January 2012
3 posts
Black holes at REH Kunst
This thing just has to make you smile. Among all the innovative ideas GDR architects have come up with, the Raumerweiterungshalle is certainly one of those that display their practicality best. It is a room that you can stretch or diminish manually as needed: Up to eight segments fit into each other telescopically and form a curvy room, the size of a caravan expandable to a maximum of 82 sqm.
...
Philip Topolovac at Invaliden1
Generations of archaeologists and monument conservators have thought about the ideal way to preserve artefacts and buildings. In the last century, it was fashionable to reconstruct what seemed to be missing. Nowadays, it is all about doing as little as possible to the remains from the past and keeping them as found. In his current exhibition »Diverse Zimmer« at Invaliden1, Philip Topolovac does...
Happy new year!
Niche Berlin started 2012 by lighting all the sparklers at once - and wishes you an explosive new year with lots of fantastic art and architecture!
November 2011
2 posts
2 tags
"Das Numen"'s Transformation
Whenever there’s a sign at the entrance of an art show, warning you to “enter at your own risk,” you can be quite positive that it’s gonna be a hell of a lot of fun.
“Das Numen”’s installation Transformation at Haus am Lützowplatz is indeed fun to experience – but also very smart. Andreas Greiner, Julian Charrière, Felix Kiessling and Markus Hoffmann...
October 2011
1 post
September 2011
7 posts
A short off-guide to Zurich, part II: down by the...
In part I of this post we introduced alternative art hotspots in Zurich’s Kreis 4 and 5 districts. If you prefer staying close to one of the city’s greatest assets, the lake, there’s one spot you should not miss: The red factory, a former silk mill known as the cultural center Rote Fabrik since 1980. With a truly alternative but also very welcoming and creative vibe, it hosts...
Wild Painting
Somebody shot the exhibition’s text with an arrow. It is now stuck to the wall. This archaic gesture marks the entrance to Grimmuseum’s new show. In fact, the works of the Norwegian artist Ingvild Hovland Kaldal and Städel student Alfred Boman that curator Jonatan Ahlm Brenander has gathered here are quite wild. Kaldal’s pieces and found objects sport a mostly arte povera like look, while Boman’s...
Revolutionary Aesthetics
Canvases painted by bomb-defusing robots, a massive barricade sculpted in bronze or a water canon ballet – by combining classical media and militant context Spanish artist Fernando Sánchez Castillo creates beautifully contradictory works. There’s obviously nothing subtle about his oeuvre – as there’s no subtext to the exhibition they’re featured in. Because the group show »Die Revolution im...
Naturally, see you tonight at Bel Etage
»In Our Nature« is the latest project of the series BEL ETAGE which since 2009 has been regularly appearing at different sites all over town. This time it’s a group exhibition on the medium of video projections at the Charlottenburger 800QM. BEL ETAGE initiator and curator Renata Kaminska chose 12 artists, among which Alicja Kwade, Thomas Zipp and Marc Bijl, whose works deal with the tension...
Lets make art together
»we like your work - get in touch with us - we should make some work - let’s make pictures together…«. Was it the artist himself? Have some fans left their message as suggest the email-addresses next to the inscription on the window? But why write it inverted? That’s the beauty about the art project Sox: There is no better way to escape the busy everyday life in Kreuzberg than passing in...
Vinyl painting
Ned Vena paints with stickers. The New York based artist designs sharply defined geometrical patterns on the computer, cuts them onto black adhesive vinyl foil and sticks them onto aluminum boards. When he works on canvas, he cuts the foil into a negative form, covers the whole surface with rubber spray or acrylic paint and removes the foil, leaving a positive imprint on the canvas. The result is...
Painting in the air
Air, nutrient solution and a carrier – to Julian Charrière and Andreas Greiner creating abstract paintings works as easy as that. For their current show »Dominions« at Program, the artists have bred microbes by exposing vitrines filled with nutrient solution to the air. The randomly caught aerob germs formed variegated colonies, whose appearances range from fluffy pastel sprinkles to...
