About 50 official Gallery Weekend galleries + even a larger number of unofficial venues are joining the race with all kinds of events on the last weekend of April. Things are already starting to heat up, so we strongly advice to visit this week's openings and avoid big crowds next week wherever possible. Important to notice is that this year the art weekend overlaps with the Mayday street parades. A weekend to remember forever... Or to lose any memory of. 

 

THURSDAY 21.04

17.00 Carsten Nicolai – "reflektor distortion" @ Galerie EIGEN + ART

 

 

WHY: Carsten Nicolai uses electronic sound and visual art as a kind of hybrid tool to create his own microscopic view of creative processes. His world is constantly morphing in space and time, influenced by the impulses of the media world. Sound becomes the primary theme via visualised sound performance. Double the bill a week later (28.-30.04) at Halle am Berghain, where Nicolai, together with 3 other raster-noton artists, will present sound istallation on the occasion of the label's 20th birthday.

Galerie EIGEN + ART / Auguststr. 26, 10117 Berlin, U Rosenthaler Platz / open through 28.05 / free entry / more info

 

FRIDAY 22.04

18.00 Ralf Baecker – "Order+Noise (Interface I)" @ NOME

WHY: Like a tug of war, the new installation by Ralf Baecker, „Order+Noise (Interface I)“, negotiates the boundary between two interacting systems. Motors, strings and elastic bands are set in motion by the random signals of Geiger-Müller tubes which pick up the natural ambient radiation of the earth. The installation explores the interface at which these elements influence one another – a continual process of kinetics that causes complex and ever-changing movements to emerge.

NOME / Dolziger Str.31, 10247 Berlin, U Samariterstr. / open through 18.06 / free entry / more info

 

19.00 Appropriating Language #15: Daniel Knorr – "State of Mind" @ Maniere Noire

WHY: Daniel Knorr's „State of Mind“ is part 15 of the ongoing series, “Appropriating Language”. Knorr's installation consists of two parts. The first part, consisting of documents that were destroyed by the Stasi, is on view at Maniere Noire. The second part is installed in The Stasi Museum “Runde Ecke” in Leipzig, and thereby the object that the artist has exchanged for the document hunks is exposed. Knorr’s work is to be read from a historical point, in which the “mind” of a state is deleted as bio-political surveillance, and materialized as a creative element.

Manière Noire / Waldenserstr. 7A, 10551 Berlin, U Turmstr. / open through 31.05 / free entry / more info

 

19.00 Alexander Iskin – "Reality Express" @ Sexauer Gallery

WHY: Two years ago, in his first big solo show, Alexander Iskin made quite an impression with his oil paintings showing unsettling hybrid creatures placed in apocalyptic landscapes. In his second exhibition, „Reality Express“, Iskin brings realities into the mix, naming it Interrealism. In addition to the oil paintings and the INTERREALITY-TVs, Iskin extends his show with a video work. The exhibition is accompanied by a magazine, featuring texts and photographies by Christoph Neumann, which will be handed out during the opening.

Sexauer Gallery / Streustr. 90, 13086 Berlin, Station Friesickestraße Straßenbahn 12 & M13 / open through 21.05 / free entry / more info

 

19.00 Group show & space opening @ Rainbow Unicorn

WHY: Rainbow Unicorn is a creative studio and a new gallery for contemporary visual arts. This week they celebrate their new space with the inaugural group show, featuring works by established and upcoming international artists: Marc Brinkmeier, Ivonne Dippmann, Stevie Dix, Alexander Glass, Katrin Greiner, Peter Lorenz, Eden Mitsenmacher, Patrick Fabian Panetta, Karolina Pietrzyk, and Alona Rodeh.

Rainbow Unicorn / Anklamer Str. 50, 10115 Berlin, U Bernauer Str. / open through 15.05 / free entry / more info 

 

SATURDAY 23.04

20.00 Aoibheann Greenan - "The Perfect Wagner Rite" @ Import Projects

WHY: Aoibheann Greenan's theatrical and interactive installation, „The Perfect Wagner Rite“, takes George Bernard Shaw's commentary on Wagner's „The Ring of the Nibelungs“ as its starting point. In a deliberate act of cultural voyeurism, Greenan invents a pseudo-subculture of contemporary worshippers, whose philosophies and practices draw heavily on the „Ring“ as a source of legitimation. Elaborate hand-made costumes, god-heads and allegory: the stage is set for a collision between epic drama and bawdy ritual.
PS. Before or after the opening: read our recent interview with Import Projects!

