The Berlin Art Week is about to lift off — now for the seventh time, it invites visitors to join various exhibition openings, art fairs, award ceremonies, urban interventions, and numerous special events that will inhabit Berlin's venues, from the well-known to the unexpected. The diversity of the program is brought to life through the joint commitment of institutions, galleries, artists, private collectors, and project spaces.

A focus this year is the medium of photography. Some of the highlights in this context are the EMOP Opening Days at C/O Berlin in the presence of the artists such as Nicholas Nixon and Martin Parr,  Loredana Nemes' solo exhibition at the Berlinische Galerie, as well as the group shows "Routinised Absurdity" at KINDL Center for Contemporary Art  &  "The Moment is Eternity – Works from the Olbricht Collection" at me Collectors Room.

Other events highlighted in our preview below are just a tiny fraction of the journey that starts low-key and unofficially this week already with some feminism-charged, not-to-be-missed exhibition openings. Enjoy the ride and stay tuned @ facebook & instagram as we will keep you updated on the go. 

 

FRIDAY 21.09

10.00 Candice Breitz – „Sex Work“ @ Museum Frieder Burda | Salon Berlin

WHY: In the context of the #Metoo debate, the current exhibition at the Salon Berlin spans a discursive arc from William N. Copley to Candice Breitz. Both positions oppose discrimination against sex work, but from completely different perspectives. As opposed to Copley's eroticized male gaze, in Candice Breitz’ video installations the sex workers themselves have a voice. In the performance, the sex workers present the situation from their perspective while alluding to the utopia of a less patriarchal and less violent future.

Museum Frieder Burda | Salon Berlin / Auguststr. 11—13, 10117 Berlin, S Oranienburger Str. / open through 05.01.2019 / more info

Image: Candice Breitz, "TLDR", 2017, Still. Courtesy: KOW (Berlin), Photo: Sydelle Willow Smith

 

18.00 Aurora Reinhard – „High Rider“ @ Salon Dahlmann

WHY: Helsinki-based artist Aurora Reinhard reflects on current issues like gender and sexuality in her art. Her feminist approach takes form in disturbingly beautiful works – from impressive photography to sculpture and video – that challenge our senses and our understanding. The representation of femininity in her work always takes place in a well-founded, uncompromising fashion, but also with a sense of humour. In the upcoming show she presents a multimedia installation custom-made for the exhibition space.

Salon Dahlmann / Marburgerstr. 3, 10789 Berlin, U Augsburger Str. / open through 23.12 / more info

Image: Aurora Reinhard "High Rider (kulta)", 2009, courtesy Miettinen Collection

 

WEDNESDAY 26.09

14.00 Dorine van Meel – „Beyond The Nation State I Want To Dream“ @ Decad

WHY: Decad presents a new video installation by the Berlin-based Dutch artist Dorine van Meel. Taking as a point of departure the national canon with which the artist was raised, van Meel’s work examines the binaries and mechanisms of exclusion through which a ‘we’ is constituted. Consisting entirely of slowly decomposing and recomposing computer-generated images, the video juxtaposes representations of national identity with sites on which the intersection of nationhood, colonialism and imperial conquest have been made manifest.

Decad / Gneisenaustr. 52, 10961 Berlin, U Südstern / open through 30.09 / more info

Image: Dorine van Meel, HD video still, 2018

 

18.00 Geta Brătescu @ Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k)

WHY: n.b.k. presents Geta Brătescu, one of Romania’s most important conceptual artists. Her varied work includes drawings, collages of fabric or paper, graphic design, performances, experimental films and photography, objects, and spatial installations. In her avant-garde work, the lines separating art and life blur, and the focus of her work is placed on memory and history, human identity, normativity, and the female gender. n.b.k. will present historical and new works, as well as a film about and with the artist.

Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k) / Chausseestraße 128/129, 10115 Berlin, U Oranienburger Tor / open through 25.01.2019 / more info

Image: Geta Brătescu, "Linia", 2009. Photo: Ștefan Sava. © the artist, Ivan Gallery Bucharest, Hauser & Wirth

 

19.00 Evelyn Taocheng Wang – „What Is He Afraid Of?“ @ KW Institute for Contemporary Art

WHY: Evelyn Taocheng Wang's work emerges from an interest in what constitutes identity and how one’s own body is culturally relative to, and intertwined with, autobiographical structures. For KW’s series “Pause“, she will present a new body of work. The exhibition is set to become a space where narratives are translated into a spatial structure of KW. Don't miss our interview with the artist, the opening, and the artist talk with the curators Cathrin Mayer and Maurin Dietrich on 30/09.  
Concurrently, Julia Stoschek Collection will be hosting brand new „KW Production Series“ with works by Jamie Crewe & Beatrice Gibson.

