Viewing articles tagged with 'Berlin'

How can we rebuild the world?

E-WERK Luckenwalde entrance, 2019.

How can we rebuild the world? A global pandemic, wide-spread racial injustices at boiling point and unfair cultural systems that need urgently addressing. How can the arts contribute to rebuilding the world, pulling us out of the times we are living through and give hope for a better future? How can we embrace this moment to improve those unfair cultural systems which pre-existed the pandemic, such as its carbon impact; the financial precariousness of the artist and the inequitable landscape of the art world? 'The Artist as Consultant', our series of digital discussions was born out of these questions. E-WERK Luckenwalde Director and Curator Helen Turner reflects.

Further reading +

Schinkel Pavillon, Oberwallstraße 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany

John Miller: An Elixir of Immortality

Installation view, An Elixir of Immortality, John Miller, photo: Andrea Rossetti

The first retrospective of John Miller’s work in Germany, ‘An Elixir of Immortality’ provides a comprehensive overview spanning from the 1980s to the present. Exhibited at Schinkel Pavillon is a divergent and at times incongruous body of work, including sculpture, video and painting. Miller refuses to be pigeonholed or swiftly pinned down, punctuating his work with a beat of wry humour along the way. Review by Eva Szwarc

Further reading +

LOOCK Galerie, Potsdamer Strasse 63, DE 10785 Berlin

Christian Borchert: Familienporträts

Familienporträts by Christian Borchert at Loock, Berlin

Christian’s Borchert’s ‘Familienporträts’ pull the viewer in off the cold West Berlin street, into a position of a post-Cold War voyeur; peering into the domestic situations of individual families who lived through the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) and then what became of them after. Review by Nicola Jeffs

Further reading +

Schinkel Pavillon, Oberwallstraße 1 (über Französische Str. wegen Bauarbeiten, Unter den Linden, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Ground Zero: Christopher Kulendran Thomas in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann

Ground Zero, Schinkel Pavillon

As virtual worlds become increasingly ubiquitous and algorithmic, we have never been more connected yet dislocated. Our networks are continually subject to change and, as globalisation accelerates, so are the intrinsic structures of identity, nation and power. The artist Christopher Kulendran Thomas investigates these shifting structures in relation to one another in ‘Ground Zero’, an exhibition which moves between fiction and documentary, personal history and simulation. Review by Eva Szwarc

Further reading +

Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin

The Garden of Earthly Delights

Homo sapiens sapiens

Taking its point of departure and title from Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ (1490-1510), the current exhibition at Gropius Bau brings together the wide-ranging work of twenty international artists. The state of the garden serves as a microcosmic starting point, from which expansive ideas and wider dialogues emerge about colonialism, systems of sharing, borders and structures of thought. With contributing artists including Yayoi Kusama, Pipilotti Rist, Hicham Berrada and more, the exhibition moves from the paradisiacal to the provocative, the reflective to the revolutionary, and shifts between global and individual lenses. Review by Eva Szwarc

Further reading +

KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststraße 69, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Schering Stiftung Art Award 2018: Anna Daučíková

Upbringing by Touch

The current exhibition at KW Institute presents the work of Anna Daučíková through video, photography and sculpture. Spanning the past five decades, the body of work refuses linearity, welcomes the experimental possibilities between the artist and her materials, and opens up to wider discourses on identity. Review by Eva Szwarc

Further reading +

Koenig Gallery, 121, Alexandrinenstraße 118, 10969 Berlin

Helen Marten: Fixed Sky Situation

People, terms in barking (us)

For her most recent exhibition titled ‘Fixed Sky Situation’ at Koenig Galerie, Turner and Hepworth Prize winner Helen Marten presents eight new works, including three complex installations and five large paintings that circle the space like secular polyptychs. Review by Anais Castro

Further reading +

Museum Frieder Burda | Salon Berlin, Auguststraße 11-13 10117 Berlin

Candice Breitz: Sex Work

TLDR (Featured here: Connie, Nosipho Vidima)

The film feels more like a piece of entertainment than it should, and it left less of an impact on me than the interviews themselves. One, in which a woman describes a horrifying act of rape by a police officer, will linger with me for a long time. Review by Siobhan Leddy

Further reading +

Berlinische Gallerie, Alte Jakobstraße 124–128 10969, Berlin, Germany

Loredana Nemes: Greed Fear Love

Loredana Nemes. Serie Ocna. Eine Annaherung, 2017

Photographer Loredana Nemes takes the big stage in Berlinische Galerie, where her 120 works are shown under the title ‘Greed Fear Love’. Her photography, from between 2010 and 2018, is accompanied by lyrical poems. Review by Gulnaz Can

Further reading +

Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin

Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta

Sweating Blood

Ana Mendieta remains a significant artistic figure of the 1970s and 1980s because of her radical practice encompassing performance, gender and geo-political identity. The extensive self-documentation of her performances (which were often enacted alone) on primarily Super 8 film has allowed for her works to survive to this day. Review by Joan Lee

Further reading +

Peles Empire, Karl-Marx-Straße 58, 12043 Berlin, Germany

Shannon Bool: Cathedral/Castle

Installation view

At Peles Empire, Berlin, Shannon Bool’s works address the power of visual representation and manages to challenge authority by means of re-appropriation and exposure to forms once more unfamiliar. Review by Joan Lee

Further reading +

Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie, Schöneberger Ufer 61 10785 Berlin, Germany

James Richards: Mouth Room / Crumb Mahogany

James Richards, Mouth Room, 2017, courtesy the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin

There are no images or videos to look at – only the nakedness of the sounds flooding the floor. Vibrations seemingly emerge from nowhere, as suspended spirits floating then dissipating in the air like icy breath. Review by Giulia Ponzano

Further reading +