FischGrätenMelkStand opens today in the Temporäre Kunsthalle, and the artist, John Bock, has created an 11 meter high “meta-structure” to hold the work of over 60 artists. That’s more artists than are currently featured in the six venues of the Berlin Biennale. However, John Bock is not the only one in Berlin blurring the line between artist and curator.
Similar tensions are being explored at Nature Morte Berlin, a gallery featuring the work of predominantly Indian artists. For the show Treacherous Path, Julia Staszak, a Berlin-based painter and artist, created a three-tiered architectural facade reminiscent of a south Indian Hindu temple to hold the works of both Indian and Berlin-based artists. Both mischievous and playful, Staszak’s work examines the borders between good and bad taste, appropriation and authorship, and in this show, the cultural expectations that exist when a German artist is invited by an Indian art gallery to mine its inventory.
Her work is shown beside the sculptural installation-based works of Raqs Media Collective and Radhika Khimji. Raqs Media Collective are also known for hovering between many media. They co-curated the 7th Manifesta Exhibition, held in Bolzano, and curated the film and video component of the exhibition Indian Highway, held at London’s Serpentine Gallery.
Treacherous Path incorporates works by Anke Becker, Astrid Busch, Anne Gathmann, Alexis Kersey, Isabelle Krieg, Rebecca Michaelis, Stephen Mueller, Eva Räder, Sameer Reddy, Alexandra Schumacher, Maurizio Vetrugno, Rini Tandon and Edward Weldon.
FischGrätenMelkStand
Temporäre Kunsthalle
Opens Thursday 20.00-23.00, until Aug. 3
Treacherous Path
Gallery Nature Morte Berlin
Zimmerstrasse 90-91
Tues.-Sat. 11:00-18:00. Exhibition runs until Sept. 18 (with a month break in August).
