Events
Selected past Events at ZKR Schloss Biesdorf
Sunday Special: Photography
A full-day programme combining an Artist Tour and a Lecture, a Screening, and a Portfolio Consultation
12:00h Artist Tour through the exhibition Shifting Perspectives
With artist Sven Gatter and ZKR Director Katja Aßman
Born in the GDR in the 1970s, Sven Gatter belongs to East Germany’s so-called Third Generation. Gatter’s work reflects on the chequered history of his home near the industrial city of Bitterfeld. His photographic-text works, which combine landscape images with written memories, document the region’s transformation. On the occasion of Shifting Perspectives ZKR warmly welcomes artist Sven Gatter for a joint walk through the exhibition. During the tour he will talk with ZKR director Katja Aßmann about the presented positions, the places in East Germany appearing in the artworks and Sven Gatters artistic practice in particular.
Artist Tour with Sven Gatter and Katja Aßmann
Sunday 26 November 2017 | 12:00 h
Participation incl. exhibition fee: € 8
14:00h Lecture and Artist Talk
Ludwig Rauch about Biography and Photography
(... and why these two can not exist without each other)
Ludwig Rauch’s objective gaze is palpable throughout his early work. His interest is never in the spectacular, but in the commonplace. The constant perspectival shift questions the conditions of everyday life in the GDR, directs our attention to the oft overlooked, and captures moments that represent a constituent element of German history. Rauch grew up in East Berlin, studied under Arno Fischer and, despite a publication ban, became a sought-after photographer – even beyond the inner-German border. His calm yet powerful images constitute historical documents of a way of life that no longer exists. In the series “Small World”, Ludwig Rauch takes up these lost moments and allows us to discover them anew.
In his lecture he will talk us on a journey thriough an artist's and photographer's life shedding light on the development of photgraphy during the last three decades.
Lecture Ludwig Rauch about Biography and Photography
Sunday 26 November 2017 | 14.00
Entrance: € 3 / Combi-ticket Exhibition and Talk: € 6
15:30 h: Portfolio Consultation with Ludwig Rauch
For our Sunday Special, we are happy to offer a unique portfolio consultation with well-established artist, globally known photgrapher and teacher at the Ostkreuz Schule for Photography Ludwig Rauch.
During his portfolio consultation, you will have the special opportunity to get professional feedback for your own photography project. Photographers at all levels all welcome!
Participation is free. To apply please register until Wednesday November 22 via Thea Dymke, td@zkr-berlin.de.
Portfolio Consultaion with Ludwig Rauch
Sunday 26 November 2017 | 15:30 h
Participation is free
To apply please register via Thea Dymke, td@zkr-berlin.de
15:30h Artist Choice Screening
The Salt of the Earth - Documentary by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
For the last 40 years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed some of the major events of our recent history; international conflicts, starvation and exodus. He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of wild fauna and flora, and of grandiose landscapes as part of a huge photographic project, which is a tribute to the planet's beauty. Sebastião Salgado's life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last travels, and by Wim Wenders, himself a photographer.
Screening: The Salt of the Earth
Sunday 26 November 2017 | 15:30 h
Entrance: € 3 / Combi-ticket Exhibition and Screening: € 6
Opening: Shifting Perspectives
A Photographic Journey through East Germany
On 20 October 2017, the Center for Art and Urban Space Schloss Biesdorf opens its third group exhibition, Shifting Perspectives, in collaboration with the Brandenburg Museum for Modern Art Cottbus & Frankfurt (Oder).
