Here are the exhibitions you’ll surely want to check out in Berlin this week.
“Hello World: Revising a Collection”
Hamburger Banhof, Mitte
April 28–August 26
What would the Nationalgalerie collection look like if, from its inception, it had been open to the world? Inspired by contemporary dialogue and critical inquiry into the emphasis on Western art in museum collections, “Hello World: Revising a Collection” reimagines the art-historical narratives perpetuated by the museum. More than two hundred works of painting, sculpture, installation, video, and film from the collection of the Nationalgalerie will engage in dialogue with 550 works and documents loaned from Berlin-based and international collections. The exhibition overhauls the entirety of the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart– Berlin exhibition space, to open the museum to a new worldview.
James Turrell
Ganzfeld APANI
Venice Biennale, 2011
photo by Florian Holzherr
“We Don’t Need Another Hero”
Berlin Biennale, Mitte
June 9–September 9
Alluding to Tina Turner’s 1985 hit, “We don’t need another hero” engages with history-making regime changes of the late 20th century. The 10th Berlin Biennale does not intend to create a narrative of that history, to make sense of it or its influence on the present. Instead, like the song, it renounces savior-narratives in favor of exploring the complexities of power and knowledge. Gabi Ngcobo curated “We don’t need another hero” with team members Moses Serubiri, Nomaduma Rosa Masilela, Thiago de Paula Souza, and Yvette Mutumba. It takes place from June 9 to September 9, 2018.
“Back to Nature”
Museum Frieder Burda | Salon Berlin, Mitte
June 9–October 28
In the digital age, the fading of natural experiences is calling for new approaches to the world. Through varied artistic practices, the artists in “Back to Nature?” simulate our growing alienation from nature—and ourselves. Sissel Tolaas (b.1963), for example, created an olfactory archive of ocean smells, to recall seaside nostalgia. Curated by Patricia Kamp, the exhibition, more broadly, questions the role of art—and offers its aid—when facing ecological, political, and social debates. “Back to Nature?” also includes works by Camille Henrot (b. 1978), Timur Si-Qin (b. 1984), Tue Greenfort (b. 1973), David LaChapelle (b. 1963), Laure Prouvost (b. 1978), Tim Eitel (b. 1971), Nikita Shalenny (b. 1982), and Flavio de Marco (b. 1975).
Donna Kukama
Chapter P: The-Not-Not-Educational-Spirits
2017
Durational performance within I’m not who you think I’m not #1, 7.7.2017
Photo by F. Anthea Schaap
James Turrell
“The Substance of Light”
Museum Frieder Burda | Baden Baden, Mitte
April 13–August 18
For five decades, James Turrell has created seemingly limitless compositions of light. For the sprawling exhibition at Museum Frieder Burda, Turrell unveils a new work, Accretion Disk, as part of the “Curved Wide Glass” series. The object changes color over several hours, and its title refers to a cosmic dust. It fuses conceptually with other works present and highlights Turrell’s central belief that “light unites the spiritual world with the ephemeral, physical world.”
