as anticipated the
highlight of the Biennale was the all engaging
work of Jon Rafman. His VR watched over the Brandenburg Gate and square was
harrowing and just extraordinary. http://bb9.berlinbiennale.de/participants/rafman/
Cécile B. Evans was a close
second - would you do increasingly bad things to make things better - the
phrase from the film is still ringing around in my skull. http://bb9.berlinbiennale.de/participants/evans/
Her work explored our relationship to our 'now'. The Biennale really engaged
with the issue of how to display digital work physically (beyond a screen) Watching
it in a room while sitting floating in water on a wooden platform accentuate
this. Many others including the work of
Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch with their 'adult child play areas' have addressed
this, although the work itself continues to perplex and be as confrontational
as ever. http://bb9.berlinbiennale.de/participants/fitch/
All the spaces the work was shown in also provided glimpses into Berlin's
history and as ever delivered contextual baggage to deconstruct at every turn.
The boat ride was a great way to see art and watch Berlin drift by. Last seen
in Rome in a show about refugees I have to recommend the work of Halil
Altindere - the videos content and text are challenging and give voice to the
voiceless. here's his work about Istanbul https://vimeo.com/78545350
There was a
monumental show of Carl Andre's work at Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - lots of
excellent examples of the 'stuff stacked up following simple repetitive
systems' but also some early cut pieces and a selection of the material that he
collected which informed the work. http://www.smb.museum/en/exhibitions/detail/carl-andre-sculpture-as-place-1958-2010.html
There was also a highly crafted curated visual essay around Joseph Beuys work The
Capital Space 1970–1977. This created
a web of connections which played off each other. http://www.smb.museum/en/exhibitions/detail/das-kapital.html
The huge show of Beuys work shown in a building that used to be a railway
station was just awesome. I am a massive fan of the work and ideology and have
seen a lot of his work but this blew me away and I felt I understood the work
and the man in new and layered ways. Maybe you can only see Beuy's in Germany
to really get him. http://www.smb.museum/en/exhibitions/detail/die-sammlungen-the-collections-les-collections.html
Berlin appeared to change and
recontextualised every piece I viewed over 4 days.
The Berlinische
Galerie Museum of Modern Art had a okayish show of Erwin Wurm's work (the house
was fun!) but their permanent collection was astounding and reanimated my love
of Naum Gabo. It is a highly curated focused exhibit with excellent examples
and as ever the wars and devastation is never far away and in fact frames the
curation. They also had an exhibition titled Dada Africa which reframed the connections
and made new sense to my understanding.
Of all the
'tourist spaces' visited I was most moved by the holocaust memorial at .....
one starts off chatty and breezily entering low blocks from a bright busy
street and then you find yourself engulfed within the regimented towering blocks
providing space to get lost but there is also no hiding. The Jewish Museum was
less so and felt it was trying too hard to elicit emotion, although the spaces
created were physically dynamic. A quick
shout out to the Medical Museum http://www.bmm-charite.de/en/index.html
There is a room within the permanent exhibition “On the Trace of Life” that has exhibits similar to those that
used to be shown at the Hunterian Museum in London before it was realigned to
be 'family friendly'. https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums
It was life affirming to see such devastating and difficult exhibits.
Berlin itself
is such an extraordinary city - it feels as if everywhere you look is being
built or refurbished. Trams and trains are efficient and there is no litter on
the wide open streets which are full great, cheap places to eat and drink with friendly
people - what's not to like.