The exhibition Shifting Perspectives focuses on the decaying landscapes and urban structures of East Germany, from the GDR and the post-reunification era to the present. It gathers predominantly photographic and video work of 22 selected artists, including Arno Fischer, Seiichi Furuya, Stephanie Steinkopf, Clemens von Wedemeyer and Tobias Zielony. Their work depicts examples of desolate architecture and cities in transformation, tells residents’ stories, and studies the evolution of rural environments. ZKR Director Katja Aßmann sheds light on the exhibition: “Public space, whether urban or rural, is subject to constant changes due to political, economic and social conditions. The works featured in Shifting Perspectives powerfully convey the significance of public spaces in the formation of identity, and tangibly communicate the gradual changes in the former GDR states over the course of the reunification between East and West Germany.” Shifting Perspectives gathers long-term subjective studies, personal accounts and photographic snapshots that hint at imminent change or already bear traces of socio-political upheaval.
Artistic Positions:
Laurenz Berges, Katja Eydel, Arno Fischer, Seiichi Furuya, Sven Gatter, Andreas Gefeller, Jean-Pierre Giloux, Göran Gnaudschun, Anne Heinlein, Alexander Janetzko, Monika Lawrenz, Manfred Paul, Merit Pietzker, Ludwig Rauch, Jürgen Rehrmann, Joachim Richau, Stephanie Steinkopf, Ingeborg Ullrich, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Thomas Wolf, Ulrich Wüst, Tobias Zielony; architectural sculpture by raumlaborberlin
Opening: Friday 20 October 2017 | 19.00 - 22.00
Free entry
Shifting Perspectives is realized in collaboration with the Brandenburg Museum for Modern Art Cottbus & Frankfurt (Oder)
IGA Art at ZKR #4: Factories
Artist Talk with Michael Sailstorfer
For his work “Factories” artist Michael Sailstorfer installed three concrete beehives at the Internationale Gartenausstellung (IGA) Berlin 2017. Each hive housed a bee colony and a model for a sculpture. In the course of the IGA Berlin 2017 the bees modified the models with their honeycomb structures. Harvested by local beekeepers, the completed sculptures will finally be cast in bronze and mounted on the concrete bases. Initially plain and uniform hives transform into unique sculptures, presented on their own production sites – the “Factories”.
Known for unusual sculptures and temporary installations in open landscape, Michael Sailstorfer's works create contrasting situations and always surprising impressions. Starting with “Factories”, Michael Sailstorfer will talk about selected projects and their recurring reference to nature and the environment.
Saturday 21 September | 6:30 pm
Entry: 3 Euro
Combined Ticket Artist Talk and Exhibition: 6 Euro
Art Week Special: Body and Space
Curator's Tour, Dance Workshop and Screening
For the last day of this year's BERLIN ART WEEK we focus on the complex relationships of body and space.
Sunday, September 17 | 11 am: BETWEEN SPACES
Curator's tour with ZKR director Katja Aßmann
ZKR director Katja Aßmann will guide you through the exhibition Between Spaces while introducing the groundbreaking work of New York artist Gordon Matta-Clark and his encounter with 14 other artistic positions on architecture and urban space.
Participation 8 Euro, including entrance to the exhibition
Sunday, September 17 | 1 pm - 4 pm: CONTACT LENSES
Dance Workshop with artist DIana Sirianni and dancer and choreographer Naama Ityel
Diana Sirianni (Visual and social artist) and Naama Ityel (dancer and choreographer) designed a dance-workshop in relation to Sirianni´s site-specific intervention for Between Spaces at ZKR. The participants of the workshop will be led through some physical practices expanding their sensorial experience and deepening their understanding of Sirianni's investigation.
An adult in our society has primarily access to one kind of spatial perception: the frontal plane. This is the plane though which we work at the computer, look at our phone, read, and communicate to other people.
In the workshop we will explore other options of orientation in the space and through them offer a taste of a more integrated human experience, one which is closer to the body and in dialogue with our emotions, imagination and instincts.
Limited capacity; please RSVP at info@zkr-berlinde
Participation 8 Euro, including entrance to the exhibition
Sunday, September 17 | 4 pm: SCREENING CROSSED WORDS ORDON MATTA-CLARK'S FRIENDS
A documentary by Matías Cardone
The artist and architect Gordon Matta-Clark was born in New York, where he developed his work, founding the movement known as "Anarchitecture". The documentary uses photographic and video archive as well as recordings of the artist’s performances to narrate his life in the New York suburbs.
