09.2023

WAKE UP BABY, NEW ARMCHAIR JUST DROPPED

Armchair 32, Blockbau © Michelle Mantel

Blockbau’s new 32 armchair is like one of those friends we all have who are understated and demure, yet can easily turn into the life of the party. With its curvaceous mirrored frame contrasted by discreet, geometric upholstery, the new addition to the family can easily stand out alone or enliven a group scenario. Its circular seat and backrest come in a wide range of fabric options: from powdery pastels to statement colours and rich textures. With its modernist and sleek aesthetic, the armchair manages to be light and robust at the same time. Like its siblings in the series, the frame is manufactured in Bavaria, whereas the fabric covers are sewn by a family business in the Swabian Alb/Jura, and the foam comes from Baden-Württemberg. Made in Southern Germany, like all Blockbau furniture.

09.2023

Gravity’s Tune

Annika Kahrs, Gravity’s Tune (Filmstill), 2023, Courtesy the artist and Produzentengalerie Hamburg

Gravitational waves are a propagating phenomenon that travel at the speed of light and are caused by, among other things, the collision of black holes. In “Gravity’s Tune”, Kahrs approaches these extra-terrestrial sounds through music in collaboration with composer Louis d’Heudières. Her work, presented at the Schering Stiftung, shows how astrophysics recordings can be used to stimulate our imagination and offer insights in otherwise inaudible and enigmatic celestial wonders.

09.2023

Nordic Fever — Edvard Munch at Berlinische Galerie

Edvard Munch, Seated model on a divan, 1924-1926 photo: © MUNCH, Oslo / Ove Kvavik

Edvard Munch, starry nights, 1922-1924 Photo: © MUNCH, Oslo / Juri Kobayashi

Magic of the North focuses on Edvard Munch’s pivotal biographical proximity to Berlin. Gripped by the fever for all things Nordic at the time, the Berliner Künstler association invited the young, unknown artists to a solo exhibition in 1892. His colourful paintings shook the public and the exhibition was forced to close shortly after opening. The “Munch Affair”, as the press sardonically called it, is widely considered the beginning of Modernism in Berlin and brought the artists a lot of attention. Riding that wave of shock and awe, Munch discovered Berlin as a place where he could develop his radical modernity and it became one of the most important European hot spots for his career.

08.2023

Where are all we? What is maintained? Where are the mountains?

Diver, 2022,
Courtesy of max goelitz Photo: Marjorie Brunet Plaza

Portrait Rindon Johnson 2022, Photo: Clifford Prince King

Rindon Johnson’s show FIVE at gallery Max Goelitz is based on “Clattering”, a sci-fi novel created in collaboration with writer Rainer Diana Hamilton. The exhibition – mirroring the novel – is a proposition for open-mindedness, multiplicity and stands in opposition to the organizational states of our world, often built on forms of dualism: relationships, hierarchal structures, systems of reproduction and resource control. Mostly using leather for his object-based pieces in the show, he closely examines social conventions and echoes the novel by referencing everything from industrial processes, treatment of human beings, permeability, vulnerability to questions of identity.

07.2023

GROUNDING THE VITRA CAMPUS

The Tane House at the Vitra Campus, © Julien Lanoo

Tane House, Detail, © Julien Lanoo

The Vitra Campus (in Weil am Rhein) is welcoming a new addition: A Garden House by Japanese architect Tsuyoshi Tane.⁠ Made from sustainable and locally sourced materials such as water reed, fir and oak, the compact building explores the correlation between memory and place. Measuring 15sqm, the Tane Garden House has been designed to store tools for the adjacent Oudolf Garden as well as to accompany the new kitchen garden for Vitra employees. Aside from outdoor seating and a small fountain, the project features an observation platform on the building’s roof, offering a 360-degree view of the entire Vitra Campus.

