art Basel, the ultimate art fair, can be the ultimate torture. Throngs of people, billionaire collectors haggling over a few hundred dollars, increasing pressure to sell out the booth—it all adds up to an epic migraine and is only exasperated by nightly networking commitments lubricated by a deadly combination of jet lag and alcohol. The stress can turn colleagues into nemeses and the event’s abject display of commercial excess can render even the most enthusiastic art lover an eye-rolling cynic. Like I said, it’s not so pretty.
But, for weary Berliners returning from Basel, there’s hope. Next Wednesday, the Berlin Biennial’s night program will offer a workshop with theater director Augusto Boal, whose humanitarian efforts won him a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Boal will host “Theater and Sensitive Thinking,” which will continue his practice of “incorporating the audience into the play’s production in order to restore a sense of community,” according to the bb5 website.
While the international art community recovers from Basel’s inflicted wounds, the Berlin art scene can take solace in Boal’s continuing example of true artistic civic service. Touted as “the most prominent theater pedagogue of our time,” his work “Theatre of the Oppressed was created in 1971 in Brazil with the specific goal of dealing with social exclusion, political repression, and other urgent local issues.” The chance to participate in an event with an extraordinary artist who has made such substantial cultural contributions is a rare opportunity to meditate on art’s most meaningful manifestations, especially in the face of the ever-mutating, all-consuming market. It’s a profound and much needed reminder about what it’s all about and, frankly, it couldn’t come at a better time. For more information about Augusto Boal’s Biennial workshop or to purchase tickets, click here. Schoenes Wochenende.
Berliner Salon: First steps in Kraków + Mike Kelley and Raymond Pettibon at auction
Yesterday witnessed the inauguration of an exhibition at the National Museum in Kraków, Poland that is being heralded as the “first step towards a collection of Western contemporary art.” In fact, that’s the exhibition’s title. Rafael Jablonka, the owner of two eponymous galleries in Cologne and Berlin, has lent 50 major works from his private collection to the museum for 18 months (with the noted intention of eventually lending them permanently) by Nobuyoshi Araki, Miquel Barceló, Francesco Clemente, Eric Fischl, Mike Kelley (Season 3), David LaChapelle, Sherri Levine, Andreas Slominski, Philip Taaffe and Andy Warhol. The resulting exhibition should be accredited with providing a solid contemporary base for the museum’s infant post-modern collection, with represented mediums ranging from Levine’s conceptual minimal sculpture and LaChapelle’s sensationally staged photography to Taaffe’s large-scale organic abstraction and Kelley’s technicolor videos inspired by pop culture comics.
The opening, which I was fortunate to attend, was packed and the after-dinner/buffet was upbeat, classy, yet relatively laid-back, considering the event’s scale and historical significance. This can probably be attributed to Jablonka’s personality, a refreshing combination of no-frills practicality, compassionate generosity and, let it be said, the party stamina of someone half his age (aka my age). When I left the after-after-party around 2 am, held at the local art bar whose name I frankly can’t remember, Jablonka and Co. were still holding court on the dance floor, getting down to the funk/soul DJ set and putting me and my brethren of 20-somethings to shame. Dear Rafael Jablonka, R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
On the Berlin beat, there will be an auction this weekend at the restaurant/club Rodeo, located above C/O Berlin in the historic former post-office’s beautiful cupola, which will include works by artists such as urban vandal collective Faile, Mike Kelley, Raymond Pettibon (Season 2)and Terry Richardson. Due to limited seating, reservations are required and can be made at this address: fly@art-advise.com. The auction begins at 5pm on Sunday. For more information about available works, estimates and the auction itself, click here. Schoenes Wochenende.
Berliner Salon: The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and Alec Soth
Disclaimer: the following post is biased, self-indulgent, anecdotal and probably too long for a blog.
Yesterday I had the delight of seeing one of my all time favorite people for the first time in almost two years, the brilliantly poetic photographer Alec Soth. Alec was in Berlin for two openings, Dog Days, Bogotá at Wohnmaschine and Fashion Magazine, Paris/Minnesota at C/O Berlin, the latter of which was being presented in conjunction with the annual Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, given this year to Esko Männikkö. Alec had been shortlisted for the prize in 2006, which was ultimately rewarded to Art21 Season 4 artist Robert Adams, who then promptly donated the entire £30,000 cash award to a human rights organization.
