Where to start – Berlin – one of my favorite European cities – the most unhinged, random truly-out there place. I was there for Berlin Art Weekend with my son Bob Bicknell Knight who had a show at Number 1 Main Road Gallery. Cycling through the city examples of casual, spontaneous acts opened up in front of me – my favorites were the insane huge mass barbecue in Lichtenberg Park on a sunny day, the seemingly 24 hour club on wasteland in the Elsenbrucke Bridge and the I-think-I-will-live-here-settlement along the Flutgraben, a tributary of the Spree in the Lohmuhleninsel district - glorious. I saw so many extraordinary works of art in fantastic places steeped in layers of history – just space for the highlights as I went to around 20 spaces - where to start….. Gropius Bau had an inciteful group show Re-navigating the Afrasian sea and Notions of Diaspora. A stunning VR experience by Sim Chi Yin allowed me to light up the digital space whilst watching the world collapse. Daniel Boyd created an unbelievable experience by covering walls and windows with mirrors and holes that both revealed and concealed as you walked through the rooms. Salome Chatriot’s paintings at Office Impart disturb in all the right ways, the video We Empty Ourselves and Accelerate the Hatching’ is mesmerizing. Photography during the Holocaust at the Museum of photography was, as expected fairly harrowing. The line that stayed with me was on a Nazi poster – Entry for Jews is Forbidden….Isn’t it wonderful to be just by ourselves!’ – all a little Brexit familiar. La Horde at the Julia Stoschek Foundation was an opportunity to re-think dance, the videos were full of energy. Cao Fei at Spruth Magers was truly mind blowing – the whole experience got me rethinking what I know. MatryoshkaVerse the video exploring the Russian/Chinese theme park on the Inner Mongolia border was extraordinary. The VR experience RMB City has amazing detail and the ability to pick up objects and examine them closely. Human Is, the group show at the Schinkel Pavillon, a stunning space, had Ian Cheng’s Emissary Sunsets The Self – just fantastic. Win McCarthy, Karen Lamassonne and Martin Wong at KW Institute had some highlights. Karen’s very odd novella type film was eccentrically bizarre. Martin’s history and excessive body of work was so insightful and disturbingly necessary today. Win had a great concept set out in such a stylish way.
