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Indepth Arts News:
"CHILDREN OF BERLIN: CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS 1989-1999"
1999-11-07 until 2000-01-02
P.S. 1
New York, NY,
USA United States of America
P.S.1
Contemporary Art Center presents Children of Berlin: Cultural Developments
1989-1999, an exhibition featuring Berlin artists, art-based associations and
publications, new media pioneers, architects, fashion designers, theater
set-designers, musicians, and club-life promoters. These cultural
practitioners have been important figures in Berlin during the ten years
since the fall of the Wall in 1989. Whether in a studio, a club or a bar, a
shop or showroom, Berlin in the nineties has been a laboratory charged
with innumerable experiments.
There have been many transformations since the fall of the Wall, and today
Berlin is a completely different city from what it was in 1989. The unique
situation in Berlin at the beginning of the nineties brought young people
from all over the world to witness a historical process: the unification of two
separate Germanies with Berlin at their nucleus. This process was
accompanied by social, cultural and aesthetic changes, as an energetic
population was confronted with new possibilities, expectations and needs.
Gaps were filled in a process of ‘reconstruction’ and ‘construction.’ Empty
houses in the inner-city section ‘Mitte,’ formerly East Berlin, offered people
empty rooms in which they could start living and working with
unprecedented freedom.
Among the almost 30 artists featured in the show is Monica Bonvicini with
A Violent, Tropical, Cyclonic Piece of Art Having Wind Speeds of or in
Excess of 75 Miles per Hour (1998), in which two powerful fans installed in
a wall blow at hurricane speeds. Christoph Keller’s invention of a
camera/movie-camera hybrid produced a 30-foot photograph of a moving
Berlin subway train, capturing the speed of change in contemporary Berlin.
John Bock hopes that visitors will crawl into his artwork: through a giant
sweater into a tiny Fiat Panda. Johannes Kahrs’ projection piece is a
45-minute re-enactment of a 5-minute scene from Quentin Tarantino’s film
Reservoir Dogs.
In an effort to address a broader definition of the creative energy present in
Berlin during the last ten years, the exhibition includes a store/lounge
designed by 3 de luxe, located in the museum’s lobby. This will function as
a reading room for Berlin-based publications, and where the Berlin-based
fashion designers Bless, John de Maya, and Jürgen Frisch will display and
sell their clothing. Bert Neumann’s set-design of a Balkan Room points to
his roots in the East and in the vibrant Berlin theater community; and
Carsten Höller’s slide for visitors will wind from the third floor hallway down to
the outdoor terrace.
Children of Berlin: Cultural Developments 1989-1999 is curated by Klaus
Biesenbach, P.S.1 senior curator and director of Kunst-Werke Berlin, and
Alanna Heiss, P.S.1 Executive Director.
The catalogue that accompanies the show is more a yearbook than a
chronicle of the exhibition. It includes portraits and interviews of gallerists,
architects, members of the theater community, theorists, entrepreneurs and
other prominent Berlin personalities.
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