Gallery Weekend Berlin 2018

With this one being the fourteenth iteration of the event, the German capital’s creative and artistic scene will – luckily – be filled with money and a bit of glamour. The Gallery Weekend has managed to establish itself as a magnet for a significant number of art fans and international collectors. On past editions, it gathered up to twenty thousand visitors from all over the world – especially from Russia, China and the United States –, leading other cities such as Barcelona or Paris to adopt this format and launch their own versions.

The galleries are putting their best foot forward, presenting emerging and established artists and really focusing on contemporary art. As the event spreads through different locations, we recommend five exciting walks through the city streets with some selected exhibitions. Indeed, much more pleasant than being closed in a venue full of stands just as in standard art fairs.

The first route, the new gallery centre and one of my favourites, is around Potsdamerstraße and Kurfürstenstraße. Esther Schipper, in its new location since last year, presents the exhibition Catch Me If You Can! AA Bronson + General Idea, 1968–2018; in the same building, down floor, Blain Southern shows Frank Thiel and Liliane Tomasko. Isabella Bortolozzi is just ten minutes away by walk, and it will exhibit Danny McDonald, whose works evidently take over the feminist pop icon Evelyne Axell.

Over the canal, on Schöneberger Ufer, Christian Falsnaes can be seen at PSM, and Mexican-born, Berlin-based renowned artist Mariana Castillo Deball is presenting most of her beautiful watercolours at Barbara Wien. Some steps further, always following the canal, at gallery Wentrup, the show of Nevin Aladağ, who was in last year’s Documenta 14 and is one of the artists living in Berlin who have helped shape the city as an art metropolis.

The traditional galleries hotspot since the ‘90s, Mitte, shows artists who have already contributed to the writing of art history, as for example the amazing Kara Walker, displayed at the blue-chip gallery Sprüth Magers, also showing Senga Nengudi and Andro Wekua. KOW hosts Los Carpinteros –Dagoberto Rodríguez Sánchez and Marco Castillo Valdés –, whose art registers the changes in Cuban society since 1992. Michael Fuchs Galerie exhibits Of Insects and Other Creatures, by Melli Ink, which is accompanied – only during the weekend – by rooftop | playground exhibition with works by Christian Jankowski, Tomi Ungerer, Felice Varini or Gabriel Rico among others. Eigen+Art presents the paintings of Tim Eitel, one of his Leipzig School artists.

In this circuit, youthful alternatives are run by galleries like Dittrich & Schlechtriem, with shocking works by Andreas Greiner; alongside with Galerie Neu and his blooming millennial artist Yngve Holen. Further away, located on the grandiose avenue – object of the parades of the former DDR –, Karl-Marx Allee, are located Capitain Petzel, which hosts Kelley Walker, and Peres Projects, with Rebecca Ackroyd.

Kreuzberg is little by little gaining its room in the Gallery Weekend circuit. Proof of this are the coolest proposals – this edition is impressive for sure – by newcomers, who’ve become indispensable galleries in Berlin’s art scene during the last years. These are Kraupa-Tuskany Zeldler, with artist Yu Honglei; ChertLüdde, with Patrizio Di Massimo; or Klemm’s with Sven Johne. Also, in the same neighbourhood, there is the consolidated and successful König Galerie displaying two women, Claudia Comte, a regular in the event since the last two editions, accompanied by Evelyne Axell.

Additionally, another of my favourite walks is the group of galleries around Rudi-Dutschke-Straße. Some of them are young, such as Société, which presents Jeanette Mundt. Julius von Bismarck, an excellent young committed artist, is one of the stars of Alexander Levy. Consolidated galleries are likewise in this circuit. Galerie Nordenhake shows Stanley Whitney’s magnificent colourful geometric paintings. Not to miss, a talk between the artist and Documenta 14’s curator, Monika Szewczyk, that will be held in the gallery on Saturday. Close to it is Galerie Barbara Thumm, presenting the marvellous Peruvian artist Fernando Bryce. Konrad Fischer Galerie, with its two locations, shows Stanley Brouwn and Lawrence Weiner, another artist who’s rewriting art history with his works. 

Another of the canonical circuits – together with Mitte – is the West: big galleries with big and sought-after names. Contemporary Fine Arts shows Raymond Pettibon and Huma Bhabha. Mehdi Chouakri, which moved to this new, more central location – allowing taking advantage of foot traffic –, will display Hans-Peter Feldmann, a hallmark of the event. Marwan, who had an outstanding space in the last Venice Biennial, can be seen at Michael Haas Galerie. And last but not least, Max Hetzler with works by Thomas Struth and Loris Gréaud.

Apart from the official program, there are views to private collections such as Julia Stoschek, Boros, the Haubrok Foundation, The Feuerle Collection or Me Collectors Room; museums and institutions openings such as Ibrahim Mahama at Daadgalerie, Ana Mendieta at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Neolithic Childhood at HKW, Eric Baudelaire at N.B.K., or the fantastic Louise Bourgeois at Schinkel Pavillon. Most of the other spaces, commercial or not, plan their openings, happenings, dinners and parties during these days.

One of the exceptionally indispensable – because of the size and quantity of artists – is Ngorongoro. For the second time in its history, the six-thousand-square-meter studio spaces of Lehderstraße 34 will host a diverse exhibition of painting, sculpture, installation, film, and photography. The selection of artists is articulated following a pattern where an artist invites another artist to exhibit in the context of this studio environment, thus returning the viewer to the very place of art’s genesis.