August 2011
4 posts
SPECIAL: NICHE INTRO TOUR
Wir haben gehört, der Herbst wird ein Spätsommer. Für alle, die bis zum Wintereinbruch spontan Lust auf Kultur an der frischen Luft verspüren, haben wir eine neue Tour im Programm: Unsere NICHE Intro Tour. Jeden Samstag Nachmittag zeigen wir euch spannende Architektur in Berlin Mitte. Mit viel Plastik und Beton. Ein bisschen Kunst gibt’s auch. Es reicht, wenn ihr euch kurz vorher anmeldet. Vor...
Expanding Universe
The Saarland is the smallest region in Germany. That doesn’t prevent its inhabitants from making art, of course. In fact, a couple of renowned German artists were born there (Gregor Hildebrandt being just one of them), and one could consider it a little art universe with the HBKsaar, the school of fine arts in Saarland’s capital Saarbrücken, as its epicenter.
This universe is...
3 tags
A short off-guide to Zurich, part I: Kreis 4 and 5
Should you ever find yourself in the beautiful city of Zurich and wonder where you could have some fun off the beaten track, this niche-style guide to the Swiss metropolis will come in handy.
First and foremost, there really is a lot of art to be seen, although the notorious Löwenbräu Complex is being restructured until 2013 – and there is so much more to Zurich than high-end galleries,...
Playing the City
Intrigued by a giant blue wall made of plastic crates next to Frankfurt’s Schirn Kunsthalle we walked to what at first glance appeared to be just another construction site. Instead we discovered a gigantesque structure of foam rubber and other odd material. Amused by our rather confused look one girl detached from the group of artists working on it. »It’s going to be a factory; Come back on...
July 2011
1 post
Art Eats Brunch
This weekend, enjoy delicious food and do a good deed for the Berlin arts community at the same time.
The moving image arts collaborative nowMomentnow will raise money for future endeavors in a one-day pop-up brunch café. Treats will be seasonal, regional and tasty, as the artist-run Foodgasm service promises. You can order the fixed menu with gift-bag and prosecco for 20 euros or choose...
April 2011
1 post
4 tags
Madeleine Boschan at Autocenter
Madeleine Boschan is showing seven new works in a solo show called ›Niteflix‹. They are on view until Saturday at the laudable, non-for-profit, independent art space Autocenter.
Niteflix are dreams as complex as feature length films – and so is Boschan’s show. The pieces play tricks on your mind. While asking “What am I?”, they change their nature right in front of your eyes....
March 2011
1 post
Izolyatsia Residency
If you’re a young, talented photographer you should apply for this residency: a 4 week-stay in Ukraine + a stipend + working under the guidance of artist Boris Mikhailov on a curatorial theme of your choice.
The izolyatsia residency is a new project launched by Ukrainian art foundation IZOLYATSIA. It is held on the territory of a former insulation materials plant in the currently...
February 2011
2 posts
Berlinale Impression
We quite liked the documentary on feminist art at this year’s Berlinale. American artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson edited hours of historical footage and interviews for her movie !Women Art Revolution (2010).
Janine Antoni, Loving Care, 1993 © Courtesy of Luhring Augustine Gallery
The documentary chronicles the founding years of the feminist art movement in the 1970’s and...
NICHE speaks about Teufelsberg →
One third of NICHE did a master thesis on one of the most important monuments of the Cold War in Berlin and will give a talk on it next Tuesday in the Alliiertenmuseum. You’re welcome to join!
January 2011
1 post
Where everyone involved in the Berlin art scene...
TO HAVE AND TO NEED – The Open Letter »On December 13, 2010, Salon Populaire hosted a discussion on the “achievement show of young artists from Berlin” (projected for summer 2011) and on the related construction of a temporary exhibition architecture at Humboldthafen. The intense debate amongst numerous practitioners from Berlin’s artistic and cultural context, and some of the responsible...
November 2010
3 posts
On a boat!
One thing we love about art is that it takes you to unusual places. As soon as you think you’ve seen it all, people like Sandra Teitge and Clara Brörmann show up, asking you to join them for their exhibition on a boat.
In this case, the cosy ›Helene‹ in Berlin’s Historical Harbour (no, we didn’t know about the historical harbour either).
We loved that they put together...
Bucharest Impressions
We didn’t know what to expect. We even had trouble finding a decent guide. But we’ll be back to have a closer look. This city is amazing!
Initially we wanted to discover Istanbul. But then we changed our plans – based on some articles: art had portrayed the Romanian art scene on the occasion of the Bucharest Biennale. Sleek lately introduced five artists based in the schizophrenic...
