BERLIN ART NEWS : October 2009 - January 2010 Exhibitions in Public Spaces (selection) 7. Asia-Pacific Weeks Berlin 2009 Festival October 10 - 18, 2009 Haus der Kulturen der Welt / The House of World Cultures What are tree houses doing in the House of World Cultures? Does Australian Chardonnay go better with early music or hip-hop? Why is the legendary “Wembley goal” a sound-spectacle for thousands of Filipinos? And what’s with the stuffed yellow rats that look like Pokémon characters? In 2009 prominent arts and cultural institutions in Berlin are presenting exhibitions, literature, dance, theatre, music, fashion, and youth culture. A ten-day program of highlights offers a look into contemporary developments in the Asian-Pacific region. Further informations: http://www.hkw.de and http://www.hkw.de/en/programm2009/Jahresprogramm.php Abstraction and Empathy until October 16, 2009 Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin Drawn from Deutsche Bank’s extensive collection of works on paper, this exhibition takes its inspiration, and its title, from Wilhelm Worringer’s seminal 1907 book Abstraction and Empathy. In this text, Worringer identifies two opposing tendencies pervading the history of art from ancient times through the Enlightenment. He claims that in societies experiencing periods of anxiety and intense spirituality, such as those of ancient Egypt and the Middle Ages, artistic production tends toward a flat, crystalline “abstraction,” while cultures that are oriented toward science and the physical world, like ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy, are dominated by more naturalistic, embodied styles, which he grouped under the term “empathy.” Further informations: http://www.deutsche-guggenheim.de BETHAN HUWS . Fountain until October 17, 2009 DAAD Galerie - The Artists-in-Berlin Programme by the German Academic Exchange Service Fountain is a new film from the Welsh artist Bethan Huws, which premieres at the daadgalerie. The 7-minute film is a poetic and linguistic study of the readymade and Marcel Duchamp's last work Étant donnés (1946-66). At the same time, Fountain addresses the particular relationship between language and art. For further informations: http://www.berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de KÄTHE-KOLLWITZ-PREIS 2009 . ULRIKE GROSSARTH until October 18, 2009 Akademie der Künste / Academy of Arts Further informations: http://www.adk.de HITO STEYERL until Oktober 18, 2009 Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK) The presentation in the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein is artist and film-maker Hito Steyerl's first solo show at a German institution. Her work has been featured at big exhibitions such as the 3. berlin biennial for contemporary art (2004), Manifesta 5 (2004), documenta 12 (2007), or the Shanghai Biennial (2008). Trained as a filmmaker, she holds a PhD in philosophy and works on the borderline between cinema and visual art, combing elements of experimental film, auteur cinema, documentary, and video art to undertake cutting post-colonial and feminist critiques of representation. Curated by Marius Babias. . Further informations: http://www.nbk.org JULIE MEHRETU . Grey Area October 28, 2009 – January 6, 2010 Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin DAcclaimed American artist Julie Mehretu will premiere a new suite of paintings that she has produced for the fifteenth project of Deutsche Guggenheim’s commission program. Mehretu is celebrated for her large scale paintings and drawings that layer abstract forms with familiar architectural imagery. Drawn from a multitude of sources including historical photographs, urban planning grids, architectural drawings, graffiti, and comic books, these semi-abstract works explore the social concerns of power, history, globalism, and the built environment and their impact on the formation of personal and communal identity. For the Deutsche Guggenheim, Mehretu produced a remarkable suite of seven paintings that ruminate on her impressions of Berlin. The commission is scheduled to travel to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York in 2010 and is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue. Curator: Joan Young, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Further informations: http://www.deutsche-guggenheim.de Taswir – Pictorial Mappings of Islam and Modernity November 5, 2009 - January 18, 2010 Martin-Gropius-Bau “Taswir – Pictorial Mappings of Islam and Modernity” is an exhibition mounted by the Berliner Festspiele in the Martin-Gropius-Bau that takes a contemporary look at