KUNST (SHOT) – S.K. Robinson, Kreuzberg

Went to the opening the other night of a new art project – KUNST (SHOT) http://kunst-shot.tumblr.com/ organized by curator Stefania Angelini www.bpigs.com/projects/have-you-metstefania-angelini and Clemence De La Tour Du Pin (great name huh!). The event was the first of a monthly series of one night only art events showing the work of emerging international artists. The inaugural exhibition consisted of artists Benjamin Laurent Aman, Buno Ollee, Filippos Kavakas, Angela Liosi, Stefan Riebel, Hugo Des Gayets, Bill Patrick and Clemence De La Tour Du Pin and included sculpture, installation, print, video and sound performance. The venue, S.K. Robinson is usually a club, but the floor to ceiling concrete and lighting rig lends itself perfectly to an exhibition space, and the show was well executed with the selection of work befitting the industrially chic interior. I particularly enjoyed the neo-mystic sculptures by Filippos Kavakas. It was a pretty sexy show and a fun night. Looking forward to the next one......

 Above: Filippos Kavakas

  Above: Filippos Kavakas

 Above: Benjamin Laurent Aman

Berlin Art Junction im GIZ-Haus Berlin

The other night I went to an exhibition opening for Berlin Art Junction http://www.berlinartjunction.org – an organization whom promotes the work of young and emerging artists based in Berlin. BAJ places exhibitions at times in corporate contexts, and as such this exhibition was held in the offices of GIZ-Haus, http://www.gtz.de. Having exhibitions outside of gallery contexts are always a challenge. At times you face dealing with unsuitable interior design fit out, issues with lighting, pulling an audience to a location off the gallery circuit, which in my experience in Perth can be hit and miss, and working to create a meaningful exhibition that accommodates the ergonomics of how the space is used when it is not being a “gallery”. Having said that it’s a great way to expand audiences, and by placing work in a corporate context perhaps raising the possibility of sales, and overcoming all the challenges faced must give one a smug satisfaction.

Two works stood out for me – one by my darling friend Georgina Criddle (biased yes, but you would be to if you knew how much of a wonderful human being she is as well as a talented artist), and another work by Jennifer Oellerich. Criddle showed work from here Graffiti Tapestry project http://www.georginacriddle.com/index.php?/projects/graffiti-tapestry/ which was an outcome of a residency at the MEET Factory in Prague. The work by Oellerich was the most successfully integrated into the space as seen in the photos below. Check out more of her work here http://www.jennyoellerich.de/works/files/page1-1025-full.html

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!