KW Institute for Contemporary Art / Auguststr. 69, 10117 Berlin, U Rosenthaler Platz / open through 30.09 / more info

Image: Eveyln Taocheng Wang, "Cool Smell Room", 2018, Courtesy the artist

 

19.00 Lawrence Abu Hamdan –  „Walled Unwalled“ @ daadgalerie

WHY: The point of departure for Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s audiovisual installations and performances is his exploration of our auditory consciousness and memory involving primarily highly political contexts. In his work, Abu Hamdan develops abstract scenarios that address state and industrial violence and propaganda. His new video created in Berlin was shot inside Funkhaus Berlin in the former recording studios of the GDR’s radio broadcasting center.

daadgalerie / Oranienstraße 161, 10969 Berlin, U Moritzplatz / open through 18.11 / more info

Image: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, "Walled Unwalled", 2018 (video still). Foto: Jens Ziehe. Courtesy & copyright: Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD

 

19.00 Julian Charrière – „As We Used To Float“ @ Berlinische Galerie

WHY: As the recipient of the GASAG Art Prize 2018, Julian Charrière creates a multimedia spatial installation for the Berlinische Galerie that takes visitors underwater in the Pacific Ocean. 70 years after the US began testing thermonuclear weapons at Bikini Atoll, the artist set off on an expedition to an area rendered permanently uninhabitable for human life due to environmental contamination. „As We Used to Float“ is a physical, 3D experience that reveals the legacy of those atomic tests both above and below sea level.

Berlinische Galerie / Alte Jakobstr. 124-128, 10969 Berlin, U Moritzplatz / open through 08.04.2019 / more info

Image: Julian Charrière, "Sycamore – First Light", 2016. © Julian Charrière / VG Bild Kunst, Bonn 2018

 

20.00 Agnieszka Polska – „The Demon's Brain“ @ Hamburger Bahnhof

WHY: The 9th Preis der Nationalgalerie was awarded to Agnieszka Polska. On this occasion the Hamburger Bahnhof will present a new multi-channel video installation by the artist produced especially for this solo show. Polska combines live action sequences and animation into encrypted adaptations of cultural artefacts. Often pervaded by an unsettling undertone, the artist’s alluring, visually-rich works address the state of the world today and our role and responsibility within it.

Hamburger Bahnhof / Invalidenstr. 50-51, 10557 Berlin, S Hauptbahnhof / open through 03.03.2019 / more info

Image: © Agnieszka Polska, Courtesy Zak Branicka Galerie, Berlin and OVERDUIN & CO., LA

 

23.00 Julian Charrière & Inland – „An Invitation to Disappear“ @ Berghain

WHY: Berghain joins the Berlin Art Week to host „An Invitation To Disappear", an audio-visual excursion into the both dystopian and paradisiacal landscape of palm oil plantation toward a totemic soundsystem on full blast. Shot and conceived by Julian Charrière and soundtracked by Inland, the event will serve as the release party for an accompanying album, featuring a special edition booklet and eight tracks of spectral techno and rhythmically intricate electronics by Inland.

Berghain / Am Wriezener Bahnhof / S+U Warschauer Str. / more info

Image: Julian Charrière, "An Invitation to Disappear", 2018, Film Still (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany)

 

THURSDAY 27.09

16.00 art berlin @ Tempelhof Airport – Hangar 4

WHY: The art berlin fair takes place for the first time in 2 hangars of the Tempelhof Airport, with about 120 galleries from 21 countries. The new Special Projects section is reserved for 28 solo presentations and curated projects that offer galleries the opportunity to provide a more comprehensive introduction to an artist or to present a thematic juxtaposition of works and positions. Also new this year is Salon; here, the curator Tenzing Barshee brings together numerous artists from multiple galleries in a collaborative booth.