Islamic forms of visual expression. The exhibition focuses on three major themes: Calligraphy, Ornament and Miniatures. It places specimens of classical Islamic art in the context of modern and contemporary output in the fields of graphics, drawing, painting, photography, video art, installation, sound and sculpture. Idea and overall concept Almut Sh. Bruckstein Çoruh. Curators Almut Sh. Bruckstein Çoruh (Berlin) and Hendrik Budde (Berlin). Further informations: http://www.gropiusbau.de CEAL FLOYER. Show until November 8, 2009 Kunst-Werke Berlin - Institute for Contemporary Art Seemingly the two scenes are identical in every detail: The mirroring of two vigorous pensioners dancing expressively in theirmiddle-class living room. With lilting steps they are cutting up the floor on the Persian carpet. Surrounded by a paneled dresser and bureau, the domesticity is cheerfully converted into a dancing pleasure. Yet something ruptures the sweet idyll: changes, skips and additions have sneaked into the doubling of events. In search of these differences the keen eye takes in scenes andmagazines, and is finally satisfied to find them. The doubling of images withmistakes—in the present case the art historical device of the comparative look is activated within American weekend entertainment.. Further informations: http://www.kw-berlin.de Istanbul Modern Berlin November 12, 2009 - January 17, 2010 Martin-Gropius-Bau An exhibition on the occasion of the twenty-year town twinning Berlin – Istanbul. Within the exhibition series “Istanbul Next Wave”. Organizer: Kulturprojekte Berlin in cooperation with the city of Istanbul and Akademie der Künste Berlin. Further informations: http://www.gropiusbau.de Scorpio’s Garden - Compiled by Kirstine Roepstorff until November 15, 2009 Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin The exhibition Scorpio’s Garden is a subjective snapshot of the current Berlin art scene, bringing together works and performances of more than 30 international artists. Kirstine Roepstorff (*1972) metaphorically interprets Berlin as a garden, thus highlighting the city’s role as a platform for intellectual exchange and artistic production – a place where images, ideas and concepts find a favorable medium in which to grow, proliferate and compete with each other. Outside: Echo, Bettina Pousttchi September 2009 to February 2010. Further informations: http://www.kunsthalle-berlin.com Picture Dreams. Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch Collection until November 22, 2009 Neue Nationalgalerie / New National Gallery The Pietzsch Collection ranks as one of the internationally most significant collections of Surrealist art, with principle works by André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Paul Delvaux, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joan Miró, André Masson and Yves Tanguy, as well as numerous works by other artists more broadly connected to the Surrealist movement. A second important core aspect to the collection lies in works by the Abstract Expressionists in America, whose art movement rose directly from the roots of Surrealism to flourish in the New York of the nineteen-fifties. Works by important figures who have since become legends in their own right, such as Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman are all represented in the collection together with works by the great Mexicans Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Further informations: http://www.neue-nationalgalerie.de Worldtronics 2009 . Festival of Electronic Music November 25 - 28, 2009 Haus der Kulturen der Welt / The House of World Cultures WORLDTRONICS is about activities in less known, but all the more active music scenes from around the world: developments in places that don’t immediately come to mind when talking about electronic music, yet guarantee interesting stylistic innovations and trends. Further informations: http://www.hkw.de and http://www.hkw.de/en/programm2009/Jahresprogramm.php Amerikana . RealismusStudio November 28, 2009 – January 10, 2010. Opening: November 27, 2009, 7 pm Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst / The New Society for Visual Arts (NGBK) Over the course of many decades the historical development of US society has been mythologized – by westerns, hippy culture and a range of emancipation movements, but also by the mass media, the entertainment industry and industrial propaganda. Critical scrutiny of these phenomena has led to the development of sustainable theoretical and activist debate. Over recent years US artists have shown a noticeably increasing interest in their own myths