Off to Bucharest
We traded a greyish Berlin for a beautiful and sunny Bucharest. Pictures and recommendations are soon to follow. First, we’d like to share the map Ana from Romanian project space Pavilion sketched for us. What might look a little confusing at first sight turned out to be our most valuable guide.
Thank you Ana!
October 2010
1 post
4 tags
AVAILABLE WORKS
Niche Berlin presents the next edition of Available Works – an innovative way of presenting art by Annika von Taube and Johannes Schön:
»Rahmenprogramm« (side program) 5-9 October, 2010, diverse dates and venues
The press release states:
»An excessive amount of gallery openings and other art events take place in the wake of Berlin’s main art fair, art forum (6-10 October, 2010). Who needs all...
September 2010
2 posts
Autodidactic activitism: The Public School Berlin
For those who don’t contend with contemplating: Go gather and learn! After Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Juan, Helsinki, Paris and Brussels, Berlin is the latest forum of The Public School, a project initiated by Telic Arts Exchange in 2008. Share your expertise or learn from others – you decide which classes will be scheduled.
During Office Hours
Mette Ravnkilde Nielsen and Aaron Moulton from Galerie Feinkost once again surprised us with an excellent show: During Office Hours hosted throughout the offices of VGF Verband Geschlossene Fonds e.V. in Georgenstrasse wittily reflects upon the work situation. While some of the artworks, such as Jorinde Voigts drawings, beautifully fit in, others hilariously dominate their surrounding, like the...
August 2010
1 post
6 tags
Un chien adalbert
If you’ve ever seen ›Un chien andalou‹, Dalì’s and Bunuel’s surreal 16 min black and white collaboration from 1929, you probably remember a very particular scene, involving an eye and a razor blade.
Interestingly enough, the eye actually belongs not to a woman but to a donkey. And there is no dog in the movie. At all.
At KWADRAT in Berlin’s Adalbertstraße, Madeleine...
July 2010
3 posts
4 tags
Niche @ Beijing II
北京 OFF 二 : COMPANY
Dating was yesterday! Nowadays artists meet on the web to find themselves conceptualizing the unprecedented: In 2008, while still at fine art academies, Chen Zhou (陈轴), Li Ming (李明), Li Ran (李然) and Yan Xing (鄢醒) co-founded COMPANY (公司) – some undefined »project in progress« without……»principles or precise characterization. The artists from COMPANY rarely...
5 tags
Niche @ Rügen
Yes. Rügen is not just about busloads of german tourists amidst chalk cliffs. You can find some real fine pieces of modern architecture there. Outstanding is the work of Ulrich Müther, who was born in Binz in 1934 and died there in 2007. He designed over 50 buildings with double-curved shells. The biggest part of his oevre is situated at Rügen´s coastline, like the beautiful not-so-well-known...
9 tags
Ganze/Teile
by Simon Elson
If it’s true that more and more art institutions are swept out of the city center by the tourism and gentrification wave that they themselves helped to create – latest example: C/O Berlin at Oranienburger Straße – then the exhibition Ganze/Teile is part of the future: It is located neither in Mitte nor in Kreuzberg, but in Treptow.
Visiting the location at the Schuckert-Höfe...
June 2010
7 posts
北京 OFF 一 : Blackbridge Off
Hell yes, Niche is in Beijing! And let us tell you, this city’s art scene has so much more to offer than 798 and figurative painting - as brand-new Blackbridge Off just happened to demonstrate!
Hidden in some backyard of the Heiqiao art district, this non-commercial initiative made its opening with an outstanding group show. ›Yes and no. One is like the other - spacial strokes‹ (是与否 ....
Evas Arche
by Simon Elson Shush … Modernity is back, with the most calm and fragile exhibition of the year. A small pavilion but a big group show with twelve artists and soup, deeply rooted in Berlins vanguard art scene of the last decade. Evas Arche und der Feminist ……entertained Auguststraße for a long time, now at The Taut and Tame, Hanseatenweg: »everything is done, everything has been,...
3 tags
Sleek, Summer 2010, p. 92.
