The Berlin Art Institute runs a residency programme for artists at all stages of their career to come and make work in Berlin, located in Weissensee in the north west of the city it’s a really calm and green district. The institute is run by the dedicated founders and co-directors Ralf Schmidt and Stephanie Jünemann, who coordinate a programme of visiting artist talks and gallery visits that run alongside studio activity. The residency runs in blocks of 4 weeks, and I applied for the a-n artist bursary to fund one block.
I had been planning to take some time off working in London for a while to spend a focused period of time working on my practice, attending the BAI seemed like the perfect opportunity to do this and would give me access to the city. My time there presented the opportunity to meet other artists, see exhibitions and discover new galleries, while learning about the city’s history and culture, all impacted on the work I made during this time and it was an overwhelmingly positive experience.
berlinartinstitute.com/studio-program
[INSERT TITLE] at Kleine Humboldt Galerie, Image: © www.BerlinArtInstitute.com
Work by Helena Hladilová
We visited the Kleine Humboldt Galerie, located inside the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Curators Agnesa Schmudke & Elisabeth Stumpf gave us a tour of the show and exhibiting artist Britta Lumer talked about her work and involvement with the exhibition.
More info on the Gallery: kleinehumboldtgalerie.de
Monuments Seminar at BAI, Image: © www.BerlinArtInstitute.com
Artist duo VARIOUS & GOULD led a seminar on monuments, discussing past and present monuments of Berlin and the relationship monuments have to their own practice.
I followed this seminar by visiting some of the monuments in the city, this included the Marx Engels sculpture in Mitte. The seminar discussed how there had been some controversy with this particular monument, as it was moved to a new location in 1986 and now points to the west rather than the east as before.
I visited the Berlin Biennale during my time on the residency. The Biennale took place over 4 sites, including, Akademie der Künste (Hanseatenweg), KW Institute for Contemporary Art, HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU 2), ZK/U – Center for Art and Urbanistics.
Titled We don’t need another hero, the 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art is a conversation with artists and contributors who think and act beyond art as they confront the incessant anxieties perpetuated by a willful disregard for complex subjectivities.
berlinbiennale.de
