Journal 2024

The artist community is not merely a network of people united by art production and its institutions but a testament to transnational solidarity and cultural exchange. Artists, bound by their shared pursuit of artistic expression, navigate a world increasingly defined by mobility and displacement, where borders are omnipresent and contested.

KOW gallery first opened its doors in September 2009 in the Brandlhuber building at Brunnenstraße 9 in Berlin Mitte. It quickly became a focal point for the progressive scene. Since then, Nikolaus Oberhuber and Alexander Koch have been putting on an ambitious programme of socially oriented art and politically committed exhibitions. Artists from 16 countries, from Iraq to Chile, from Russia to South Africa, are giving the gallery programme its thematic depth and diversity. The gallery is now celebrating its 15th anniversary with the opening of new premises on Kurfürstenstraße. In his own words, Alexander Koch recalls memorable exhibitions from the last 15 years.

This year, during Berlin Art Week 2024, Galerie Wentrup is celebrating its twentieth anniversary. On this occasion, Tina and Jan Wentrup share memorable moments from the last two decades—in 22 pictures.

To celebrate Berlin Art Week and the last days of summer: The team of Volée reveals how to mix—and enjoy—the Berlin Art Fizz.

In September, Gropius Bau will open ›BAUBAU‹: not an exhibition, but a playground. Designed by the artist Kerstin Brätsch, it is meant for children. A look at the project, the relationship between art and play, and what painting might have to do with it.

The exhibition ›Pier Paolo Pasolini: Porcili‹ at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) explores Pasolini’s ›corpo‹ using a wide array of original materials, including photography, film, newspapers, typescripts, and film costumes. It traces out his oeuvre and his world of ideas, highlighting the visionary life and work of the film director, poet, and thinker, reflecting the radical diversity and rejection of social norms and conventions that is typical of Pasolini.

This year, Akademie der Künste honours Candida Höfer with the Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2024. On the occasion of Höfer’s upcoming exhibition at Akadamie der Künste—Pariser Platz, Anke Hervol provides an insight into the photographer’s artistic practice.

Since 2016, Alya Sebti has been artistic director of ifa-Galerie Berlin, which she now co-runs with Inka Gressel. With the ongoing project ›Untie to Tie‹, she has established a multidisciplinary and far-reaching research programme to investigate the colonial structures of the everyday. We meet Sebti, who in 2020 also co-curated Manifesta 13 in Marseille and who is currently part of the curatorial team for the forthcoming São Paulo Biennial 2025, in a café in Berlin-Mitte to discuss the forthcoming show during Berlin Art Week, modes of collaboration, infrastructural thinking—and questions of beauty.

A marketplace for art and a space for discovery: that’s what Positions Berlin Art Fair is all about.