ART FORUM BERLIN 2001
October 3 through 7, 2001
ART FORUM BERLIN
Vernissage: Tuesday, October 2, 2001
The sixth ART FORUM BERLIN, the International Fair for Contemporary Art, will take place as planned from the 3rd through the 7th of October at the Messe Berlin. Preparations are now in full swing for the highly anticipated next staging of this cutting-edge international event.
The organizers of ART FORUM BERLIN are deeply concerned and saddened by the distressing recent attacks in the USA and our warmest sympathies go out to any and all of those who have been personally affected by this tragedy. Following many discussions, however, and in close consultation especially with international exhibitors and other friends, a continuation of the fair as planned has been decided upon. As well as many others, American galleries and collectors in particular have expressed their determination to come to Berlin even in light of recent events, courageously demonstrating their commitment to art and culture particularly in these difficult times.
Building upon the exciting impetus that was born of last years fair, over 170 galleries from 28 countries (up from 23 in 2000) will present contemporary art at ART FORUM BERLIN 2001 in the media of painting, photography, sculpture, video, installation and drawing. A total of 74 German and 103 foreign galleries will be participating, bringing the number of foreign exhibitors to an unprecedented high. In recent years there has been an increasing concentration at ART FORUM BERLIN on very new art and emerging production, a process which is in turn accompanied by the steadily increasing involvement of international galleries.
Among those represented at the fair for the first time are the Chelouche of Tel Aviv, Nina Menocal Gallery of Mexico City, La Casona of Havana, Akira Ikeda of Nagoya, three galleries from the Peoples Republic of China, and 4 of the 13 exhibitors from the USA. Also taking part for the first time is Gallery i8 from Reykjavik and five exhibitors from Italy, including two from Milan, Massimo de Carlo and Gio Marconi. Other newcomers include seven from the UK, 3 from Austria and, from the Netherlands, Cokkie Snoe of Rotterdam and Torch of Amsterdam. There has also been a noticeable increase in the number of British exhibitors; the United Kingdom contingent is now the largest among the international exhibitors at the ART FORUM BERLIN 2001.
Returning to ART FORUM BERLIN after an absence are Lisson from London, Lumen Travo from Amsterdam, Mark Müller and Peter Kilchmann from Zurich, David Pestorius from Brisbane and four galleries from Hamburg: Jürgen Becker, Ascan Crone/Andreas Osarek, Produzentengalerie and Sfeir-Semler, which will be joining together with a newcomer, Karin Günther, in a combined Hamburg stand
under the name Admiralitätsstrasse.
The combined international stands, unique to Berlin, are once again an inspiring feature of ART FORUM BERLIN and bring this years number of combined stands up to 23. Of particular note are the collaborations between Berlin galleries and their international colleagues, including Asprey Jacques, London, and griedervonputtkamer, Berlin; Anthony Reynolds, London, and carlier I gebauer, Berlin; Greene Naftali, New York, and Barbara Weiss, Berlin, Lisson, London, and Thomas Schulte, Berlin and Hauser& Wirth & Presenhuber, Zurich, and Schipper & Krome, Berlin, among others.
This year the category Young Galleries has been changed to Project Spaces. As the overall focus of ART FORUM BERLIN remains solidly on emerging art, the Project Spaces offer an opportunity more broadly for artist-run spaces and galleries that are not yet established to present their programs in smaller stands. With these Project Spaces ART FORUM BERLIN also seeks to integrate galleries and institutions from Eastern European and other weak-currency nations more effectively within the international program.
In addition to the fresh and innovative installation of the exhibitor stands at ART FORUM BERLIN which have lent this fair such unique appeal in past years, several performances will take place in the halls. Engaging a midget to perform on a stage, Mexicos Carlos Amorales invites the public to play a meditative form of softball. The Nuremberg artist Birgit Ramsauer is staging an action under the title Aktion zur Langsamkeit: People Drawing, and the Berlin artists magazine 01 No5, in which 100 international artists and curators express their views on the subject of Art and Fashion, will also make a presentation incorporating a catwalk and a video installation. Also during the fair the French curator and video artist Nathalie van Doxell will invite visitors to take a journey around Berlin in her Video Tour Europe 2001 bus. In a relaxed atmosphere, passengers will be able to view two monitors under the title Nofrontierland for Nowhere, featuring videos by 12 artists, including Candice Breitz, Olaf Breuning, Sylvie Fleurie, Thomas Hirschhorn and Janaina Tschäpe.
A parallel program, the ART FORUM BERLIN Talks, is composed of daily panel discussions with a host of international guests engaging current topics pertinent to art and culture including those such as:
“Chinese Art Today
with curators Hou Hanrou, Fan Di An and Dr. Gabriele Knapstein, artist Wang Jian Wei, and art critics Anne Maier and Dr. Martina Koeppel-Yang
Europe United: The Contemporary Polish Art Scene and European Cultural Policy with Anda Rottenberg, former Director of the Zacheta Gallery, Warsaw, Christoph Tannert, Director of Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Eckhard Barthel, Culture and Media Representative of the Social Democratic Party, Izabela Kowalczyk, Professor of Sociology, University of Poznan and Prof. Dr. Karl Schlögel, Professor of Eastern European History at the Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)
“Culture Building: Architectural Visions for the 21st Century
with Frederick Fisher, Frederick Fisher and Partner Architects, Matthias Sauerbruch, sauerbruch hutton architects, Georg Gewers, Gewers Kühn & Kühn Architects, Alexander von Vegesack, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Andreas Rochholl, Artistic Director, Berlin Contemporary Opera, Eckhard Schneider, Director of Kunsthaus Bregenz
“Cities in Dialogue: Paris Berlin
with Jerôme Sans, Curator at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris and Klaus Biesenbach, Artistic Director of Kunst Werke Berlin e.V. and Senior Curator at P.S.1, New York among other panel discussions.
In addition to the Talks Program, to be held each evening in the Talks Lounge at ART FORUM BERLIN with its conveniently located Einstein Coffee Bar and a specially designed room installation by the artist Andreas Kopp, a number of other related discussions and exhibitions will be taking place in Berlin art institutions during the fair week.
The ART FORUM BERLIN Talks will also be available for viewing live, via live web-streaming each day at 5:30 p.m. Berlin time, and the archives of the Talks will also thereafter be available for viewing at the web address www.art-forum-berlin.com. Video tours of the days activities at the fair will further be available at the end of each day under the same address.
With essays on the work of Marcel Broodthaers by the recently deceased Berlin gallerist and art historian Rainer Borgmeister, one of them receiving its first publication in English as well as in German, the ART FORUM BERLIN catalogue, containing a complete listing of all Galleries, Project Spaces and Editions, is currently on line at the ART FORUM BERLIN web site (www.art-forum-berlin.com), via electronic orders from the Messe Berlin (art@messe-berlin.de), and in book stores (ISBN: 3-7774-9280-9).
ART FORUM BERLIN has developed an extremely courageous and clear image its first five years, attracting a multitude of art-enthusiasts, dealers, collectors, artists, and art critics from the world over, and we anticipate an enormously successful art fair again this season. For further information on ART FORUM BERLIN and other art events and programs in Berlin during the time of the fair, please see our web site: www.art-forum-berlin.com.
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