The screening is free of charge.
Curator's Tour Between Spaces
Guided tour through the exhibition by José Delano
Curator José Délano will guide you through the exhibition "Between Spaces" while introducing the groundbreaking work of New York artist Gordon Matta-Clark and his encounter with 14 other artistic positions on architecture and urban space.
// The tour will be held in English //
Sunday 3 September | 11 am
Entrance: 8 Euro including entrance fee to the exhibition
In Conversation
Between Spaces with Jane Crawford and Tomás Saraceno
On the occasion of Between Spaces, ZKR warmly welcomes Jane Crawford (filmmaker and former wife of Gordon Matta-Clark), and artist Tomás Saraceno for a joint walk through the exhibition. During their tour they will talk with ZKR director Katja Aßmann about the work of Gordon Matta-Clark and its relevance for the arts today, as well as about interdisciplinary approaches in contemporary art. Visitors are cordially invited to join.
Limited capacity, please RSVP via e-mail at info@zkr-berlin.de
Thursday 7 September 2017 | 7 pm
Fee 8 € (including entrance to the exhibition)
Open-Air Art Days with Jugendkunstschule
28 - 30 August | 10 am - 1 pm
Open-Air Art Days with Jugendkunstschule
Workshops for children and teenager, free of charge
Please register via e-mail: jks.berlin.mh@gmail.com
IGA art at ZKR #3: Learning from Gordon Matta-Clark
Artist Talk with Martin Kaltwasser
Saturday 26 August | 3 pm
IGA Art at ZKR #3
Artist Talk with Martin Kaltwasser
IGA art at ZKR #2: Fading Architectures
Artist Talk with Isa Melsheimer
Thursday 10 August 2017 | 6.30 pm
Entry: 3 Euro
Combined Ticket Artist Talk and Exhibition: 6 Euro
Artist Tour Between Spaces
A very personal tour through the exhibition by artist Ursula Strozynski
and curator Dr. Angelika Weißbach
Saturday 12 August | 3 pm
Entry: 3 Euro
Combined Ticket Artist Talk and Exhibition: 6 Euro
Long Night of Museums: ANSPIEL
A look behind the scenes with the artist Seraphina Lenz
Saturday 19 August 2017 | 6 pm – 2am
Entry only with ticket of the Long Night of Museums
IGA art at ZKR #1: Unkrautabend
Artist Talk with Jeanne van Heeswijk
The talk will be held in English.
There is no biological definition for Unkraut. A plant is an Unkraut as soon as it is unwanted in a certain place. What does this subjectivity mean? What does it say about what is unwanted in our lives, in society? What are the forms of resistance and resilience of the unwanted?
As the initiator of the IGA art project "Unkrautlabor. A Public Faculty about Resistance" Jeanne van Heeswijk will talk about Unkraut as a metaphor and about communities of resistance. She will open up a forum for a joint discussion on political uncertainties and how to practice resistance.
Special guests of this "Unkrautabend" are De Onkruidenier. They will prepare Unkrautpesto and Unkrautdrinks for the guests and present the hidden qualities of Unkraut.
Jeanne van Heeswijk is a visual artist who creates contexts for interaction in public spaces. Her projects distinguish themselves through a strong social involvement. With her work Van Heeswijk stimulates and develops cultural production and creates new public (meeting-)spaces or remodels existing ones.
