Dr. Anna E. Wilkens

Art in Berlin

Berlin is seen to be one of the most important centres of contemporary art worldwide. Apart from established venues like museums, communal and commercial galleries (about three or four hundred to date), Berlin has a considerable number of other forms of art presentation and art activism, for example artists’ run galleries, temporary art projects, living-room-galleries and project spaces.

Project Spaces

A special role in Berlin’s international art scene play the project spaces. The exact number of these is difficult to determine, there may be around two or three hundred at any given time, spread over the entire city. Since 2015, they are organised in the Netzwerk freier Ber-liner Projekträume und  initiativen e. V. (Network of Project Spaces and Initiatives in Ber-lin, registered non-profit organisation).

Due to the informal, unbureaucratic and non-profit character of these spaces, they can act spontaneously and to experiment, to maintain networks in Germany and abroad, to trans-cend boundaries of art and ideas, to think outside the box, to invite neighbours, spontane-ously host concerts and different types of events or react directly and immediately to cur-rent issues.

The artworks do not need to be saleable – this allows forms of art that are more or less un-attractive for commercial galleries, like participatory pieces and projects, or works with inbuilt self-destruction – and furthermore the art does not have to be agreeable to a broad audience, which opens the opportunity to try the untried or show more exotic art genres.

Project spaces usually are self-financed by artists and curators; there is no regular govern-mental financial aid.

Discourse and Participation

The project spaces also function as important meeting places within the art scene of Berlin; the art presented is discussed, debates take place, artists and visitors together talk about the exhibited works and about art in general, people tell each other about other exhibitions they have visited and criticise and/or recommend. Artists, curators, connoisseurs, tourists and neighbours alike partake, share opinions and experiences, criticise and conceptualise. This culture of conversation in the independent art scene in Berlin, where everybody is welcome and everyone has the same right to voice their opinions, is of great importance to Berlin’s art scene. Its influence expands to far outside of the project spaces themselves. New ideas are created. Today, where there is the constant and ever present lament about the media and the deterioration of ‘real’ dialogue due to electronic communication devices, in the independent art scene Facebook is used mainly to announce events. The conversation takes place between people who actually meet.

Art as well as discussions in the project spaces constantly engage in fathoming out what contemporary art can be – and what its relevance in society is or could be.

Kolonie Wedding