and in deconstructing them. Artists: Martha Colburn, Robert Gober, Mary Lucier, John Miller, Donald Moffett, u. a. Further informations: http://www.ngbk.de ANTON HENNING - Antidote until November 29, 2009 Haus am Waldsee - Ort Internationaler Gegenwartskunst / A Place for the Arts Further informations: http://hausamwaldsee.de NAN GOLDIN . Slideshows until December 6, 2009 C/O Berlin Postfuhramt - International Forum For Visual Dialogues “These pictures come out of relationships, not observation.” Nan Goldin. Nan Goldin’s photographs are as touching and shocking today as they were thirty years ago. Their fascination does not necessarily stem from their subject matter—oscillating, as it does, between glamour and the gutter, with rare moments of normality and happiness—but from their radical intimacy. Goldin approaches only those who are close to her with her camera, thus sensitively capturing the everyday suffering from sickness, dependence, violence, and excess. She does not just empathize with the hardships of her friends and family, but is herself an essential part of their lives and experiences. Again and again, her photographic interiors and exterior views reveal the extent to which her photographs are interwoven with her own life and fate. In these works, the acute suffering of others simultaneously comes to represent Goldin’s own abject circumstances. C/O Berlin presents five of Nan Goldin’s slideshows, several of which will be seen in Berlin for the first time: “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” (1981), “All By Myself” (1995/96), “Heartbeat” (2003), “The Other Side” (2008) and “New Kids Show” (2008). These slide series are highly condensed stories and memories set to music compiled by Goldin herself. Further informations: http://www.co-berlin.info ROBERT FRANK . The Movies . 1959 - 2002 until December 6, 2009 C/O Berlin Postfuhramt - International Forum For Visual Dialogues In his films, Robert Frank examines the public and private aspects of American everyday life—the modern odysseys, the familiar speechlessness, bacchanalian revelries, and sexual freedom—without pathos, but with a touch of irony. Frank?s films are unsettling because they do not draw clear boundaries between genres; biographic, documentary and fictional elements are seamlessly intertwined. C/O Berlin will present the first exhibition and only show in Germany of Robert Frank?s audiovisual work: a selection of films and videos from one of the most important photographers and filmmakers of the twentieth century. The uncut version of the film “Cocksucker Blues” (1972), which documents the Rolling Stones? tour through the United States in the same year, will be shown in Berlin as a world premiere. Further informations: http://www.co-berlin.info Talents 17 . Life with Maggie . Ofer Wolberger/Jennifer Crowley until December 6, 2009 C/O Berlin Postfuhramt - International Forum For Visual Dialogues The places in the photos seem familiar, the people almost recognizable, the situations common, everyday. They show normality—so normal that it’s disconcerting. Where and when were the photographs taken? Who are the people in them? How are they connected? In the search for details that might provide answers, the viewer cannot find or decipher either meanings and identities, or relationships and histories in the photographs of Anne Lass. They are images of deindividualized people who find themselves in places devoid of history – documents of disorientation and interchangeability. Anne Lass’ skillful experimentation with anonymity and the lack of references is what makes her photographs so fascinating. Further informations: http://www.co-berlin.info Germany-Korea: Migration movements during the cold war until November 15, 2009 Neue Gesellschafz für Bildene Kunst/ The New Society for Visual Arts (NGBK) The ‘Divided and Shared History’ unites Germany and Korea in a special way. The two countries were both front-line states in the Cold War – and are at the same time both marked by a history of division. The manifold migration routes between Korea and Germany were characterized by complex inter-relationships and trans-border, frontier-extending activities, which are here for the first time studied against the backdrop of the Cold War. Further informations: http://www.ngbk.de HELMUT NEWTON - SUMO Helmut Newton Foundation, until December 2009 With sumo, the Helmut Newton Foundation presents what might just be the most spectacular and expensive photography book project ever. ten years ago, publisher Benedikt Taschen persuaded Helmut Newton to agree to produce a gigantic book with a print run of 10,000 