Tempelhof – Hangar 4 / Columbiadamm 10, 10965 Berlin, U Platz der Luftbrücke / open through 30.09 / more info

Image: art berlin. © Flughafen Tempelhof Berlin

 

17.00 POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair @ Tempelhof Airport – Hangar 4

 

WHY: For its fifth edition, POSITIONS Berlin moves to the Hangar 4 at the Tempelhof Airport and offers its visitors an attractive supporting program with talks, awards, special exhibitions, and other events. In a special exhibition 14 young contemporary artistic positions by graduates of German art academies will be presented with the special support of Berlin Hyp. The opening will inclide live performance by Stephan Brenn at 18.30h, and party from19.30h.  On Friday 28th, Berlin-based galleries participating in POSITIONS open their exhibitions until 21h.

Tempelhof – Hangar 4 / Columbiadamm 10, 10965 Berlin, U Platz der Luftbrücke / open through 30.09 / more info

Image: POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair 2017, Photo: Oana Popa

 

19.00 Xiaowen Zhu, Chan Sook Choi, Sumi Jang – „Survive Hidden Dimension“ @ c/o Kunstpunkt

WHY: The project space NON Berlin takes the space of c/o Kunstpunkt to show works by the artists Chan Sook Choi (multimedia installations), Xiaowen Zhu (video and installation), and Sumi Jang (performance). The three artists follow the hidden history of migrants. By unfolding individual experiences through dialogue and the archeology of places, they explore the subsequent inscriptions that define the psychology of a social and political sphere.

c/o Kunstpunkt / Schlegelstr. 6, 10115 Berlin, U Naturkundemuseum / open through 07.10 / more info

Image: Zhu Xiaowen, "Oriental Silk", Documentary film, 2015. © The artist

 

FRIDAY 28.09

16.00 Juan Atkins – „Deep Space“ @ Jewish Museum Berlin

WHY: For two days during BAW, the legendary techno dad Juan Atkins will investigate the alignments of architecture, sound, and light within the installation res·o·nant by artist Mischa Kuball in the Jewish Museum Berlin. The connection of several analog & modular synthesizers creates a sculpture that responds to the materiality of the space as well as visitors’ interactions. In this work, Atkins is interested in the effect specific frequencies have on matter and their resonance in body cells. The perfomance takes place on Friday and Saturday at 16h.

Jewish Museum Berlin / Lindenstr. 9–14, 10969 Berlin, U Hallesches Tor / more info

Image: © Jüdisches Museum Berlin, Photo: Jule Roehr

 

17.00 Project Space Art Award – Panel Discussion & Ceremony @ Bar Babette

WHY: The awarding of the Prize for Artistic Spaces and Initiatives 2018 takes place at the sadly soon-to-be-closed Bar Babette. From 17h you can join the podium discussion on the fate of project spaces in Berlin named „SURVIVE!: What and who is in charged here?“. From 19.30h the award ceremony takes place in the presence of Dr. Torsten Wöhlert, State Secretary for Culture, and is followed by performances and party till late.

Bar Babette / Karl-Marx-Allee 36, 10178 Berlin, U Schillingstr. / more info

Image: © Bar Babette

 

19.30 Lee Bul – „Crash“ @ Gropius Bau

WHY: Lee Bul is one of the most important Korean artists of her generation, recognized internationally for her formally inventive and intellectually provocative work. Her diverse oeuvre comprises of performance and installation art that explores dreams, ideals, and utopias influenced by futurist theories and science fiction, bioengineering and visionary architecture. The works displayed at Gropius Bau are characterised by sensual expressiveness, humour, and the artists experiences with and subtle allusions to the history and politics of Korea.
Artist talk followed by a guided tour takes place on 30/09.

Gropius Bau / Niederkirchnerstr. 7, 10963 Berlin, S+U Potsdamer Platz / open through 13.01.2019 / more info

Image: Lee Bul, "Willing To Be Vulnerable", 2015–2016. Exhibition view, “Crashing”, Hayward Gallery, 2018. Photo: Maxie Fischer. Courtesy: Gropius Bau

 

23.59 Berlin Art Prize – Award Ceremony + After Party @ Offlocation – The Shelf

WHY: The Berlin Art Prize returns after a 1-year pause with its 5th edition. All nominees are presented in a group exhibition until 28/09. During the finissage, three of them will receive the annual Berlin Art Prize at midnight, including an invitation to a residency in Morocco, prize money, and a trophy. Make sure to drop by for a drink as the ceremony is followed by a closing party.

Offlocation – The Shelf / Prinzenstr. 34, 10969 Berlin, U Moritzplatz / more info

Image: © Florian Denzin