^{Tomasz Kobialka (Wednesday 11.12 @ The Gym)}

Whether you are keen on celebrating the upcoming holidays or not at all, this week should not dissapoint. Christmas-crazy or Grinch-grumpy, the upcoming anniversaries and spiced-up openings should prepare you for the festive days ahead.

WEDNESDAY 11.12

18.00 Tomasz Kobialka - I can't believe people are still making work like this @ The Gym

WHY: Tomasz Kobialka is a Berlin based artist whose work explores the intersection between painting and sculpture, with references to masculinity, technology and the sublime. With this exhibition in a project space run out of a living room he will present his new works, and if we judge the show by its title, it should be an intriguing one. It is hard to tell whether we are more interested in the artwork or in the newly opened art space; whatever the answer, the show is highly recommended.

The Gym / Buttmannstrasse 21, 13357 Berlin, U Pankstrasse / free entry / more info

THURSDAY 12.12

18.00 Christmas Party @ Pop Up Art Gallery Berlin

WHY: This Thursday Pop-up Art Gallery Berlin celebrates Christmas and their 5 month anniversary. Everyone will be asked to bring a small wrapped present to put under the Christmas Tree worth around 5 euro. At 9pm their Secret Santa will distribute the gifts to guests and everyone will  have the chance to taste Santa's home made Christmas Love Juice. Works from some of Pop Up Art Gallery's favourite artists will be on display and Mara Leibowitz and Anna Aliena will be performing her song "Buy Buy for Christmas!".

Pop Up Art Gallery Berlin / Hohenstaufenstraße 60, 10781 Berlin, U Nollendorfplatz / more info

19.00 Secondo Stile presents Emmanuel Simon @ L40

WHY: Paolo Chiasera's SECONDO STILE is a painting that at the same time an exhibition space. Strictly speaking, it is an exhibition space sqatting another. It utilizes an existing location to  install an imaginary apartment - absolutely not in sync with the style of the house - in which an exhibition by Emmanuel Simon is shown. The effect of Simon's painting SALLE 308 placed on Chiasera's traveling exhibition painting is comparable to the illusion created by stepping between two mirrors opposite each other. The impression is of endlessly interlocking spaces, all of which are painting and art space at the same time.

L40 / Linienstrasse 40, 10119 Berlin, U2 Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz / free entry / more info 

FRIDAY 13.12

19.00 Welcome to Prosumerism @ Das Gift 

WHY: The first solo show by PUNK IS DADA welcomes you to the ideology of Prosumerism. First coined by the futurologist Alvin Toffler, the term “prosumer” marks the blurred role between the producer and the consumer. PUNK IS DADA investigates the phenomenon of Youtube and celebrity gossip shows, using the techniques available to the prosumer of today in a series of sculptures and sound installations. Alongside the exhibition there will be an International DIY Zine fair, adding another layer to the concept of the Prosumer this usage combines the roles of producer and consumer to exclude the role of the corporate producer.

Das Gift / Donaustrasse 119, 12043 Neukölln, U7 Rathaus Neukölln / free entry / more info

19.00 Leider Geil @ Scotty Enterprises 

WHY: Scotty Enterprises takes the role of Grinch and invites 10 colleagues, the vilest, ugliest, most successful, most arrogant, most snotty artists they know, to shake the comfort and great harmony of the holiday season. With a winking eye, theme of the exhibition is the dearest enemy, but also the idea of the artist and his role in society.

Scotty Enterprises / Oranienstrasse 46, Berlin 10969, U8 Moritzplatz / show open through 04.01 / free entry / more info 

22.30 5 Years Shameless/Limitless @ Urban Spree

WHY: Shameless/Limitless have been around for 5 years already, and to celebrate the anniversary, they will do what they are best at - party with live shows (Touchy Mob, Femminielli Noir, Jaakko Enio Kalevi) and DJs (Matt Didemus /Junior Boys/, Molly Nilsson, Friendboy, Moon Wheel, Vero Manchego). Following this blowout S/L will take a winter siesta, with plans to return in Spring 2014.

Urban Spree / Revaler Str. 99, 10245 Berlin, S+U Warschauer Strasse / more info

SATURDAY 14.12

10.00 Kurt Kocherscheidt @ Contemporary Fine Arts Galerie 

WHY: Contemporary Fine Arts will put on display representative works from all of the Kurt Kocherscheidt's important groups of work, curated by Veit Loers. At the centre is Kocherscheidt as a surreal, visionary artist who in his deliberately ascetic painting scrutinises objects and signals from his surroundings for their hermetic possibilities  and finds an answer to them in painting. The exhibition seeks to re-evaluate the painter and his work from a present-day perspective at a time when the positioning of figurative and abstract painting is regarded as no longer relevant.

Contemporary Fine Arts Galerie / Am Kupfergraben 10, 10117 Berlin, S+U Friedrichstrasse / free entry / more info