Here Are 11 Must-See Shows and Events During Berlin Art Week, From Ryan Trecartin’s Dystopia to a Mobile Art Planetarium

The annual Berlin Art Week kicks off its eighth edition this
week, with fairs and exhibition openings uniting culture vultures
across the city. To top it all off, there is another celebration of
togetherness coinciding with this year’s affair: the German capital
is commemorating 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. To
mark this very special week, galleries are pulling out all the
stops, presenting work by homegrown art stars like Anne Imhof as
well as international names such as Ryan Trecartin.

To help you navigate all there is to see, we’ve highlighted 11
must-see shows and events below.

“Micro Era. Media Art from
China” at Kulturforum

WHAT: Chinese artist Cao Fei and Lu Yang have
invited fellow artists Fang Di and Zhang Peili to participate in
what has been deemed the first major presentation dedicated to
Chinese media art in Berlin. The show is an offshoot of “29
Contemporary Artists From China,” presented at the Hamburger
Bahnhof in 2001. But “Micro Era” dives deep into the digital
realm, looking at how contemporary Chinese artists have
responded to the economic, political, ideological, and
technological transformation in China over the past 30 years.

WHERE: Kulturforum, Matthäikirchplatz, 10785
Berlin

WHEN: September 5–January 26, 2020

 “Re’Search Wait’S” – Ryan Trecartin at
Sprüth Magers

WHAT: American artist Ryan Trecartin’s
video installations are known to interweave multiple threads into
one very tripped-out narrative. His latest exhibition presents four
interrelated films that tell the story of an imagined industry
whose biggest commodity is personality traits. The gallery calls
the work a “‘tweenaged’ microcosm” of his well-known “Any Ever”
series, which premiered at the MoMA PS1 in 2011 before going on a
worldwide tour that brought the artist international
recognition.

WHERE: Sprüth Magers, Oranienburgerstrasse
18, 10178 Berlin

WHEN: September 12–December 21, 2019

“Portraits” – Manuel Solano at
Peres Projects

WHAT: Mexican artist Manuel Solano,
who became blind after an HIV-related infection in 2014,
continues to create vibrant, saturated, expressive paintings. After
losing their sight, Solano (who uses gender-neutral pronouns)
paints almost exclusively from memory, trusting his friends and
other assistants to help fill in the details of his simple yet
textured paintings. The artist describes their work as intimate,
nostalgic, queer, and provocative. Their latest exhibition features
a new series of portraits  with vibrant backdrops that look
like psychological color fields or auras.

WHERE: Peres Projects, Karl-Marx-Allee 82,
10243 Berlin

WHEN: September 13–October 25, 2019

“Melly Shum hates her
job” at KLEMM’S

WHAT: You don’t have to step inside a gallery
or museum to encounter art in Berlin this week. Work by the
celebrated Canadian conceptual artist Ken Lum is on view on a
billboard at Moritzplatz, one of the city’s more congested and
rapidly developing intersections. Organized by Klemm’s in
collaboration with Galerie Nagel Draxler, the
billboard Melly Shum Hates Her Job offers
catharsis for those with professional frustration. The work runs in
parallel to a group show at the Klemm’s nearby, called “Form, Class
& Beauty,” featuring work by Lum alongside artists Gabriele
Beveridge, Viktoria Binschtok, and Ulrich Lamsfuss.

WHERE: KLEMM’S, Prinzessinnenstrasse 29,
10969 Berlin and Moritzplatz, Berlin

WHEN: Through September 21, 2019

“Adjacency” – Luke Willis
Thompson at Nagel Draxler Kabinett

WHAT: The New Zealand-based artist and
nominee for the 2018 Turner Prize, Luke Willis Thompson, puts
social injustice in relief through his poignant film installations
and performances. In his upcoming show, “Adjacency,” Thompson will
turn his lens on police violence in the US through films that
incorporate footage from the Civil Rights Movement.

WHERE: Nagel Draxler Kabinett,
Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse 33, 10178 Berlin

WHEN: September 14–November 2, 2019

“Imagine” – Anne Imhof
at Galerie Buchholz

WHAT: German artist Anne Imhof is getting her
first gallery show in Berlin, a somewhat belated accolade after she
nabbed the Preis der Nationalgalerie in 2015 and took home the
Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion in 2017. But rather than unveiling
one of the sexy, moody performances she has become known for, Imhof
is presenting colorful abstract oil paintings of sunsets that
become disorienting when hung vertically.

WHERE: Galerie Buchholz, Fasanenstrasse 30,
10719 Berlin

WHEN: September 13–October 26, 2019

“There is no nonviolent way
to look at somebody” – Wu
Tsang at Gropius Bau

WHAT: A rich trove of films by Los
Angeles-based artist Wu Tsang will be brought into dialogue with
her lesser-known sculptural practice, which is built on the
interaction of light, text, and glass. The exhibition includes a
new stained glass work especially commissioned for the Gropius
Bau.

WHERE: Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstrasse 7,
10963 Berlin

WHEN: September 4, 2019–January 12,
2020

Preis der Nationalgalerie
2019 Shortlist Exhibition at Hamburger
Bahnhof

WHAT: The tenth edition of Germany’s
prestigious and career-making prize for young artists will be
awarded on September 12. The international jury has nominated four
Germany-based artists who make very different work: Simon Fujiwara,
Flaka Haliti, Pauline Curnier Jardin, and Katja Novitskova.
Each one has debuted new work at the Hamburger Bahnhof in an effort
to take home the prize.

WHERE: Hamburger
Bahnhof, Invalidenstrasse 50-51, 10557 Berlin

WHEN: August 16, 2019–February 16,
2020

“Horizontal Vertigo” – WangShui at the
Julia Stoschek Collection

WHAT: For its first European solo exhibition,
the amorphous art studio WangShui has created hallucinatory
moving-image installations including Gardens of Perfect
Exposure, in which silk worms work away on a small metallic
landscape. In another room, the studio has brought a magnificent,
flickering LED screen typically used for skyline advertisements
indoors, giving viewers a chance to get up close to an object that
typically towers overhead. Walking up to it, with pieces of mica
crunching under your feet, feels like an almost holy
experience.

WHERE: Julia Stoschek Collection Berlin,
Leipzigerstrasse 60, 10117 Berlin

WHEN: September 12–December 15, 2019

The New Infinity / New Art
for Planetariums in Kreuzberg

WHAT: After a successful first run last
year, the Berliner Festspiele returns for Berlin Art Week with a
mobile dome housing new work by Metahaven and the 2017 Preis der
Nationalgalerie winner Agnieszka Polska.
Assorted live programming will be held for two weeks inside the
dome, which is installed in Kreuzberg’s Mariannenplatz.

WHERE: Berliner
Festspiele, Mariannenplatz, 10997 Berlin

WHEN: Through September 16, 2019

“Off
Kedzie“ at Galerie
Isabella Bortolozzi

WHAT: American artist and poet Diamond
Stingily uses simple materials like hair, worn doors, and baseball
hats to explore racial identity and gender. September promises to
be a big month for the artist in Germany: a week after her show at
Isabella Bortolozzi, she will open a solo presentation at
Kunstverein Munich.

WHERE: Galerie Isabella
Bortolozzi, Schöneberger Ufer 61, 10785 Berlin

WHEN: September 17–November 2, 2019

The post Here Are 11 Must-See Shows and Events During Berlin
Art Week, From Ryan Trecartin’s Dystopia to a Mobile Art
Planetarium appeared first on artnet News.