Berlin waves goodbye to 2015 in high fashion, and welcomes 2016 with a few great art shows. Take advantage of that little extra enthusiasm that comes with the new year & start crossing them all off the list.

WEDNESDAY 30.12

19.00 3AM @ Kunstfabrik Am Flutgraben

WHY: The last 3AM event of this year will feature performances, videos, installations, sound pieces and - of course - a great afterparty. For this edition you can inscribe to present something or DJ, and also to give feedback to the artists. The organisers will need help for setting up the space,  running the bar, and a strong-willed team for the cleaning after-party. If you would like to take part, RSVP using the form: http://goo.gl/forms/HvuN5CVb7V.

Kunstfabrik A. Flutgraben / Am Flutgraben 3, 12435 Berlin, U Schlesisches Tor / more info

22.00 UY 2nd Anniversary @ OHM

WHY: The Berlin-based fashion-forward label, UY, celebrates its 2nd anniversary at OHM. With transition as the overarching theme - transition of appearance, of perception, of self - the night will include unique performances with the coreographer Kiani del Valle, meant to arouse the senses, transcend the mind, and transform the space. Throughout the night, the audience will be invited to experience and interact with the performance. And of course, party accordingly with the very-Berlin art, fashion & music crowd.

OHM / Kopenicker Str. 70, 10179 Berlin, U Heinrich-Heine-Str. / more info

THURSDAY 31.01

18.00 New Year Marathon @ Spektrum

WHY: For those who choose arty over party for a “guten Rutsch”, Spektrum is organising a non-stop performance marathon running till the New Year: 6 hours, 18 performances of all kinds (sound, body, video, dance, ext) - 20 minutes each, 3 tables (1 setting up - 1 setting down - 1 playing), open doors. Everyone is welcome to come in, bring food and share with the others, while drinks will be available for purchase at the bar. You can reserve a slot for your performance via: info@spektrumberlin.de.

Spektrum / Bürknerstr. 12, 12047 Berlin, U Schönleinstr. / more info

FRIDAY 08.01

18.00 Asta Gröting – "TOUCH and Ghost" @ carlier | gebauer

WHY: In her manifold artistic practices, which she has developed since the mid-1980s, Asta Gröting translates sculptural thought in diverse media. Her works address the social body on both an emotional and a conceptual level, transferring psychological as well as social relations into concise statements about personal, collective, and political entanglements. At the core of the exhibition is the video installation “TOUCH”. The exhibition also presents her video “Buddy Big Mountain”, and the sculpture “Ghost”.

carlier | gebauer / Markgrafenstr. 67, 10969 Berlin, U Kochstr. / open through 07.02 / free entry / more info

19.00 Videoscreening - The Artist’s (Self)Portrait: Personal Performance vs. Selfie @ Scotty Enterprises

WHY: Self-portraiture has a long tradition: ever since the use of the Sony Portapak, the video camera has been used as an instrument to explore one’s own body. Now, with the ubiquity of the cellphone and the rise of the selfie, the genre is undergoing a dramatic chance. Scotty Enterprises presents experimental films and videos from artists who use the camera as a medium of self-expression and exploration of the ego. From dusk onwards the videos will be projected onto the shop window of the project space.

Scotty Enterprises / Oranienstr. 46, 10969 Berlin, U Moritzplatz / open through 30.01 / free entry / more info

SATURDAY 09.01

18.00 Leo Gabin – “Exit/Entry” @ Peres Projects

WHY: “Exit/Entry” is the third solo exhibition at Peres Project by Leo Gabin – artist collective consisting of Lieven Deconinck, Gaëtan Begerem, and Robin De Vooght. The new works on aluminium and film are an evolution in Leo Gabin’s recognizable aesthetic of appropriation and repeated, graphically iconic symbols of American life. The exhibition is a total installation centered around the new film which is entirely composed of  footage uploaded by the protagonist herself.

Peres Projects / Karl­-Marx-­Allee 82, 10243 Berlin, U Weberwiese / open through 06.02 / more info

18.00 Dirk Skreber – “The Long Hello” @ Capitain Petzel

WHY: Working in sculpture, installation and painting, Dirk Skreber's oeuvre ranges from the abstract to the representational, though concerned with the architecture of the hyperreal: highly articulated constructions which reside in suspended space and time. His subject matter draws from the mundane flow of contemporary life. Varying stylistically from seamless gradients to gestural rendering, his paintings don’t offer pictorial illusion, but instead, exploit their own material qualities. The paint itself is used as a language of contradiction.

Capitain Petzel / Karl-Marx-Allee 45, 10178 Berlin, U Schillingstr. / open through 27.02 / free entry / more info

18.00 Hulda Rós Gudnadóttir - “Keep Frozen” Part Three @ Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig (free shuttle bus from Berlin)

WHY: “Keep Frozen” is an art and research project of the Berlin-based Icelandic artist Hulda Rós Gudnadóttir, which deals with the working conditions of dock workers, and artistic research as practice. It opens with a 48-hour performance by a team of dock workers, which aims to show their inhumanly difficult tasks carried out with a precise level of skill and experience that few outside the dock are able to achieve. The film crew will take footage and transform it into an experimental film that will open at KKW on 22.01 as a video installation. The exhibition also includes a symposium titled “SEA BODY INFRASTRUCTURE IMAGE. An Artistic Research Symposium”, open for public participation.

Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig / Saalfelder Str. 8B, 04179 Leipzig (free shuttle bus from Berlin, same day back and forth) / more info

SUNDAY 10.01

20.00 Screening: Topless Cellist - Charlotte Moorman @ Spektrum

WHY: In 1967, “Topless Cellist” was the headline that hit the news after Charlotte Moorman was arrested for performing Nam June Paik’s “Opera Sextronique” while partially nude at The Film-Maker's Cinematheque in New York. This event marked the infamous peak of Moorman and Paik’s yearlong artistic collaboration, in which they explored entirely new avenues of contemporary music by introducing new media, as well as sex, to classical performance. This program includes Paik‘s 1995 documentary “Topless Cellist” Charlotte Moorman, as well as the only existing recording of “Opera Sextronique”. It concludes with Paik’s “Guadalcanal Requiem”, the artist’s most overtly political video work.

Spektrum / Bürknerstr. 12, 12047 Berlin, U Schönleinstr. / more info