Review
& Press

11 May 2013

Review: one more Gallery Weekend recommendation by the Niche Berlin Team
Today is the perfect day to catch up on all the shows your missed during Gallery Weekend. One of our most experienced guides, Sandra Teitge, recommends Klara Hobza at Heike Tosun’s gallery Soy Capitán, which recently moved to a great new location in Kreuzberg: “German artist Klara Hobza is ‘Diving through Europe’ (2010-35), from Rotterdam to the Black Sea. Like a nautical flaneur, Hobza observes sea life and sporadically comes across fellow sea voyageurs, like a container ship, an encounter that gave inspiration for the exhibition at Soy Capitán called ‘Der Totale Horror.’ Hobza escaped death only by a mere hair’s breadth. But she will continue her journey, mirroring her alleged main influence, semi-obsessive film director Werner Herzog.” Soy Capitán, Prinzessinnenstr. 29, 10969 Berlin, Wed to Sat 12-6 pm “Der Totale Horror” will be on view until June 8th. And this is Sandra’s self portrait, which goes to show with how much creativity she tackles her Niche Berlin tours:
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27 Apr 2013
Gallery Weekend with the Niche Berlin Team, no. 4
Highly recommended by Niche co-founder Stefanie: “Between all the things you will be able to SEE this weekend, there is one installation that you explicitly cannot see, just hear — and that will thus be ‘overlooked’ by numerous people, but is all the more worth to get some attention on this blog. It is Ari Benjamin Meyers’ sound piece Chamber Music (vestibule) which  opens tonight at 5 pm at Berlinische Galerie, curated by Christina Landbrecht, who is a former trainee at this museum. You will be able to hear it in the vestibule of the Berlinische, where it will be ‘trapped’ right between the two entrance doors, just like the term vestibule is trapped between two brackets in the title. This is also taken as a starting point for the invitation design, in which two empty brackets emphasize the invisibility of this sound piece. But it is not so inivisible after all: Every time the doors close as someone walks in or through, the piece will skip back to the beginning. This makes for a conceptual, performative aspect of the work: On a regularly busy day, with lots of people walking through, you might linger around and still never make it to the end of the 7 minute long piece.  Meyers composed a piece that is based on Henry Purcell’s baroque opera Dido and Aneas. In the original aria “When I am laid in earth”, Dido, knowing that she will die, asks not to be forgotten: “remember me” is a recurring line, that Meyers adapts for Camber Music (vestibule). Meyers lets the soprano soloist Nicole Chevalier try to remember that aria by humming and singing that line. What a complex thing to say to museum visitors! I am really curious to see how people will react to the piece, if they will notice it at all, stay to listen or take that initial sound of the aria with them into the museum, maybe a bit more sensitized for the art to come. The piece will be up for one whole year in the museum entrance, and I am sure that once it will be taken down, we will all miss that siren call dearly, that lured us into the Berlinische Galerie for such a long time. Surely, we will remember it.” 28.04.2013 - 28.04.2014, Berlinische Galerie, Alte Jakobstraße 124-128 Opening at Gallery Weekend Berlin27.04.2013 5 - 8pmArtist Talk during Berlin Art WeekAri Benjamin Meyers with Christina Landbrecht, in English, free entry22.09.2013 11am
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26 Apr 2013
Gallery Weekend with the Niche Berlin Team, no. 2
Ph.D. candidate at Humboldt University, guide for Niche Berlin and freelance curator – Christina Landbrecht is definitely gifted when it comes to time management. Last night she was at Thomas Fischer gallery: Dirk Braeckman is her recommendation for the Gallery Weekend. “The Belgian photographer Dirk Braeckman is still an open secret. At least in Germany: In Belgium he’s quite a star. With his show at Thomas Fischer Gallery, there’s hope that this is due to change.  The interesting part about Braeckman’s photographs of surfaces, interiors, ornaments, people and landscapes is this: you’re literally drawn into them and at the same time you’re strangely repelled. That’s the mystery surrounding his works. The closer you get to decipher them the more disconcerted the act of viewing becomes. You start to feel that there’s something you’ll never quite understand about these images. Dirk Braeckman, S.C.-G.E.-98, Courtesy the artist & Thomas Fischer gallery But how does he do that? That is a question which you’re even more entitled to ask since the motives seem at first so well in order, so attractive, almost haptically, that you find yourself easily lost in Braeckman’s handling of reflections and fuzziness as well as the texture and color of the photographs.  His secret, I guess, has to do with the way he plays with opposites. Braeckman’s pictures look arranged yet weirdly cramped and even though they seem somehow unfinished they’re too big to not know that every odd detail is well calculated. They’re in themselves ambiguous enough that this ambiguity reflects onto the way you look at them.  Really spooky and absolutely brilliant at the same time.” Dirk Braeckman, P.H.-N.N.-11, Courtesy the artist & Thomas Fischer gallery, Berlin Galerie Thomas Fischer, Potsdamerstraße 77-78, Berlin-Tiergarten Christina Landbrecht. Foto: Fabian Frost
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26 Apr 2013
GALLERY WEEKEND WITH THE NICHE BERLIN TEAM, NO. 3
Besides running the coolest among the newcomer art spaces in Berlin, Import Projects, with Nadim Samman, Anja is an excellent tour guide. She knows what’s going in the art world – and tonight she wants to go and see Jodie Carey!  “Artist Jodie Carey’s exhibition Immemorial opens tonight at Gallery Rolando Anselmi curated by Manuel Wischnewski, the force behind Neue Berliner Raeume. Jodie Carey finds her inspiration in her exploration of life’s fragility and its brevity as well as the resonance and meaning that materials can evoke in sculpture. Through a clever use of material, such as the hand weaving of photographs, she is able to create a truly compelling show.  Jodie Carey, installation view, untitled (slabs), 2012, Courtesy the artist Jodie Carey, Elegy, 2012, digital print from glass plate negative ca. 1920 (framed) 37 x 40 cm, Courtesy the artist She has shown her ability to evoke a strong response in the viewer with her current show at London’s exciting emerging gallery Edel Assanti which is currently showing her work until the 11th of May.  I am very excited to be able to recommend this exhibition, which opens tonight. See you all there!” Galerie Rolando Anselmi, Erkelenzdamm 11-13 (2. Hof, Aufgang C, 3. Etage), Berlin - Kreuzberg Also don’t miss: Mathew gallery: Love is Still Colder than Capital , Klosterfelde: Jorinde Voigt  9 Times Philosophy, Future gallery: Jon Rafman Annals of Time Lost, Alexander Levy gallery: Julius von Bismarck Unfall am Mittelpunkt Deutschlands
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