In Focus | Germany
Broadening horizons
The 15th international contemporary art exhibition in Berlin this year drew 40,000 artists, collectors and galleries from around the world
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- Published: 00:00 November 8, 2010
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Sculptures by Max Friesinger at the Berlin art forum. This year’s event consisted of 110 exhibitors selected from 300 galleries
Berlin lived up to its reputation as one of Europe's most vibrant artistic scenes, as 40,000 artists, collectors and galleries from around the world attended the city's international art forum.
This year's event consisted of 110 exhibitors, selected from 300 galleries, who applied for a stand at the Funkturm exhibition grounds in western Berlin, from October 7 to 10.
The pieces on sale featured contemporary works since the 1960s, including artists Olafur Eliasson, Sol LeWitt and Joseph Beuys, as well as photographers Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton and Robert Applethorpe.
Classics on sale
Individual works by Andy Warhol, Edgar Degas and PabloPicasso were also up for sale. In total, more than 2,000 artistsfrom 18 countries were on display.
Prices ranged from a few hundred euros to the hundreds of thousands commanded by German postmodernist Georg Baselitz or painter Neo Rauch.
Artists and gallery owners enjoyed the opportunity to visit Berlin, where low rents and the legacy of Europe's Cold War divide have turned the city into a creative hub for European and international artists.
"This is our opportunity to understand the point of view and hear comments and opinions from the art community in Berlin about our work," said Olga Chatzida, the manager of Greece's AMP gallery.
Chatzida was showcasing the work of Scottish artist MarkBriggs, who combines video art with paintings and statues.
Swiss gallery owner Christiane Buntgen combined the fairwith the opportunity to catch up with one of her featuredartists, Keren Cytter, who lives in Berlin.
"Both me and Keren have a personal experience in Berlin. Keren lives here now, and I used to live here before,and we both have many friends and colleagues in the city.So this is a great chance to share our ideas, and also spreadour work," Buntgen said.
New art
Visitors to the sunlit 1930s exhibition hall included Italian painter Paolo Mara and his wife, who had just arrived in the city and were touring the stalls. "Some of the works here are really special, andwe just took the opportunity to visit Berlin again and get to know some new art," Mara said.
Artists included Ujino Muneteru from Japan, whose installation of record players, vacuum cleaners and electric guitars turn mechanical movements into complex rhythms — available for 35,000 euros (Dh177,347).
The directors of the art forum, Eva-Maria Haeusler and Peter Vetsch, decided this year to invite fewer exhibitors, giving them a stronger profile by ‘concentrating on quality'.
The number of stalls was reduced from 130 to 110, after Berlin galleries feared in previous years that the mass of art on offer was harming overall quality.
"There are no trends," said Vetsch. "Videos, sculpture, installation — the artists now seek to express themselves through various media." He said private collectors were starting to open their wallets again, now that the worst of the economic crisis was over.
Despite the growing success of the Berlin fair, it competes with Germany's leading art fair in Cologne, which displays art spanning the entire 20th century.
"Cologne is conservative," said Morten Korsggaard, who owns a gallery in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
French exhibitor Anne de Villepoix said the advantage of Berlin was the chance to meet the city's artists as well as a new crowd of art enthusiasts.
