In a windy pelting snowstorm I delivered the three works on paper to the Blütenweisse gallery. ‘The art must get through', I thought. It is such an attractive spacious gallery. The rents are very low, comparatively, in Berlin so the galleries are huge.
A crowded private view reception at the Hamburger Hof Museum of 21st Century Art, seemed very much like an opening in London, interesting looking people, champagne, and an Athens-Berlin-New York video on show. No glasses to be taken into the darkened viewing space so there were about the same number not watching as watching the video, and going back and forth. Since the literature given was in German I perhaps had a little less grasp of the plot than usual, but it was based on the Jacques-Louis David painting ‘Rape of the Sabine Women' and takes place in the Pergamon Museum, the Tempelhof Airport and the Athens Meat Market, both in B&W 1940's Berlin, and contemporary Athens in colour, without words but local market sounds and a swirling specially composed score. Eve Sussman, The Rufus Corporation, The Rape Of The Sabine Women.
Another private view this time in a commercial gallery near Check Point Charlie. A vast space with harsh fluorescent tube lighting, the paintings hung sparsely with a lot of bare walls. This had a feeling of a New York opening rather than a London one. The amount of space gives it a cutting edge feel. Glasses of white wine, or water were passed around on trays. There were Russians, and some Americans, as well as Germans but not such a huge dressy crowd as at the Hamburger Hof. The amount of space was the impressive factor and I liked the alternative relaxed feel.