copies, all signed by the photographer. accompanied by a custom-made book holder by Philippe Starck, the book found its way into the homes of well-heeled buyers. now, for the first time, its 394 photographs will go on display to mark the 10th anniversary of a photography publication that today is a much sought-after collector's item. to accompany this presentation, Taschen will publish a smaller and revised version of the book for the regular book market. In addition to sumo, Mark Arbeit, George Holz and Just Loomis will be presented at the Helmut Newton Foundation with their photography under the title "three boys from pasadena". in the late 70s, they were students at the art center college of design in pasadena, califonia and later became assistants of helmut Newton.. Further informations: http://www.helmutnewton.com National Gallery Prize for Young Art 2010 . Keren Cytter, Omer Fast, Annette Kelm and Danh Vo until January 3, 2010 Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart / Museum for Contemporary Art The Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst (National Gallery Prize for Young Art), funded by the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie, will be awarded for the fifth time this year. With prize money amounting to 50,000 euros, the Nationalgalerie Prize for Young Art is one of the most generous awards for contemporary art in Germany. The prize is awarded to artists under the age of 40 who live and work in Germany, irrespective of their nationality. Four artists have been nominated for the 2009 prize who all live in Berlin: Keren Cytter, Omer Fast, Annette Kelm and Danh Vo. Their works will be presented to the public from September 2009 in a joint show in the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin. After the exhibition has opened a jury will decide on a winner. The prize comes with a sale: one work by the winner of the award is purchased for the National Gallery. Further informations: http://www.hamburgerbahnhof.de Frenetic Homeland . Art, Literature, Music until January, 2010 Haus der Kulturen der Welt / The House of World Cultures Home as a stable retreat? It seems to belong to a long-gone past. And although the artists in "Frenetic Homeland" interdisciplinary program come from such different cities as Jakarta, Osaka and Beijing, they have much in common: Their societies are changing – very rapidly. "Frenetic Homeland" brings together an exhibition, literature and music. China’s diversified process of change is the focus of literary and discursive events. Further informations: http://www.hkw.de and http://www.hkw.de/en/programm2009/Jahresprogramm.php Languages of Futurism - Literature, Painting, Sculpture, Music, Theatre, Photography until January 11, 2010 Martin-Gropius-Bau On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Futurism the Martin-Gropius-Bau in cooperation with the Italienisches Kulturinstitut Berlin and the Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (Mart) is organizing an exhibition to pay tribute to Futurist forms of artistic expression in all their variety – from painting and architecture to literature. The exhibition consists mainly of loans from the Mart, which has a collection of over 4,000 Futurist works, including masterpieces by Carrà, Severini, Russolo and Balla, as well as an extensive archive of documents and books by the most important representatives of the avant-garde. The museum and study centre are supplemented by the Casa Museo Depero, Italy’s first Futurist Museum that was founded by Fortunato Depero himself and opened in cooperation with the city of Rovereto in 1959. Further informations: http://www.gropiusbau.de THOMAS DEMAND . Nationalgalerie until January 17, 2010 Neue Nationalgalerie / New National Gallery. Further informations: http://www.neue-nationalgalerie.de Mit verschnürten Hände - "Ungemalte Bilder" von Emil Nolde until January 17, 2010 Nolde Stiftung Seebüll Dependance Berlin Der Präsident der Reichskammer der Bilden den Künste in Berlin untersagt Emil Nolde 1941 „mit sofortiger Wirkung jede berufliche – auch nebenberufliche – Betäti gung auf den Gebieten der bildenden Kunst.“„Als dieses Mal- und Verkaufsverbot ankam, stand ich mitten im schönsten, produkti ven Ma len. Die Pinsel glitten mir aus den Händen“, erinnert sich der Maler. „Mit einem Schwert über dem Kopf hängend, waren mir Bewegung und Freiheit genommen.“ In einer entlegenen Kammer seines Hauses in Seebüll malt Nolde während der Jahre seiner Ächtung weiter. „Ungemalte Bilder“ nennt er die kleinformatigen Aquarelle und Gouachen, die manch mal kaum größer als eine Handfläche sind. Über 1.300 „Ungemalte Bilder“ entstehen zur Zeit des Malverbots. „Diese kleinen Blätter … haben mir als Mensch und Maler viel Freude gegeben. Immer wieder, fast ohne es zu wissen, stand ich dabei, mich durch neu Erfundenes überraschend.