Black Hole Universe – Mapping the Void |...
by Simon Elson
This is unique: South Africa is everywhere! For decades it used to be nowhere, either lost in Apartheid hell or in the fucked-up post-94 struggle for equality. Now the people of this nation are represented and seen and talked about everywhere – even in Prenzlauer Berg’s Kollwitzstrasse, where normally you just find kids, family cars and organic home-made ice cream.
In...
Pigs
Why would you name something this useful ›pigs‹? Maybe because Pigs have been getting everyone’s attention lately. Or maybe because the ups and downs of Portugal, Italy/Ireland, Greece and Spain are reflected in the sometimes pecarious existence of Berlin’s independent spaces. What’s for sure is that ……in piggy times like these, all of us can use some orientation.
...
BERLIN KREUZBERG BIENNALE
AYRAN & YOGA - 1st Berlin Kreuzberg Biennale for Contemporary Art June 10 2010 – July 31 2010
Thursday June 10 2010: Professional Preview 9 am till 6 pm, various locations. Official Opening Reception 9 pm till midnight (rsvp by June 9 to info@BERLIN-KREUZBERG-BIENNALE.ORG). Location: Studio Tjorg Douglas Beer Admiralstrasse 17a 2nd Yard 10999 Berlin
Friday June...
Infernoesque ›Das Geschehen 3‹ Vernissage
by Simon Elson
Looking at a familiar planet from a spaceships window. It’s like the things you perceive are quite clear, but your perspective somehow is odd … The question is not: Why do you see this? It is: Why do you see it from here? The group exhibition ‘Das Geschehen 3’ at Infernoesque consist of 24 small-scale pictures by 27 Artists (e.g. Moritz Stumm, Pola Sieverding). The pictures...
May 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Heidestraße: gallery weekend afterglow
by Simon Elson
Well, well. Christof is inspecting Mark Lammert’s pictures in gallery fruehsorge’s exhibition ‘beauty is booty’. Christof says: There is not much to see on the pictures. Is it minimalistic depictions of bones? Joints? The colored soul life of insects? You can never be sure with abstract art, especially if you are into the Old Masters of Seventeenth Century Dutch painting, like...
Space experiments
Just a quick recommendation: Olafur Eliasson’s students at UdK Berlin are showing their sometimes subtle (Laura McLardy’s folded papers), sometimes enormous (Julius von Bismarck’s falling heavy-weight metal sphere) interventions in a huge underground labyrinth in the Pfefferberg area. The space alone is worth the trip down into the basement, and most of the works are actually...
April 2010
3 posts
GW itinerary
Whoa, Gallery Weekend….
Tonight we attended Exile, a reliable address for interesting shows, were a bit disappointed by Ein Fest für Boris at Vittorio Manalese, and pleasantly surprised by Available Works at .HBC. For tomorow night, we’d like to recommend Zhivago Duncan at Cruise & Callas, a group show opening at Infernoesque and Tom Burr at MD72. And lots of other stuff. But...
WatchStreet Art meets modernity: Turmkunst.
Save Hejduk
Please join us in the petition against the disfigurement of John Hejduk’s Berlin Tower.
picture: seier+seier+seier
March 2010
1 post
6 tags
Niche @ Oranienburg
In springtime, it’s always nice to spend some time in Brandenburg, the federal state surrounding Berlin – best known for its beautiful landscape. On our trip to Oranienburg we found this beautiful railway bridge…
…crossing the Oder Havel canal. The modular construction made of steel beams impressively contrasts the surrounding scenic river. Also, there is a little surprising...
February 2010
2 posts
Machine Love
Ever seen a chicken fry potatoes in an art space? Us neither. Not until day four of Six Days of New Media, an exhibition project by David Barbarino, Friederike Hamann, Moritz Hirsch, Pola Sieverding and Ulrich Urban. The evening was dedicated to sculpture and installation. Baldur Burwitz presented »Heisser Feger« (loosely translated: »hot chick«) – a huge chicken robot with a motion sensor,...
January 2010
2 posts
Niche and the Hood
This weekend, altough Paris was visiting, we decided to dedicate ourselves to art spaces in our hood. We were greatly rewarded at FMAB and Feinkost, two galleries we fancy – although commercial – for their program and location.
In her quite hidden first floor apartment, Fridey Mickel of FMAB showed »Eclectic«: works by Amelie Groenzinger and Viola Lopes. Groenzingers large everyday material...
4 tags
Zitty loves Niche