Berlin Art Week 2017

For the sixth time, Berlin Art Week presents an overview of what’s going on in the world of contemporary art. The programme this year is especially diverse and has virtually anything art lovers, collectors, or guests from around the globe might want: two art fairs featuring around 200 participating galleries, important solo and group shows, a large-scale retrospective, an artist film festival, and new partners. The variety of the programme being held in both familiar and new venues will once again make Berlin an international meeting place for the art world from September 13–17. Berlin Art Week is supported by the Senate Department of Economics, Energy, and Public Enterprises.

The Art Fairs art berlin and Positions Berlin
The Berlin Art Week programme will once again focus on the art fairs. The names of participating galleries from more than 16 countries attest to a broad spectrum of positions presenting artists from Berlin and around the world to the art market. Under the direction of Maike Cruse, who had already served as director of abc, the newly founded art berlin in collaboration with Art Cologne will be presenting around 110 galleries. Not only will the new fair feature significantly more participants showing their artists at Station at Gleisdreieck, the profile will include not only young and established contemporary art, but also modern art. Positions Berlin Art Fair invites the international art world to Arena Berlin. This year, the directors Kristian Jarmuschek and Heinrich Carstens have selected 84 exhibitors, including newcomers and galleries that have been established for many years now. With a growing interest in the Berlin art market, many galleries from Eastern Europe will be participating this year, now forming one focus of the art fair. The openings at the participating Berlin galleries will further expand the spectrum with more than 100 exhibitions in the city’s gallery spaces on Friday. For the first time this year, the Landesverband Berliner Galerien (lvbg) will be awarding a Gallery Prize of 10,000 Euro in collaboration with the Verband Berliner Kaufleute und Industrieller (VBKI) and the Senate Department of Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises within the Berlin Art Week.

The unique profile of Berlin Art Week results from the joint efforts of the partners—the fairs, the museums, art associations, private collectors, and project spaces—inviting guests to the German capital from September 13–17.

Berlin Art Week, day by day: Wednesday, September 13
To kick things off, the artist film festival la > x, marking the 50th anniversary of Berlin and Los Angeles becoming sister cities, will be showing Californian artist films at Kino Arsenal with contributions by Edgar Arceneaux, John Baldessari, James Benning, Morgan Fisher, Sarah Morris, and Jennifer West. The Festival provides access to the audience on the big screen to artist films that are otherwise often only shown in galleries or at art fair booths. Across the city, exhibition openings being held this evening include Willem de Rooij: Whiteout (KW Institute for Contemporary Art), Thomas Feuerstein: Prometheus Delivered (Haus am Lützowplatz) and Daria Martin: A Hunger Artist (Schering Stiftung). Akademie der Künste will be holding the exhibition Tell It to the Stones on the oeuvre of Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, illuminating one of the most influential, and yet controversial works of the modern cinema. The exhibition Portrait of a Nation at me Collectors Room provides insight into the work of 50 contemporary artists from the United Arab Emirates. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein will present the retrospective Harun Farocki – Mit anderen Mitteln – By Other Means looking at the work of one of the most important and internationally influential German filmmaker with partners Savvy Contemporary, Harun Farocki Institute, and Kino Arsenal, showing two exhibitions and an extensive film programme.

Thursday, September 14
Beside the art fairs art berlin und Positions Berlin, the four-day Festival of Future Nows 2017 → ∞ will be held at Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin. This collaboration with the Institut für Raumexperimente by Olafur Eliasson will offer over 100 artists space to present and implement their ideas. Among this evening’s performances, artist Miet Warlop (HAU Hebbel am Ufer) and the dancer and choreographer Boris Charmatz (Volkbühne Berlin, Tempelhof) will be the focus. 20 artistic project spaces and initiatives will be receiving the Award for Project Spaces and Initiatives. Most of these spaces will open on Thursday and offer joint opening hours from Friday to Sunday. Independent project spaces, which are particularly numerous in Berlin, are key to the city’s importance as a centre for contemporary art.

Friday, September 15
Other exhibitions at the partner institutions join in the programme this evening. At Berlinische Galerie, the exhibition 3612,54 m³ vs 0,05 m³ from Monica Bonvicini, that deals with the concept and function of the façade opens. The presentation was held at the same time to mark her participation in the 15th Istanbul Biennial, and will contain elements of both cities. Wilson Díaz is currently artist-in-residence in the DAAD Artist Programme. For Berlin Art Week, the daadgalerie will be presenting Chimera, in which the artist draws attention to the political situation and visual culture in Colombia with his collection of record covers from several decades. Also on Friday C/O Berlin will be opening the exhibitions Danny Lyon: Message to the Future and Willi Ruge: Fotoaktuell. During the evening, the participating Berlin galleries of art berlin and Positions Berlin will be holding openings across the city and the ceremony for the Award for Project Spaces and Initiatives of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe will take place at Bar Babette. The award ceremony will be framed by a podium discussion on the subject of city and space along with films, performances, and a party.

Saturday and Sunday, September 16–17
On Saturday, Schinkel Pavillon will open The Care With Which The Rain Is Wrong with two works by the artist Geoffrey Farmer. Over the weekend, there will be an especially wide variety of offerings therefore Berlin Art Week will provide guided tours in collaboration with Niche Berlin and point especially on the 14 Berlin private collections which will be presenting their spaces, sometimes very private, sometimes museum-like, with special opening hours and tours. Depending on emphasis and private preference, various genres of contemporary art and combinations with other eras can be seen. Enjoy a great Berlin Art Week 2017!

Berlin Art Week is made possible by the support of the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, and realized with the support of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe and GASAG AG. Kulturprojekte Berlin is responsible for coordination and communication.

For more information and the full programme, please visit www.berlinartweek.de or have a look at our Berlin Art Week Trailer.

Press contact:
Susanne Kumar-Sinner
Communication Berlin Art Week
Kulturprojekte Berlin
T +49 30 247 49 849 / s.kumar [​at​] kulturprojekte.berlin