So 4 days in Berlin - it still feels like London in the 80s -
whole areas wonderfully lost and left alone but others full of cranes and in
development. A short walk can encompasses tightly politicised areas around
embassies, through currywurst tourist spots and back out to neighbourhood
shared spaces. Went for the 10th Berlin Biennale http://www.berlinbiennale.de/ but saw lots of other work in
both private and government spaces - much of which was better, the 10th biennale
was not a patch on the 9th.
So much was seen but the real treasure was often the
building the work was in, something that is always a pleasure - artists carving
out access to interesting spaces..
The cavernous Hamburger
Bahnhof https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/hamburger-bahnhof/home.html
has a wonderfully all encompassing complex show using work from their
collection. It’s always a real joy to check out the permanent Beuys and Newman piece my soul left
out, room that does not care. as part of their education work they have a
room full of work contextualise within speech bubbles - I feel a visual
research projection coming on at some point. Philip Parreno at Gropius
Bau was stunning. https://www.museumsportal-berlin.de/en/museums/martin-gropius-bau/
It was a series of spaces and events all controlled by the data collected from
yeast. no words could really describe it but the image of a shoal of floating
fish reflected in a dark pool rippling from sound waves will stay with me for a
long time.
wolfgang georgsdorf had an extraordinary
smell machine which was as very powerfully firing smaller that took you to a
number of spaces Proustian like.
Some Biennale 10 highlights - 1 from each
space. At Akademie der Künste
Lynette yiadom-Blakey Victoria video piece recon-deconstruction of an incident
in a supermarket halted you in your tracks - acting as a mirror to one's own
inherent prejudice. https://www.adk.de/en/academy/index.htm
At KW
institute Cinthia Marcelle had an uplifting video of a choreographed band
at a crossroad - lovely. https://www.kw-berlin.de/en/
Tony Cokes overwhelming text-speech-music-videos in
the basement of ZK/U felt like being punched in the face with obvious bad news.
http://www.berlinbiennale.de/artists/T/tony-cokes excellent.
The private view at Tanya Leighton threw up a smirkingly excellent video piece in the
cellar by John Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bm2UZN4NDI a real highlight. FORTS video the shining at Wedding
was spookily disturbing- worth a look and also great to get out that way.
The total all encompassing most excellent experience
was going out to Kindl. http://www.kindl-berlin.com/ The space
is totally awesome, an old brewery, the stills are in place within the
magnificent brutal industrial cathedral like architecture. The show Defying Gravity by Tanya Onorato and Nico Krebs
was thoughtful, well crafted, conceptually tight with stunning use of
materials- it is a space which also has a great view back into Berlin - it’s a
must go to place.
I’ve missed out Spruth Magers, Berlinische Gallery, Neuer
Berliner, the art bunker https://www.sammlung-boros.de/boros-collection.html?L=1
and many more as I thought that I
would mention just the amazing!!!
