10.2022

BETWEEN CUBA AND AACHEN

La sentencia “Apártame de todo pecado”, 1994, Courtesy Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, Photo: Anne Gold

Belkis Ayón, Nuestro deber, 1993, Ludwig Forum for International Art Aachen, Loan by Peter and lrene Ludwig Foundation, Photo: Simon Vogel, © Belkis Ayón Estate, Havana, Cuba

Belkis Ayón, ¡Ekwe será mío!, 1986, Courtesy Belkis Ayón Estate

Belkis Ayón, Sin título (Sikán, Nasakó y Espíritu Santo), 1993, Ludwig Forum for International Art Aachen, Loan by Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, Photo: Simon Vogel © Belkis Ayón Estate, Havana, Cuba

With the survey “Ya Estamos Aquí” Ludwig Forum Aachen ties on the long-existing relationship of the museum with Belkis Ayón, a master of print-making and one of the most influential Cuban artists until this day. In her rich collagraphies she combined catholic iconography with depictions of Abakuá rituals, a secret Afro-Cuban cult which she studied extensively. It was by means of these patriarchial motifs that she reflected on her own social, political and emotional struggles—ultimately shaping new mythologies.

10.2022

SCHINKEL PROGRESSIVE

Right in the historic centre of Berlin, the former site of Karl-Friedrich Schinkel’s famous Bauakademie will be home to the Federal Bauakademie Foundation. After an intense participation process with experts and citizens on the appearance and the use of the future building, one thing is certain: The Bauakademie is to be a demonstration project of what innovative, future-oriented and sustainable architecture means today and tomorrow—radiating the visionary spirit of Schinkel.

10.2022

IMPOSED ANONYMITY

Installation view Palimpsest by Doris Salcedo, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, 2022 © the artist; Photo: Mark Niedermann

Intended as a place of encounter and grief, the walk-through installation by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo “Palimpsest” will be on display for one year at the Fondation Beyeler. The work records the names of refugees who drowned in the Mediterranean and Atlantic over the past 20 years, either embedded in stone slabs or forming as drops of water and seeping away in a constant cycle of inscription and erasure. It bears a timeless and universal experience by questioning how we collectively mourn, how societies remember and how personal suffering and public space are related.

10.2022

STRUCTURAL HONESTY MEETS TIMELESS BEAUTY

Vitra has been producing the designs of Jean Prouvé since 2002. The French engineer, constructor and designer has had a significant influence on furniture design and was regarded as an innovator of industrial construction. In 2022, Vitra has revised the collection with new original colours and introduced a number of lesser-known designs. At Café Prouvé, a worldwide pop-up series, design aficionados can immerse themselves in the French designer’s oeuvre.

10.2022

CHÂTEAU ROYAL—TUCKING INTO THE CREATIVE FABRIC OF BERLIN

The opening of Château Royal marks the beginning of a boutique hotel that embraces the good food, wine and art that ignite the energetic flame of Berlin. Inspiring the interiors are materials popular during the city’s heyday at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries—craquele tiles, colourful stained glass and accents of marble, tin and oak. Each of the hotel’s 93 rooms features a work by a different artist with mediums ranging from painting and sculpture, text and sound. The artworks, discrete or loud, and the artists behind them embody the eclectic spirit of the city.

09.2022

A NEW CAMPUS FOR PIONEERS OF CHANGE

Just South of Tempelhofer Field, Atelier Gardens is a new space for a community of organisations and individuals dedicated to social, cultural, and regenerative entrepreneurship. Drawing on Berlin’s culture of activism and the tradition of story-telling in the historic film studios Berlin Union Film Atelier (BUFA), the campus is being transformed to accommodate various uses. Existing buildings are being restored and remodelled, rather than demolished and rebuilt, and nature is reintroduced across the site with garden spaces full of pioneer and native plants.

09.2022

LOOKING INWARDS

Kerstin Brätsch, “Die Sein: Para Psychics”, exhibition view, 2022, Ludwig Forum Aachen, Photo: Mareike Tocha

During the first Corona lockdown in New York, Kerstin Brätsch shifted her large-scale, collaborative practice into an inward-looking process. Mysticism, tarot, plant medicine and deitis, like the Sumerian sky goddess Innanna, guided her daily practice of drawing. The complete resulting series of 100 drawings on paper are now shown for the first time in “Die Sein: Para Psychics” at the Ludwig Forum Aachen. Wrapped in Wibke Tiarks’ soundscape and exhibited in a soft colored light, pouring from the room’s tinted windows, the mandala-like drawings become portals to the metaphysical.

09.2022

NATURAL, BUT SPICY

Limited edition: Soeder x La Boîte (Byblos, Marrakesh, Wakayama) © Soeder Naturalcare

Swiss company Soeder creates rich, natural products with essential oils of regional sources. For a limited edition with La Boîte, New York, their liquid soaps are spiced up a little. Chef Lior Lev Sercarz created three exclusive fragrances, inspired by spices from Japan, Lebanon and Morocco.