07.2023

LUME: THE LIGHT THAT SHINES ANEW IN FRANKFURT

LUME Boutique Hotel, © Robert Rieger

Formerly known as the Neckarvillen Boutique, the hotel has reinvented itself as LUME. The concept is defined by contrasts: Here, upscale interiors meet casual urbanity, historic architecture meets heartfelt design and the business traveller meets the city’s creative scene. Needless to say that the beauty of contrasts is fully embraced in the interior design too. Foodwise, the in-house gastronomy stands strong: The restaurant Le Petit Royal Frankfurt, an offshoot of Berlin’s well-known Grill Royal, and the French Bento Bar offer fresh interpretations of French classics.

06.2023

2 YEARS OF SUNDAYS AT THE MUSEUM

Museum Sunday Berlin. Graphic: Büro Bum Bum, Illustration: Sany DK

Since July 2021, the first Sunday of every month has been Museum Sunday in Berlin, with free admission to almost all of the city’s museums. Now over 70 participating museums look back on the last 2 years, counting over 1 million visits to various exhibitions and events centred around art, design, culture, history, technology, nature and religion. From the storied institutions of the Museum Island to district museums and private foundations, the wide array of participating museums as well as the engaging programmes and charming campaign have contributed to firmly establishing the initiative in Berlin’s cultural landscape.

06.2023

LOTS OF PLANS FOR HAMBURG

Exhibition View @ KAWAHARA KRAUSE ARCHITECTS

Collage @ KAWAHARA KRAUSE ARCHITECTS

@ KAWAHARA KRAUSE ARCHITECTS, Strobo B M

Model @ KAWAHARA KRAUSE ARCHITECTS

170 competitions with 1,427 designs on 1,105 hanging banners: the exhibition “The Entire City. Hamburg Competitions 2017–2023” presents the full breadth of ideas for the future of Hamburg. Around 6,000 plans form a hanging archive that fills the industrial hall of Schuppen 29 in the HafenCity quarter next to the Elbe River and create a walk-in installation that makes the density of ideas visually and physically tangible.

06.2023

AM SEEGARTEN

Am Seegarten 1/2, Kirchmöser. Photos: Clemens Poloczek

Opening in July, Am Seegarten is a temporary exhibition project on the fabled grounds of the former industrial town of Kirchmöser. The exhibition brings together silent green Kulturquartier and nine galleries — Alexander Levy, Barbara Weiss, ChertLüdde, Ebensperger, Esther Schipper, Klosterfelde Edition, Meyer Riegger, Plan B and Sprüth Magers — with selected artworks from their respective programmes. Site- and time-specific, the project is inspired by the compound’s rich history and complex beauty. In fact, the beautiful shoreline of Plauder See is only a couple of steps and one refreshing drink away. Pro tip: pack your bathing suit for a post-art swim!

06.2023

WELCOME TO MAIAMI

Housed in a quaint art-deco building in the less frequented part of Chania’s port, Maiami is a cozy hybrid space that functions as brasserie with seafront terrace and artist studio run by Alexandra Manousakis. Behind the characteristic pink doors and windows: White-washed stone walls, original terrazzo floors, an impressive emerald green fireplace and blue retro chairs fill the main dining area. Dotted all around, Alexandra’s vibrant artworks and colourful, hand-painted ceramics.

06.2023

AN ELYSIUM OF SORTS

Martin Eder, Save Me, 2023. Photo: Uwe Walter. Courtesy Studio Martin Eder

Martin Eder, A Glimpse of Infinity, 2023. Photo: Uwe Walter. Courtesy Studio Martin Eder

Martin Eder, Embraced by silence, 2023. Photo: Uwe Walter. Courtesy Studio Martin Eder

Martin Eder’s hallmarks might be gloomy landscapes, naked buts and furry kittens, or else, motifs that challenge what we take as given. In his latest show at Eigen+Art, one enters, unforeseen, a sort of isle of the blessed − a paradise that shines out of his paintings in fifty pastel shades. There, all faces glow. And healing, happiness and idyll beckon. Yet unlike the beauty idealization unleashed by social media, Eder does not erase any pores, birthmarks, wrinkles, dents, or bruises. He instead provides his figures with a dampness of sweat, which, in the words of art critic Anne Waak, “can only come from the dew of paradisiacal meadows”.

