PROGRAM and n.k.b. – Exhibition Openings

More openings last night, the first I went to was at PROGRAM – an art space in Mitte dedicated to collaborations between art and architecture. The space comprises of a gallery, residency, library and workspaces for groups and individuals. The project which debuted last night was a collaboration between artists Julian Charriere and Andreas Greiner whom collected microbes throughout Germany which they subsequently bred in vitrines in the gallery. The moulds collected created drawings which were positioned within the gallery corresponding to a map of Germany and the locality in which they were found, and the height of the vitrines corresponded with the altitude from where they were collected. The installation was well executed and accompanied by a series of stills from the artists travels during the collection process. The artists have worked together and separately and are members of Das Numen (http://www.dasnumen.com/), a Berlin based art collective that probes questions both biological and mystical. For more info about the exhbition http://www.programonline.de/dominions.html

Something I'd like to see more of - more pooches in galleries!

Around the corner from PROGRAM is gallery n.k.b. (http://www.nbk.org/en/ausstellungen/) . The show which debuted last night was Kunst und Philiosphie – Art and Philosophy a group show of artists whom were invited to present a project defined by their relation to philosophy. I didn’t see anything that I thought was especially compelling but the space is great and there will be a series of lectures coming up in conjunction with the exhibition on Art and Philosophy by group of European philosophers and writers – most of which will be in English so I look forward to seeing more at the space.

Image above: Thomas Hirshhorn

Work in middle of gallery: Swantje Hielscher

Image above: Christian Schwarzwald

And - riding past Check Point Charlie on the way home - surreal!

MICA MOCA Project Space - Berlin

Finally August has come to an end which is good news for me as during the month of August most Berliners take their holidays, leaving the Berlin art scene a little impotent. I have ventured on a few occasions in the last few weeks to galleries only to find the place closed, looking fairly empty and desolate. But I have since found out that everyone is just on holidays! However holidays are over and now to look forward to a series of openings and exciting projects.

This evening I went to the opening of an exhibition called The End of The Dream (Comes Too Soon) at project space MICA MOCA (http://micamoca.com/wordpress/) in Wedding; a low socio-economic borough of Mitte in Berlin; where all vibrant art communities start. And then eventually get pushed out! This show is the last for MICA MOCA in this location as the factory is being turned into loft apartments; however I understand that they will be looking for new premises.

With over 35 artists The End of The Dream (Comes Too Soon) consisted of works by some of the artists who held studios within the premises and then some whom did not, and there was a mix of photography, sculpture, installation and video.

The highlight of the show was a collaborative project by Anton Burdakov and Sophia Pompery. I first saw Anton's work on the PROGRAM Berlin website where had made a project with an architect for the gallery space. The installation at MICA MOCA consisted of a series of relatively simple make shift shelving structures with large glass jars (about 1 litre to 2 litres each) filled with black tea positioned on the shelves. These were placed at various different heights each with a corresponding projector positioned at a short distance that projected an image which was subsequently “drawn” in the tea. From one angle the glass jars appeared to have blurred shafts of light projected through them, then as you moved around the object an image appeared clearly within the jar. An extension of his TEA (http://www.antonburdakov.com/projects/09T/01.html) series this work was by far the most resolved using the binary of technology versus the quotidian, and was the most elegantly executed within the exhibition. He’s pretty ace really. Shame about my crap photography but you can sort of see the computer in the jar.

First few weeks in the studio

Berlin Residency - European Creative City

I have recently arrived in Berlin to complete a 4 month self directed residency. I was the lucky recipient of a Go Anywhere Residency grant from wonderful folks at Artsource: The Artist's Foundation of WA in my hometown of Fremantle, Western Australia. Since arriving I have secured accommodation in Neukolln which is the eighth borough of Berlin and is characterised by having one of the highest percentage of immigrants in Berlin. I have also secured a fantastic studio at the artist collective European Creative City in Pankow. I have 40sqms of bliss as seen in the photo above! I think I am going to be very happy there! I am working on some projects that will come to fruition early next year in Australia and Taiwan. I am also completing a residency in Iceland in December, and will be preparing/working towards that also. I am hoping to keep a weekly update of the happenings of my studio and the surrounds. I hope you find it interesting! Love from Berlin.