09.2022

THE ROBOTS ARE BACK

Shawn Maximo, “Going Green”, Vinylprint, 2016 © Shawn Maximo

Yves Gellie, “Human Version 2.07 Nexi”, 2009 © Yves Gellie, Galerie du jour agnès b, Galerie Baudoin Lebon

The 2017 exhibition “Hello, Robot: Design between Human and Machine” has been the Vitra Design Museum’s most successful exhibition to date and returned to Weil am Rhein at the end of its world tour in an updated version. Addressing the great strides that have been made in robotics in the past few years, it shows how the robotics boom is changing our lives, and how design is changing robotics. It also raises awareness of the ethical and political questions raised in the context of current technology.

08.2022

FROM MANY FOR MANY

Installation View Alicja Rogalska, Berlin Art Prize 2022

Alicja Rogalska, Installation view at Scherben, Photo © Sandra Gramm

Installation View Hana Yoo, Berlin Art Prize 2022

Hana Yoo, Installation view at ACUD Galerie, Photo © Sandra Gramm

Installation View Isabell Schulte, Berlin Art Prize 2022

Isabell Schulte, Installation view at Spoiler Aktionsraum, Photo © Sandra Gramm

Installation view Lucas Odahara, Berlin Art Prize 2022

Lucas Odahara, Installation view at Die Möglichkeit einer Insel, Photo © Sandra Gramm

Back from a ✌︎-year pause is the Berlin-based contemporary art award made by artists for artists: the Berlin Art Prize. Edition after edition, the Prize stands out for supporting emerging artists and showcasing the city’s diversity of exhibition platforms. This year’s jury, composed a.o. by Anna Ehrenstein and Amelie von Wulfen, nominated 8 artists out of 700 applicants to exhibit in 8 project spaces throughout the city. Three winners will be gifted a trophy, created with a magic touch by Petitrit Halilaj and Alvaro Urbano.

08.2022

IN JULIUS, THE STORY REACHES ACROSS THE STREET

Photo © Maya Matsuura

Just across the street from their first restaurant in Berlin-Wedding, the ernst team have opened the doors to a minimalistic corner-restaurant with a casual fine-dining approach. Touched by the sensibility of Japanese home-cooking and classic French technique, the menu is served prix fixe or a la carte, formed around produce at its peak. During the day, guests can enjoy fresh pastries and coffee roasted in-house over fire, extended by an ever-changing weekend lunch menu and a constantly evolving selection of wines.

07.2022

HOUSING THE CITY FOR 9.99 EURO

High-quality housing at 9.99 Euro rent per sqm in one of Europe’s most expensive cities? A challenge that Euroboden and architect Florian Nagler are happy to take: Their “Haus für München” demonstrates that good architecture, sustainability and affordability are not contradictory in terms, if developer, architect and the city work in close alliance. A clever move of the City of Munich granted the plot in the popular Schwabing neighbourhood at a favourable lease to the most social and affordable concept: “Haus für München” will offer 52 flats of various sizes, communal and outdoor spaces, fully built from timber. The bold low-tech strategy reduces running costs as well as CO2 emissions. And, regardless of income, the rent of 9,99 Euro per sqm will apply to everyone. 40% of the flats will be open to all. 60% are for those who play a key role in providing for the city’s community.

07.2022

LITTLE JAPAN IN WEIL AM RHEIN

The Umbrella House by Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara, which was built in Tokyo in 1961, has recently been reconstructed in Weil am Rhein. In designing the wooden house with the “umbrella” roof, Shinohara drew on the traditional vernacular architecture of Japanese homes and temples, while employing simple and inexpensive materials, such as cement fibre boards on the facade. In the 1960s the Umbrella House has been a novel and inspirational contribution to Japanese architecture, now it’s a new highlight on the Vitra Campus.

07.2022

LIVE MILK FEED

Jenna Sutela, „HMO Fountain“, 2022, © the artist, co-produced with Schering Stiftung and Haus der Kunst, Munich, Photo: Joseph Kadow, © Jenna Sutela

The Schering Stiftung brings Jenna Sutela’s latest work together: a bubbling installation resembling a fountain, “HMO Nutrix,” and the poetically narrated film “Milky Ways.” Both deal with one of the most complex human fluids: breast milk. Drawing on her research in feedback mechanisms between human and non-human life forms, she explores the implications of synthetically produced body milk in the food industry, the symbiosis of humans and microorganisms and the mythological creation of the Milky Way galaxy.

06.2022

KEREN CYTTER TAKES OVER THE LUDWIG FORUM AACHEN

Keren Cytter, Monkey 2, 2021, Courtesy the artist

Ludwig Forum Aachen presents with “Bad Words” a survey of more than one hundred works produced over ten years by New York-based artist Keren Cytter. Highlighting text and language as crucial elements in her practice, the exhibition combines for the first time all of the artist’s fields of interest: film, soap operas, theatre, sculptures, drawings, zine- and book-making as well as life coach guides. The show was festively inaugurated with “Cold Summer”, a two-day program with readings, concerts and performances curated by Cytter herself.