Thursday, 27 Juli 2017 | 7 pm
Entry 3 Euro
Combined ticket Event and Exhibition 6 Euro
Artist Talk: Urban Archeology
Artist Andrea Pichl talking to curator Christian Hiller
Thursday 20 Juli 2017 | 6.30 pm
Entry 3 Euro
Combined ticket Event and Exhibition 6 Euro
Curator's Tour Between Spaces
Sunday 23 July | 3 pm
Curator's Tour Between Spaces
Guided tour through the exhibition by curator Nina Mende
Lecture: Arch+ features Between Spaces
A lecture by Mark Wigley about Anarchitecture by Gordon Matta-Clark
In early 1974, the New York architect and artist Gordon Matta-Clark took a chainsaw and cut a single-family home in two. As if performing a clinical autopsy, he exposed the building’s innards, transforming how the once-cozy home was perceived in an unsettling way. The artist Laurie Anderson described this intervention as “anarchitecture.” Anderson and Matta-Clark, together with other artists and architects, formed a group of the same name: Anarchitecture. They attained mythic status with their exhibition in 1974. Yet all that remains are an invitation and a few photos that show destroyed houses, crossroads, a derailed train, a house on a boat. The work of Gordon Matta-Clark takes a programmatic approach to deconstructing the boundaries of architecture and public space.
Mark Wigley has dedicated many years to studying the work of Gordon Matta-Clark. Undertaking a forensic quest for the remaining traces, he will analyze Anarchitecture and the oeuvre of Gordon Matta-Clark. Mark Wigley is a professor and dean emeritus of Columbia GSAPP. Together with Beatriz Colomina, he curated the Istanbul Design Biennial in 2016.
The event will be held in english. It is a cooperation with ZKR, Center for Art and Public Space, as part of its exhibition Between Spaces. The exhibition places work by Gordon Matta-Clark and perspectives on East Berlin into a dialogue with current artistic positions.
Sunday 16 July 2017 | 3 pm
Free entry
At 4.30 pm, the ARCH+ features will be followed by our summer reception, opening with a performance by rap artist Jan Kage!
Exhibition Opening: Tracing Utopia
A journey through utopian Thinking in a two-part Exhibition of young sino-german Curators
Six young Chinese and German curators stage a joint exhibition of young artistic positions dealing with “Utopia” at ZKR and its Park. Over three weeks, the teams research and explore the current status of curatorial practice and artistic development on the basis of the two large-scale exhibitions documenta in Kassel and Skulptur Projekte in Münster. Afterwards, they will present the two-part exhibition “Tracing Utopia” at Starke Foundation in Berlin-Grunewald as well as at Schlosspark Biesdorf. As a practical reflection the exhibition opens up approaches towards utopian thinking in matters of space and time from multiple perspectives.
A Collaboration with the Institute for Arts and Media Administration (IKM) of Freie Universität Berlin and Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing (CAFA)
Artistic Positions: Dominik Annies, Chen Baiyi, Janosch Becker, Florian Birk, Juan Blanco, Felipe Duarte, Shi Fu, Philipp Hainke, Lisa Herzog, Fangling Huang, Qin Lingsen, Luo Qiang, Li Quing, Ana Esteve Reig, Natalia Irina Roman, Liu Shihao, André Stache, Deo Gisa Brian Senyondo, Annika Stoll, Daniel Theis, Sabine Maria Voltz, Victoria Wald, Tao Xia, Yan Xiang, Ligeng Zhang
Sponsored by Stromnetz Berlin
Exhibition Opening Tracing Utopia
Thursday 06 Juli 2017 | 4-10 pm
Schlosspark Biesdorf
Greeting and Introduction: 7pm
Free entry
Performance: Schwarze Kanäle (Black Channels)
With artist and professor Else Gabriel and students of the Weißensee Art School Berlin
on June 10th 2017
A performance inspired by GDR propaganda, "Chinese whispers" and water pipes of Schloss Biesdorf.
Dinner Discourse: FOOD 2017 - A Reflection on Gordon Matta-Clark with raumlaborberlin
with raumlaborberlin and Students of the University of Arts Berlin on June 1st 2017
Cooking as "space giving" performance featuring guest chefs and speakers of the UdK Berlin - among them the architect and artist Marjetica Potrč as well as the Berlin based artist duo Various & Gould.
