Tom Albrecht, Mariel Gottwick, Maria Korporal, and Javier Pérez-Lanzac make the team of artists running the project space Group Global 3000. Since the initiation of the space in 2012, the team has been organizing art shows and actions revolving around sustainable development, social justice, and environmental protection. By raising essential questions on sustainability, their artistic and curatorial work contributes to a discourse that is relevant now more than ever. We spoke with the team to find out more about their motives, challenges, and plans for the future. 

How did the members of Group Global 3000 come together and start this project? 

The founder Tom Albrecht asked artist friends and artists who had already exhibited in our space. We founded Group Global 3000 in 2012 because, despite artistic differences, we are all very interested in art and themes which reflect sustainability.

What does the name represent?

Our name Group Global 3000 shows that we act together locally, but think globally about our future. And if we speak about future, we really mean future. Therefore, we chose "3000" in the name, in the hope that mankind and its art will survive for the next thousand years. Our logo expresses the lavish dealing with the world.

What is your curatorial strategy? How do you develop the program and split the tasks in the group? How do you find artists to work with?

We select the topics from the current discussions. We deal with sustainable development in social and /or economic issues, always associated with ecological ones.
For example, a very impressive exhibition was MEAT with 17 artists and a lecturer. For example, Usch Quednau showed strongly smelling ear tags of cattle in a slaughtery in one day. Helmut Höge gave a picture- and text lecture "Cattle Worldwide" in an action, Tom Albrecht asked the guests to arrange themselves between Veggie and Karni. Wieland Möller (drums) and Konrad Szymanski (dance) asked about the relationship between humans and animals.

We want to contribute to this development with our artistic input and give impulses to the public. So we always invite lecturers to talk about our exhibition topics from a scientific or other professional view. And we always organize an artist talk in the gallery. The team decides about the program for the year. Two members curate one exhibition, Tom also makes management. Artists to work with mostly come from open calls. We wish to be more oriented to our team.

Opening of the exhibition "Meat", March 6, 2015 @ Group Global 3000

Do you have preferences regarding artistic media or topics you work with? What is your main focus?

We accept all artistic media which are related to our topic. Our main focus is on visual arts. In our small gallery, we have two rooms for showing objects, photo, photocollage, installation, painting, performance, lecture, talks, and a room with videos. 

How open is your space to outside collaborators? What are the ways for people to get involved?

We collaborate with a sustainable residency and give our space to other groups with political topics. However, we have decided with many artists not to take more than three works by an artist to an exhibition. This ensures that we can present as many different artistic ideas as possible on every topic. People who are interested in our work can look into our program, website, visit us, and subscribe to our newsletter.

What were the most valuable lessons you've learned in the past 5 years of working together?

Stay in your topic. Work together and appreciate each other. Make events.
We have a lot of applications from artists who are very associative about our topic. For us, it is always a challenge to choose the works that relate to our political concept which includes human and environment.

"Playing with globes" (©Tom Albrecht), for the exhibition "The Age of mankind,
we create a new epoch of the Earth" in cooperation with Berlin Art Week 2016

How would you like to see your project developing in the future?

Get more visitors, team members, and external curators.
It would be nice if we succeeded in expanding our circle of friends. Unlike other galleries, we do not see ourselves as a commercial boiling point. We are not focusing on works of art that were created above all for the market, but rather on the ones in which an artistic debate is expressed, more consciously, focusing on the Earth.

Tell us about your current exhibition, „Light“.

18 artists show their ideas about the artificial light today that is affecting us and nature. We show collage, object, installation, photo, painting, video, and two performances which deal with light, clean and dirty. Light broke in real melting ice, a darkroom spoke, an object goes to enlightenment, pictures are light polluted, a man from broken safety glass is illuminated, sun sinks behind a curtain of smog.

We offer a lecture with discussion on April 21 at 19h with scientist Dr. Christopher Kyba, titled “Light, clean and dirty”.

What comes next at Group Global 3000?

Our next exhibition will be “Can you buy pleasure?” (May 19 – June 30, 2017) with three female artists – Mariel Gottwick, Maria Korporal, Monika Plattner – who are dealing with the pleasure and the market. The three artists give answers to questions such as: are our senses ready to see, feel, hear, smell and taste? Do we still have the time to enjoy in peace? Do we find the right measure? Do we enjoy food that has been denatured, artificially enriched with taste and optically refined? How has pleasure changed in our society today with different ways of life, different eating habits and stress? Industrial fraud is a standard way of deceiving consumers. On the other hand, there is the counter-movement in the favor of regional, biological, fair, ethical.

After that we will show the works of the artists who took part in the residency at the “Academy for Sufficiency”.

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Group Global 3000
Leuschnerdamm 19, 10999 Berlin, U Kottbusser Tor
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Currently on view: "Light" – Group Exhibition
Open through May 12, 2017
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