Import Projects / Keithstrasse 10, 10787 Berlin, U Wittenbergplatz / open through 21.05 / more info 

 

WEDNESDAY 27.04

19.00 DADA Games @ Romanian Cultural Institute

WHY: „DADA Games“ is a group exhibition with works by artists revisiting concepts of DADA, stating: „Although we talk about Dadaism, DADA is not an “ism” like all the others. It is not a style whose formal characteristics can be clearly defined. DADA is a symbolic point of reference for new experiments, in the spirit of each time. DADA does not end. DADA transforms itself. Dada is a movement. A state of mind. Where do we find DADA today?“. Find the answer to the latter at the opening of the show.

Romanian Cultural Institute / Reinhardtstr. 14, 10117 Berlin, U Oranienburger Tor / free entry / open through 23.06 / more info

 

THURSDAY 28.04

19.00 Richard Garet – "Screen Memory" @ Galerie Burster

WHY: Richard Garet interweaves various media including moving image, sound, expanded photography, and multimedia performance. In work ranging from modified environments to installation, with specificity towards media and space, the artist constructs immersive situations that draw attention to the processes of perception, which activate sensorial, physical, and psychological phenomena that reflects on the nature and experience of time.

Galerie Burster / Kurfürstendamm 213, 10707 Berlin, U Kurfürstendamm / open through 11.06 / free entry / more info

 

FRIDAY 29.04

10.00 Basim Magdy – "The Stars Were Aligned for a Century of New Beginnings" @ Deutsche Bank KunstHalle

WHY: Basim Magdy is named Deutsche Bank's Artist of the Year 2016, and will present his first institutional solo exhibition at the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle. The artist has created a multifaceted oeuvre in recent years encompassing film, photography, slide projections, installations, and works on paper. At the center of his works are structures of seeing, remembering, and archiving. Many of Basim Magdy's works, which are based on observations of reality, are akin to surreal tales full of cryptic humor. With paintings and assemblies boasting psychedelic-looking colors, the artist investigates collective utopias and formulates his doubts in dogmas and ideologies.

Deutsche Bank KunstHalle / Unter den Linden 13/15, 10117 Berlin, U Französische Str. / open through 03.07 / more info

 

18.00 Clemens Wilhelm – "No Place Like Home" @ HilbertRaum

WHY: The solo exhibition „No Place Like Home“ presents three video works by Clemens Wilhelm, on the connection of mass tourism and mass photography: „Simulacra“ takes you on a hyperrealistic trip through a Chinese copy of the world. „The Tourist“ is a performance in the vast landscapes of Iceland in which the aesthetics of National Geographic and Caspar David Friedrichc clash with porn videos. „The Most Photographed Man in Berlin“ shows 1000 Facebook photos which document Wilhelm's attempt to become a Berlin tourist attraction. „If you can see the whole world online, why leave your home and become a tourist?“.

PS. Don't miss our recent interview with the HilbertRaum team!

HilbertRaum / Reuterstr. 31, 12043 Berlin, U Hermannplatz /open through 09.05 / free entry / more info

 

18.00 Gallery Weekend Berlin @ Various locations

WHY: The last weekend in April traditionally belongs to the Berlin art scene. For 12 years now it is the time when about 50 galleries synchronise openings and outshine themselves in presentation. Aside well known galleries, many new and experimental ones participate in the event – many of which you can find listed @ Bpigs. This year the art fans and collectors from all over the world will mix energies with a river of people celebrating May 1st, so for those who are not into street parties, Friday and Saturday are safer time to elegantly sip on Sekt at many official and unofficial Gallery Weekend openings.

Gallery Weekend Berlin / ongoing until 01.05 / free entry / more info