Photo by Jens Liebchen, Berlin.
Preview Berlin Art Fair 2012
September 13–16, 2012
Opening: Thursday, September 13, 6pm
Hangar2
Tempelhof Airport Berlin
Colombiadamm 10
12101 Berlin, Germany
Hours: 1–8pm
In its eighth edition, the PREVIEW BERLIN ART FAIR will be expanding its dynamic profile: In Hangar2 of Berlin’s former Tempelhof Airport, established galleries will now show their promising artistic positions alongside international newcomers. For the first time ever, there will also be solo walls, with a focus continuing to be placed on emerging artists. This survey allows the PREVIEW BERLIN to reflect what makes the Berlin art landscape so unique from an international perspective, allowing the latest trends to be visualised.
From September 13 to 16, 57 international galleries, eleven project spaces and eight art academies from fourteen countries will take part in the PREVIEW BERLIN. In spacious white-cube stands, in project areas and on about two dozen solo walls in Hangar2, ambitious positions from Germany, Europe and beyond will be presented. As a plug-in, the format FOCUS ACADEMY will be held with an expanded scope, offering space for graduates of art academies and universities.
In addition, the VIDEO PREVIEW SCREENING offers selected artists the opportunity to present their video works to an urban audience at the Sony Center Berlin.
Berlin Art Week
This year, the PREVIEW BERLIN will be held for the first time within the framework of the newly launched Berlin Art Week (11–16 September 2012), uniting under one umbrella the exhibition format abc – art berlin contemporary as well as the most important institutions of contemporary art in Berlin (National Gallery, Society of Friends of the National Gallery, KW, Berlinische Galerie, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein [n.b.k.], Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst [NGBK] e.V., c/o Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Akademie der Künste). With the Berlin Art Week, participants’ profiles will be sharpened, synergies created and energies pooled to strengthen confidence in Berlin as an art location.
The exhibitors
This year’s exhibitors offer outstanding insights into the international art world, from Australia to Japan. More than half of all exhibitors will be participating in the PREVIEW BERLIN ART FAIR for the first time.
We would like to draw particular attention to the gallery LEM-Art from Colombia and Terreno Baldio Arte from Mexico. From Turkey we will welcome Daire and Riff Art Projects.
We are pleased that participants from Eastern Europe will also be represented this year. In addition to Maksla XO from Riga, which will exhibit a larger-than-life fluorescent sculpture, the Warsaw-based Program Art Gallery and Starter Gallery, as well as Nasui private collection & gallery from Bucharest, will present their latest artistic positions. As part of the art fair’s supporting programme, a discussion on the topic “The Soft Power of the Art Market” will take place under the direction of Nasui. The artist group fame will crash the ASPN Gallery booth with a VW Golf 1. Postwurf.org will hijack an art collection, smuggling a remote touchscreen terminal into it.
The participating artists come from over 20 nationalities. One-third come from Germany and about one-third live and work in Berlin.
FOCUS ACADEMY
With the FOCUS ACADEMY, the PREVIEW BERLIN has been turning to art universities since 2009 in a new format. In 2012, the graduates of eight German art academies will participate. The intention is to offer these artists the opportunity to show their work to a large art community at the moment of transition from university studies to artistic independence, allowing them to gain initial experience on the art market. In addition to the Bauhaus University Weimar, the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design Kiel and the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg, all of which were already represented at the art fair last year, Burg Giebichenstein Halle, the Art University Kassel, the Berlin University of the Arts, the HfG Offenbach and the Berlin Weißensee School of Art will participate in the 2012 FOCUS ACADEMY.
LEGO® Art Box by PREVIEW BERLIN Projects
The LEGO® Art Box, initiated by PREVIEW BERLIN Projects in collaboration with LEGO® and supervised by Aufbau Haus on Moritzplatz, has been conceived as a platform for discourse and an experimental workshop for artists and creatives who want to explore LEGO® bricks as an artistic medium. In the summer of 2012, the class of Prof. Karsten Konrad (UdK Berlin) successfully presented the results of their LEGO® workshops in two exhibitions. These will be shown to an international audience at the PREVIEW BERLIN ART FAIR 2012.
VIDEO PREVIEW SCREENING
Sony Center, Berlin
In addition, the PREVIEW BERLIN ART FAIR will offer a popular presentation platform for video art. Supported by the Sony Center Berlin, participating galleries have the opportunity to show selected artist works to an urban audience on a 28 square metre-large LED video wall at Potsdamer Platz.
Jess Ptak
Jess Ptak is a Master of Arts candidate in English Literature at Mercy College. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. Jess lives in the Hudson Valley with her family, where she enjoys crafting handmade stationery and spending time with her husband and daughter.