I first came to know Alec when he was picked up by Gagosian Gallery, where I had recently begun working after graduating from a small liberal arts college in Vermont. The combination of a modest, laid-back Minnesota native and an idealistic and totally naïve Vermont transplant, both (relatively) new to the elite milieu that is Gagosian had the potential to be utterly disastrous. Fortunately, we somehow managed to survive his first exhibition at the gallery, despite the opening being pushed up by several months, not to mention technical difficulties at the printers and a slew of other behind-the-scenes obstacles.
Alec’s show, NIAGARA, was well received and the accompanying monograph, published by Steidl, won that year’s Golden Light Book Award. He is a Magnum Photos associate photographer and he was recently exhibited at the Jeu de Paume in Paris and yet, Alec remains one of the most humble, self-deprecating and genuine artists, with whom I have had the pleasure of working. “I was just in China and I’ve been wearing the same clothes for I don’t know how many days. I just want to hide,” he told me before leaving Wohnmaschine to give his speech at C/O Berlin. “Don’t worry,” I assured him, “wearing the same clothes for multiple days means you’re truly a Berliner.”
When addressing the audience that had gathered in C/O’s upper floor in honor of the Deutsche Borse, Alec stayed true to form, emphasizing that he had, in fact, been a Deutsche Börse “loser.” His works on view, a series of photographs depicting the world and personalities of couture fashion, are not emblematic of his signature style (typically melancholic portrayals of banal beauty and subtle humanity), which Alec also noted. “These are fashion photographs, but I’m not a fashion photographer. There are also advertising photographs, but I’m not an advertising photographer…and I’m here in Berlin, with stylish 20 year-olds everywhere I look, but as you can see,” he gestured towards his black t-shirt over black jeans, “I’m not really stylish, and so I’m not really a Berliner.”
The connection between Alec’s photography and the shortlisted nominees for this year’s prize is precisely the social conscious, however fragile, that Dog Days, Bogota exposes. Images of forlorn stray animals, vacant decaying living quarters and other intimate spaces, wide-eyed children and overcast ramshackle urban landscapes dominate the exhibition. Similarly, John Davies (UK), Jacob Holdt (Denmark), Esko Männikkö (Finland) and Fazal Sheikh (USA) all address these themes through their individual lenses, converging in an exhibition that speaks of the human spirit, as well as the pain that we, as a collective society, inflict on ourselves and on our natural habitat.
The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize will be exhibited at C/O Berlin through July 18. Dog Days, Bogota will be on view at Wohnmaschine until June 28. Both exhibitions are absolutely worth seeing and every photographer included should be accredited with contributing a powerful and honest voice to the international discourse of contemporary art and photographic imagery. Schoenes Wochenende.
Berliner Salon: Gallery Weekend Redux
The Berlin art world is still recovering from last weekend’s gallery marathon, which witnessed an unprecedented number of events in what can only be described as the city’s most strategic p.r. ploy since Mayor Klaus Wowereit inadvertently labeled Berlin “poor but sexy” and, in doing so, accidentally created his Hauptstadt’s unofficial slogan. Well, Berlin seems to be losing its poor status, while remaining as sexy as ever, with new (and often extravagant) spaces opening en masse and major patrons opening their collections to the public now more than ever before.
Last weekend saw the opening of Loock, a beautiful new space run by Friedrich Loock, the founder of Wohnmaschine, which exhibits Alec Soth and other internationally renowned artists. In addition, Carlier Gebauer inaugurated their new space, a massive venue that boasts 800 square meters and has major solo exhibitions planned in upcoming months for artists such as Paul Graham, Janaina Tschäpe, Ryan Trecartin and Art:21 Season 2 artist Paul Pfeiffer. The new gallery will feature a “media room,” essentially a movie theater, which will also be used for lectures and workshops “to develop an intensive communication program with an emphasis on the gallery’s focus on installation pieces working with video and film,” according to the press release.
Among the private collections that were open last weekend was the Sammlung Boros, an amazing selection of artworks, many by local art stars like Anselm Reyle and Olafur Eliasson, housed in a converted bunker that behaves like a concrete contemporary art labyrinth full of neon light and surprising sculptural installations. Adding to the weekend’s intense art itinerary, Italian collector Mariano Pichler opened a curated exhibition entitled Leftovers, which featured works by Maurizio Cattelan, Steven Parrino, Zilvinas Kempinas and Art:21 Season 2 artist Gabriel Orozco. The exhibition only ran for the duration of Gallery Weekend, but Pichler’s decision to bring his collection to Berlin proves that despite this city’s penchant for poverty, it still knows how to attract money, if only for the weekend. Schoenes Wochenende.
