Diaries

The Bpigs Diaries offer a peek under the art market hood; what are the power dynamics, access and gatekeeping, and the current tension holders. Let's discuss!

2023

CLEMENTINE MORRIGAN FUCK THE POLICE MEANS WE DON'T ACT LIKE COPS TO EACH OTHER (ZINE)

Full Circle Patriarchy

    New…read more

2022

Nicolas Vionnet at BBA editions

Tips This Week

Ho Ho Cold! As promised, here is our Art Gift Guide Winter edition.  THE DEVIL SITS IN RUSSIA, BIRDS FLY HIGH ABOVE - Special edition Morgenvogel-houses from recycled Russian wood. by Maria Leena Räihälä Special edition MV-House,…read more
Crip Magazin #5, 2022. Cover design (drawing: Yevhen Holubientsev/atelienormalno. Design: Lana Grahek. Concept: Eva Egermann. Publishers issue #5: Eva Egermann in cooperation with 17th Istanbul Biennale 2022)

"Non-compliance is a social skill" Mel Baggs (1980–2020)

It is normal and completely human to think and communicate in unconventional ways. Being human is a spectrum. Mel Baggs, autistic blogger, and activist. It is an honor to feature some pieces from the latest issue Crip magazine by Eva…read more
Monica Bonvicini, SCALE OF THINGS (to come), Detail, 2010, Courtesy the artist © Monica Bonvicini und VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022 / Anders Sune Berg

Dear Monica Bonvicini, Better Excruciatingly Late Than Never:

Soup du Jour public letter To Monica Bonvicini Over the years, we’ve come to know you – (by following your work as an artist) – as somebody who operates from a feminist worldview and according to feminist principles. Your work…read more

Witnessing old structures not wanting to die

I nodded in agreement when I first read this e-flux note by Anselm Franke (first published in German in Monopol). And yes, I am back talking about documenta but only peripherally. We are witnessing old structures, not wanting to die.…read more
cover photo by @9_s_a_m_

 #MahsaAmini

Iranian security forces have killed at least 41 people — most of them women — for protesting the oppression and subjugation of women in the name of #MahsaAmini Iranian security forces have killed at least 41 people — most…read more
Drawing by @perjovschidan

We are not perfect

Solidarity with Ruangrupa, the artists/activists of documenta fifteen, and their allies and friends in the lumbung community. "For months we have continuously faced smearing attacks, humiliations, vandalism, and threats in major media…read more

bold and emboldened

"Sometimes offensive", of course, does a lot of heavy lifting in the collective socioeconomic wet dreams of the rich Wunderkind. I consider König a peer, of sorts, from our Bar 3 days. I mean, I was a thirty-something foreigner…read more

on nonideological privilege

Why dont we want our rich people to fail? Let's talk about it. I am summarizing (and commenting) this NYT article which you can have free access to here . Julia Stoschek’s great-grandfather, the German industrialist Max Brose, was a member of the...read more

documenta fifteen

It has now become painful to watch. Steyerl, who initially had tried to put the whole documenta pre- opening controversy in a historical context has now removed her work from the show. There is a whole world of memes here, of Hito looking...read more

Paradise Camp

You know what? I am not even going to with the news. THIS WEEK We loved Yuki Kihara's participation at this year’s 59th Venice Biennale, Paradise Camp at the New Zealand pavilion -- now we have the chance to see her work in Berlin too!! TOMORROW...read more
(picture: Swen Pförtner / dpa)

People's Justice

People's Justice by Taring Padi documenta 15 opened last week with all the journalists going on Antisemitismus hunt. First reports were of a lively, uplifting, relaxing experience that "succesfully rejects the western art market" (whatever we...read more

Some documenta context

How did I not know the documenta founders were members of Nazi organizations? I mean, the German Pavillion in Venice (rebuilt by Ernst Haiger's design in 1938) has been deconstructed and reconstructed and poked and probed over the years through...read more
Members of ruangrupa, the Indonesian artist collective curating the next edition of Documenta, opening June 18th in Kassel

We Need to talk! - Nevermind

As I said, never dull in 2022. So what the f*** is happening with documenta? I have been staring at this text for over a minute now and still can't figure out what it says. Crisis PR mode is even more impenetrable than regular art PRs. Documenta...read more

Witching Bitching and Bad Bossing

Never a dull day in 2022; if it is not a worldwide pandemic, it will be the threat of nuclear apocalypse, gas prices, or, you know, the good old abuse of power in the workplace. That is not new; we are new at talking about it. Do you remember...read more

After Gallery Weekend Berlin is Before the Gallery Weekend Berlin

After Gallery Weekend Berlin is Before the Gallery Weekend Berlin. There are a lot of labor issues we gloss over in the art world, in the name of … well, admit it, the minute I said “labor,” you felt your art world pizzaz deflate. It is like...read more

Dreams of Gallery Weekend

Let's start from the end, shall we? No better way to end your Gallery Weekend ahm week than Miss Read Book Festival 2022 LIVE. IN. BERLIN. AGAIN. 300+ publishers, art periodicals and artists/authors on show and, in conjunction, the Conceptual...read more

Venice Survival Guide Covid edition

Anyone who is anyone will be in Venice this year, because it has been two years god dammit and we are all gonna die soon. But not everyone can speak Italian. We are here to help, capturing the Zeitgeist and having our Italian co workers translate...read more

The Milk of Dreams

Among cultural bans, Covid, and a very prominent national pavilion standing empty, the Venice Biennale is opening this week! Conceived by the first Italian (!) curator Cecilia Alemani who made sure, comme il faut, an overwhelming majority of the...read more

on cultural bans

And here I thought we should be discussing a transition from the feudal, redundant snooze fest of state funding that procures the so-called National Pavillions every two years at the otherwise lovely Bienalle Jardini. But no, let's bring the...read more

Art in Times of War

What can art do in times of war you say? Build street barricades! Also, I think I found a use for Schmerlings-Venet's rusty nudels. Victoria Pidust @victoriapidust and Volo Bevza @volobevza found themselves stuck in Ukraine after they went for a...read more

BERLIN! THIS IS THE TIME TO STEP UP

BERLIN! THIS IS THE TIME TO STEP UP. The more unofficial help Ukraine can get, the better, so this doesn't end up into a governments pissing war and we all go down in flames. Three ways to help. 1. Drive supplies to the Polish borders: If you have...read more

Nein.Ohne Danke

So… after two years of Covid; isolation, fear, loss and collective trauma we moved right to Putin is a bad bad boy but hey Ukrainians are white let's not kill them all, world war three vibes? Good Good. Berlin you are beautiful protesting for...read more

Diversity United?

I don't know how I missed making fun of this title earlier, (embarrassing even if you set the whole Kunsthalle public funds fiasco aside) I am losing my edge. “Diversity United” is both a tautology and an antithesis. The kind of cringy nonsense...read more

Why boycott the ‘Kunsthalle Berlin’? - an open letter

If you’ve been sitting on the fence when it comes to whether to boycott the new ‘Kunsthalle Berlin’ or not (I personally prefer to call it the ‘Kunsthalle Smerling’), you may find Niklas Maak’s article in yesterday’s FAZ…read more

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