05.2023

STANDING THE TEST OF TIME

Verändert die Welt! Poesie muss von allen gemacht werden!, Kunstverein München, 1970

Frauentreffen der deutschen Frauenemanzipationsgruppen, Kunstverein München, Februar 1973

Liam Gillick, Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario* Work, Mirrored Image/ A ‘Volvo’ bar, Kunstverein München, 2008

Bea Schlingelhoff, Vergessene Frauen und die „Entartete Kunstausstellung“, Kunstverein München, 2021

This year KM Kunstverein München is celebrating its 200th Anniversary. Revisiting and making accessible its forward-thinking, iconic, and at times, very controversial history has been Maurin Dietrich’s primary focus from her very start as a director. Central to the jubilee is the exhibition “THE ARCHIVE AS…”, for which two centuries of archival documents have been painstakingly reviewed, questioned and (re)contextualized. Did you know that George Condo, Jeff Koons or Adrian Piper had their first solo shows in Germany at KM? Or that the same exhibition halls that once hosted the infamous “Entartete Kunst” exhibition by the Nazi regime, turned during the 70s into a place to meet and organize political protests i.e. in favor of women’s emancipation and abortion rights?

05.2023

SUDDENLY WONDERFUL

During the Cold War, remarkable large buildings were erected in West Berlin as new locations for science, research, commerce and culture. Even though most of these landmarks have been neglected for more than 50 years, there have always been practitioners and avid devotees who’ve thought of them as wonderful and worked towards their preservation through adaptive reuse. Showcasing more than 150 exhibits and proposals from architects, urban planners, photographers and artists, the Berlinische Galerie dedicates its new exhibition “Suddenly Wonderful: Visions for chunky 1970’s architecture in West Berlin” to these iconic Cold-War-era landmarks and the current efforts to revitalise them. Among them, BUREAU N and Something Fantastic’s joint proposal envisions the transformation of the architectural icon International Congress Centrum Berlin (ICC) into the ICCC – International Centre of Contemporary Culture.

05.2023

THE MUSEUM IS (NO LONGER) CLOSED!

Julius von Bismarck, Landscape Painting (Bismarck Sea), 2022, Courtesy Julius von Bismarck; alexander levy, Berlin, and Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf, © Julius von Bismarck, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023

Böhler & Orendt, Give us, Dear, 2013 © Böhler & Orendt, 2013/2023, Collection of Neues Museum Nürnberg in cooperation with Elke Antonia Schloter and Volker Koch

A twelve-meter-long cloth simulating ocean waves pours out from the exhibition halls of the Berlinische Galerie. At first glance, the fabric undulations represent the Bismarck Sea in the Pacific Ocean. Yet, between the lines, there’s much more: references to German colonialism, climate change confrontation, and slowly rising sea levels. When Platitudes Become Form is Julius von Bismarck’s first time dealing with his family heritage, at the intersection between how nature is seen and how history is written. Coinciding with the museum’s reopening is also Nasan Tur’s survey on hunting and hunted creatures, Böhler & Orendt’s touch of irony and black humour, and Suddenly Wonderful—visions for chunky 1970s architecture in West Berlin.

05.2023

THE POETICS OF MOURNING

Imagine the Fondation Beyeler filled with hundreds of rose petals sewn together to form a delicate shroud (A Flor de Piel, 2011), worn shoes sealed with cowhide behind its exhibition halls (Atrabiliarios, 1996). Picture its rooms inhabited by white cotton shirts pierced by steel rods (Untitled, 1989) and table halves held together by silk and human hair only (Unland, 1995). Doris Salcedo’s largest exhibition in continental Europe thus far addresses the effects and collective experience of violent conflicts worldwide.