Days 13, 14 and 15
Visits to Rathenau Hallen, Kinderhook and Caracas, and l’Atelier Kunst (spiel)arum and week review.
Day 13 was filled with a visit to the studios of four artists based at Rathenau Hallen, Chrs Bierl, Bram Braams, Michael Disque and Julia Schmid. Rathenau Hallen, based in the eastern reaches of Berlin, is part of a small hub for culture and technology as well as business start-ups that also contains a cinema and gallery. The artists we visited were again all very welcoming and open to talking about their work.
The next day was again taken up by visits to two galleries. First we visited Kinderhook and Caracas, a space in Kreuzberg which is the home of artists Chris Klein and Sol Calero. They live and work in the rear of the space while the front is used as a gallery, curated by Klein and Calero themselves.
In their front gallery space we were fortunate enough to catch the last day of Ethan Hayes-Chute‘s solo exhibition. The show was based around a computer that the artist had found, apparantly the first ever portable PC, which took pride of place in the centre of the gallery.
We then visited l’Atelier Kunst (spiel)arum, an alternative commercial gallery space, again located in Kreuzberg. Run by curator Stefania Angelini, l’Atalier is an interesting space. What I would call a non-white cube, white cube space. Currently showing is the solo show of Renata Har, the result of a one month residency in the space. The central theme to Renata’s show was time, the passing of time and perpetual motion, drawing on, and certainly not shying away from, themes of life, death and memory. There were several stand-out pieces in the show. Above all of the works stood the playful, interactive confetti catapult (for want of a better name). This site specific piece used the stair well at the rear of the gallery as an area for firing balls of confetti at the real gallery wall. The combination of macho brute force and pink feminine confetti was quite inspired. However, despite the strength of the works individually, this simply didnt work for me as a coherent exhibition.
At the end of the week we sat down as a group and discussed all of the spaces and artists we had visited during the week, as well as the artist brunch and what we should be doing going forward. We didn’t dwell too much on Kinderhook and Caracas as I think its fair to say we were all on the same page in terms of being overwhelmed at how great it was and how much of a good thing they have going on (I’m completely envious of what they are doing there).
Our main topic of conversation was the exhibition will be the culminating result of this residency programme. Whatever we decide to do, whether it is a solo show, a group show and something more experimental (and we need to decide fast), the project will definitely be of the collaborative nature.
Based on my experiences of working collaboratively with such a large group of people (I’m refering specifically to an exhibition I was involved in during my Masters – prospectus) I suggested to the group that we might want to do something quite fluid, that could develope organically whilst also being open to the public for them to witness the development process. I wanted to avoid the term “meta-curating” but it came out anyway. I’m bored of exhibitions that open for a week and nothing actually happens. Its so stale and stagnant.
I think some of what I said to the group may be taken on board, but with this being a collaborative process I’m fully aware of the need for compromise. Let the games begin.