About raumlaborberlin: Founded in 1999, raumlabor is a group of eight trained architects who work together in a collaborative network. Based in Berlin, they work at the intersection of architecture, city planning, art and urban intervention, incorporating local actors and external experts.
Artist Talk: The Soweto Project – or how we became irrelevant
With Marjetica Potrč and Christian Hiller on May 20th 2017
Soweto is a township of the city of Johannesburg in South Africa. Formerly a separate municipality, it became a symbol for the resistance against apartheid with the "Soweto Uprising" in 1976.
"The Soweto Project" is a participatory project by Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč and students of the Design for the Living World class (University of Fine Arts/HFBK, Hamburg, Germany). During the long-term residency in spring 2014, the local residents and students turned a formerly vacant public space that had been used as a dumping ground into a community-organized public space called "Ubuntu Park". In doing so a public space mirroring state-controlled racial segregation for a long time was collectively formed and organized.
During our artist talk "The Soweto Project – or how we became irrelevant" Marjetica Potrč will introduce the project together with HFBK students Nuriye Tohermes und Finn Brüggemann on the occasion of the exhibition Between Spaces at ZKR.
The talk will be moderated by Christian Hiller and will be held in English.
About the Artist:
Marjetica Potrč is an artist and architect based in Ljubljana (Slovenia) and in Berlin. Her interdisciplinary practice includes on-site projects, research, architectural case studies, and series of drawings. Her work documents and interprets contemporary architectural practices and the ways people live together.
Lecture Performance: Buster Keaton & The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
A Lecture with Simon Faithfull on April 30th 2017
Buster Keaton was one of formative filmmakers of the early 20th Century but is also, arguably, one of the most important sculptor/performance-artists of the last century. Within the worlds Keaton created for the camera, the protagonist (played by Keaton himself) seems always to be pitted against a hostile universe. Everything he builds collapses, everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Slapstick as an art-form relies upon our empathy for a character caught in a heroic but pointless battle with Entropy. The artistic inheritors of Keaton's world lies not in film but more in the work of contemporary artists such as Bas Jan Ader, Roman Singer, Robert Smithson and above all else Gordon Matta Clark. Within the lecture 'Buster Keaton & The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics' Faithfull will attempt to explain (for his own enlightenment) the mechanics of entropy and how this force becomes the major protagonist in the work 'Splitting' by of Gordon Matta Clark and the short film 'One Week' by Buster keaton.
Tasting: Elixir Bar
with Janet Laurence on April 6th 2017
An evening of alchemy and eclectic drinks dedicated to our native flora.
ZKR – Centre for Art and Public Space Schloss Biesdorf invites the public to discover unique tastes and tales with an evening inspired by environmental artist Janet Laurence’s Elixir Bar, first presented at Echigo Tsumari Arts Triennale in Japan.
Visitors enjoy exceptional drinks using local ingredients, specially selected and prepared by Janet Laurence herself. While experiencing the flavour of nature, guests have the chance to gain an insight into her artistic work. Laurence will share impressions of previous Elixir Bars and stimulate an open exchange of individual ideas and sensations.
Artist Talk: California Dreaming
L.A. Evening with Martin Kaltwasser on January 12th 2017
Martin Kaltwasser and Folke Köbberling were living in Los Angeles for one year while discovering smaller and bigger "utopian moments" within the Mega City.
In the talk, Martin Kaltwasser introduced his projects "Cars into bicycicles" and "Los Angeles Garden" but also discussed the controversial city as source of artistic inspiration.
Artist Talk: Choreography of Landscape
with atelier le balto on November 17th 2016
We had the pleasure to welcome atelier le balto, a collective of landscape architects and artists, for the artist talk in November. In a short lecture and a following conversation with Katja Aßmann atelier le balto gave insights into their special approach to landscaping and its intersection with dance and philosophy.
atelier le balto is currently creating the IGA-Campus at IGA Berlin 2017.