September 16–November 8, 2015
The second collaborative project between four of Berlin’s leading art institutions Berlinische Galerie, Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, and Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin will present a total of four thematically-related and coinciding exhibitions. Initiated and funded by the Mayor of Berlin, Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs, the joint project also marks the kick-off of Berlin Art Week 2015.
Titled STADT/BILD (Image of a City), the project approaches the notion of “The City” as thematic cluster from various perspectives. The institutional structure and work processes of museums will be examined; urban developments will be addressed, as well as social, aesthetic, and cultural aspects relating to “The City.” Moreover, the boundaries between public and private spaces and urban landscapes will be contemplated, questioning forms of participation and community.
Berlinische Galerie
Brandlhuber + Hertweck, Mayfried
The Dialogic City: Berlin wird Berlin
16 September 2015–21 March 2016
Arno Brandlhuber has been responsible for diverse construction projects and is also considered one of the most important contemporary critics in architecture and urbanism. His subject is the city as a space for experience and communication. Together with the designer Thomas Mayfried and the architect Florian Hertweck, Brandlhuber has devised a project for Berlinische Galerie that spans from the traces of wartime destruction in Berlin to standardized new buildings of the Berlin Republic and questions the future of urban space. An event program is also part of the exhibition concept, developed together with other experts in the field. Furthermore, an essential component is an anthology, which addresses the question of how to dialogically imagine and design the city.
Deutsche Bank KunstHalle
Xenopolis
16 September–8 November 2015
The point of departure of the exhibition Xenopolis is the statement that in any big capital city, we are all strangers. Simon Njami, the curator, conceived Xenopolis using an idea propounded by Roland Barthes. In “Semiology and Urbanism,” he postulates that the city speaks to its residents, that it can be read and has its own distinct language. In keeping with these considerations, the exhibition poses questions about belonging, home, and the notion of “foreign.” This is reflected based on works by the Berlin-based artists Laurence Bonvin, Loris Cecchini, Mwangi Hutter, Theo Eshetu, Anri Sala, and Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag. An intervention by D. Gonçalo Bom incorporates the ArtCafé of the KunstHalle.
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
16 September–15 November 2015
In the mid-1980s, the rock band Guns N’ Roses dedicated a song to the jungle that has since become iconic: “Welcome to the Jungle” (1987) stages the seductive abyss of life in a big city. On the one hand sex, drugs, and violence guarantee an intensified version of life, more than everyday experiences can offer, but on the other they also have a highly destructive potential. The thematic group exhibition WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE at KW Institute for Contemporary Art takes the song’s title as an occasion for gathering Berlin-based and international artist positions that engage with fictions of such alternative places—in all their ambivalence.
With works by Ute Adamczewski, Ulf Aminde, Awst & Walther, Nina Beier, Julius von Bismarck, Ulu Braun, Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, Danica Dakić, Loretta Fahrenholz, Heike Gallmeier, Sven Johne, Tobias Madison, Peter Piller, Jon Rafman, Ariel Reichman, Stephen G. Rhodes, Roman Schramm, Sophie-Therese Trenka-Dalton, Marianne Vlaschits, Klaus Weber, and Camilla Wills. Contributed by Filipa Ramos: Melanie Bonajo, Olaf Breuning, Basim Magdy, and John Smith
Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Fluids. A Happening by Allan Kaprow, 1967/2015
During Berlin Art Week at various locations throughout Berlin
The Nationalgalerie presents Fluids. A Happening by Allan Kaprow, 1967/2015 — a comprehensive reinvention of Allan Kaprow’s Happening from 1967 in the public sphere. Kaprow (1927–2006) was a pioneer of performance art. His legendary happening Fluids was first created 1967 in California. Over three days Kaprow, assisted by volunteers, built several extensive structures constructed out of ice blocks. Once in place, these ice structures were simply left to melt. In its temporality and materiality, the work represents a challenge to the traditional understanding of art in public space. The Nationalgalerie has invited Berlin-based artists (Olivier Guesselé-Garai, Assaf Gruber, Antje Majewski, Agnieszka Polska and Juliane Solmsdorf; Ahmet Öğüt; Alexandra Pirici and the artist group STADT IM REGAL) to create their own contemporary responses to Allan Kaprow’s Happening. Their versions of Fluids will appear in different locations around the city during the Berlin Art Week 2015. Additionally, a reconstruction of the historical action will occur at the Neue Nationalgalerie. www.kaprowinberlin.smb.museum
The four institutions will also collaborate on an accompanying program, which will take place throughout the duration of the exhibitions in the collaborative thematic project.