“ Die Ausstellung zeigt über 100 Werke der „Ungemalten Bilder“ - die meisten von ihnen zum aller ersten Mal - sowie ausgewählte Ölbilder, die vor und nach dem Malverbot entstanden sind. Kurator: Dr. Jörg Garbrecht. Further informations: http://www.nolde-stiftung.de "I Want to get my Fingers Burnt". The Journalist Theodor Wolff (1868-1943) until January 31, 2010 Jüdisches Museum / Jewish Museum Berlin "Theodor Wolff is one of Germany's most versatile and at the same time most profound and sharp political journalists," contemporaries marvelled at the brilliant columnist and legendary chief editor of the "Berliner Tageblatt." As a controversial Democrat, Wolff was an early target of the Nazis and fell prey to them in 1943. In 1962, the publisher Axel Springer endowed the Theodor Wolff Prize in commemoration of him. More than 400 journalists have now been awarded this prize. The exhibition opens the day the Theodor Wolff Prize is awarded on 2 September 2009 in Berlin. An exhibition jointly organized by the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Federal Association of German Newspaper Editors. Further informations: http://www.juedisches-museum-berlin.de BERLIN 89/09 until January 31, 2010 Berlinische Galerie - State Museum of Modern Art, Photography, and Architecture 20 years after the Fall of the Wall the exhibition „Berlin 89/09 – Art Between Traces of the Past and Utopian Futures“ temporarily takes stock of the change that resulted from this historical event in the German capital. On display are numerous works of international renowned artists who gave attention to the, partly dramatic, partly impalpable changes in the architectural and urban patterns of the city, all Germany and wide swathes of Middle and Eastern Europe. Many of the works were previously not shown in Berlin. Some will expressly be created for this show, others were created for certain events or places and will be reconstructed for the exhibition. Further informations: http://www.berlinischegalerie.de Die Kunst ist super ! (Art is super!) until February 14, 2010 Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart/ Museum for Contemporary Art Die Kunst ist super ! (Art is super!) is the title under which the National Gallery at Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin is showing a new presentation of works from its collections. The exhibition uses thematic, monographic and motivic constellations, surprising dialogues and individual appearances rich in associations to cast works from the National Gallery, the Marx and Marzona Collections as well as the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection in Hamburger Bahnhof in a new light. At selected points the museum's collections are complemented by works loaned by artists, some specially created for the rooms at the museum, as well as by loans from the rich collections of Berlin's museum landscape. Further informations: http://www.hamburgerbahnhof.de Drawing Sculpture until February 28, 2010 Daimler Art Collection The show is presenting a selection from the Daimler Art Collection's wide-ranging holdings of works on paper for the first time, complemented by sculpture, videos and picture objects. About 60 works by 28 artists are being shown, dating from about 1960 to the present day. In each case the presentation will stage dialogues between classical Minimalist positions from the 1960s and international contemporary art. Further informations: http://www.sammlung.daimler.com PAUL PFEIFFER "The Saints" until March 28, 2010 Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart / Museum for Contemporary Art The outcome of the 1966 Football World Cup is not only legendary but the spectacle itself went down in history and has mythical dimensions even today. Based on original film and audio material, the video and sound installation ‘The Saints' illuminates and reenacts the most important sporting event in postwar European history. Paul Pfeiffer has transposed the 1966 final to a distant new setting. Some 1000 Filipinos were hired to provide the soundtrack to the reenactment of the 1966 game by cheering, chanting and shouting taunts in a cinema in Manila in the Philippines. The event is thus not only reconstructed and now set in a modern context, but is also transferred in a physical and cultural sense from Wembley Stadium in London to Manila. Further informations: http://www.hamburgerbahnhof.de