The fifth edition of abc came to an end with around 24,000 art-goers—more than in previous years—visited the halls at Gleisdreieck September 13-16th 2012. Continue reading →

There is no myth that has been so closely tied to Berlin than that of the city being unfinished and unconventional; undergoing constant change. The same could also certainly apply to its art scene, as it tries to find its place in the global art circus. And, it could be attributed to this year’s abc, where a lot was left in the open – and turned out really well this way.
 

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The usual art fair comes with an integrated visual overkill effect. Booth after booth flanks the aisles, there are artworks everywhere, it’s often cramped, loud and flashy –seeking attention is key in a fair where selling is the sole aim.
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For the final day of abc Art Berlin Contemporary 2012, I decided to have a look around one more time, even though the whole weekend consisted largely of endless amounts of looking, talking and looking some more whilst returning to specific pieces (I probably visited Timm Ulrichs at Wentrup a dozen times).
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The fifth edition of abc closing today, counting 24.000 visitors who came to see 129 galleries from 18 countries and 148 positions of contemporary art, the programme by Artists Space NY with Bazaar, Interventions and Talks as well as MISS READ.
 
Thank you all for the great show and see you next year:
abc 2013: 19 – 22 September 2013 – Save the Date!
 
If you wish to take another look at the exhibited artworks, the 2 volumes of the catalogue (Reader and Gallery Index) are available at Mousse Publishing and abc online shop!
 
And don’t forget to stay tuned as abc Journal continues delivering you abc contents by our contributors!

The emergence of new media forms has always been connected to different hopes and fears, and no where is this more true than on the internet. Digitalisation has already had a crucial impact on cultural production in a number of ways, and while it has rendered it easier to access and to participate in the global information flow, it has, at the same time thrown up some important questions in terms of intellectual propriety. The impact of the internet on the music and film industries has been widely discussed over the last few years, the same however cannot be said for the art sector, where such discourse has been somewhat sidelined. In light of this, it was interesting that the New York-based Artists Space should choose to invite e-flux founder Anton Vidokle, among others, to come to abc and talk about this very issue – the relationship between artistic production and new developments in the online sphere. Vidokle presented a topic that has not yet received a lot of media attention in Germany; the sale of new internet domains and the question of how that may ultimately effect the art sector.
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“Mens sana in corpore sano” the Latins used to say, but somehow the notion that a healthy body and an equally healthy mind could actually belong to the same person got lost along the way. For the better part of the 20th Century, it was believed that beautiful people did not possess intellectual properties to match the quality of their looks, and this went especially for girls with blonde hair and guys with muscles. It was either physics or brains.
 

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abc Art Berlin Contemporary has become as famous for its schizoid, non-conformist and sporadic booth presentations as its location Berlin is for its multiplicity of architectural styles. Displaying works without a ‘white cube’ booth format encourages a more organic presentation which adheres more to a site-specific aesthetic where artists responds directly to location, architecture and space. The fair’s current layout is largely without walls, which echoes a city infamous for one of the most political works of architecture in history, The Berlin Wall. History and its associations aside, abc is a fair with an amalgamation of styles that includes: walled booths, free standing walls, floor sculptures, sound, installations and purpose built enclosed structures assembled together for the duration of this event. Some galleries excelled in their choice of artists and clever use of space, whilst others presented rather underwhelming monumental works which in my opinion played on the ceiling height and not much else in terms of engaging with spaces allocated. It seemed more about spectacle in these instances.
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The artist book might be one of the most misundestood art genres and it is certainly not one that is easy to define. „Neither an art book nor a book on art, the artist’s book is a work of art on its own“ states critic Lucy Lippard. Taking up the notion of the book as an artistic object in itself – rather than a mere supplement or catalogue – the publishing fair MISS READ brings together international artists and publishers working on this common principle. Coming from cities such as Los Angeles, Lisboa, Hongkong and of course Berlin, they have set up their booths in the so-called Bananenhalle, next to the abc main hall, to present their approaches to artistic publishing.
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Make sure you don’t miss the three Artists Space Talks tomorrow:
 
Sunday 16th September
2 p.m. Antonia Hirsch (artist and Associate Editor at Fillip magazine)
3:30 p.m. Patricia Reed (artist)
5 p.m. Jan Verwoert (critic)
 
With a little luck you are the one to win 2 of 10 abc tickets for tomorrow, Sunday September 16th!
Just write to abc@bureau-n.de with the subject ‘Artists Space’.
Good Luck!

The long-awaited art berlin contemporary kicked off yesterday morning at Station-Berlin revealing itself as one of the most exciting events of the season.
Featuring the newest positions in the contemporary art scene, this time under no subject and no curatorial supervision, this new fair format will definitely mark the course of the arts in Berlin and will also probably spread around the world.
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As part of their Bazaar within Art Berlin Contemporary (abc) this year, New York’s Artists Space has organized a series of lectures throughout Saturday afternoon, meditating on the influence of the internet on artistic production and ways that one might reconcile value and desire in an epoch where such ‘wants’ are increasingly taboo. Certainly, the lecture series within the program of an art fair is nothing novel, but what Artists Space is putting forth at abc is a different rendition of the model: one that is imminently self aware of the structure in which it is taking place.
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If collecting is a virus- I think I got it: Acquire unique objects that will guide, inspire, comfort and maybe even bore and enrage you throughout your life. Objects you and you alone possess (and are possessed by). I get it. To enrich my imaginary collection started at Art Cologne this year I browsed abc yesterday. These are the works I would not want to leave/live without. Total value of my imaginary second step into collecting: 124.000euro
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MISS READ 2012 brings together for the fourth time the most important protagonists of artistic book publishing. With the artist book as an autonomous artistic work, artists use the linearity of the book as medium to tell visual stories, generate archives, depict collections, present research results, or even quite intentionally practice book piracy. The productive collaboration between artist, author, and designer often results in the creation of complex books that also enable a fresh perspective on the art.
 
MISS READ visitors are invited to browse at their own tempo, free of charge. Not only are the books artworks to be touched, they are also affordable!
Stop by!
 
Opening hours MISS READ
Friday, 14 September 2012, 5 – 8 pm
Saturday, 15 September 2012, noon – 9 pm
Sunday, 16 September 2012, noon – 7 pm

As I wandered through the opening of abc art fair 2012, I noticed the fair had expanded vastly from last year’s edition. This year sees an increase in gallery inclusions from across the world as well as a healthy return of participants from its inaugural edition in 2008.
 

The whole structure of the fair has been slightly reconfigured. It has a fluid arrangement of booths and projects with a more defined entrance area, behind glass doors beyond an open courtyard (packed with guests, VIP’s, art world crowd and press). This leads to the first of three main halls which marked the start of my three day tour of abc, Berlin’s innovative art fair. The fair notably has a more experimental approach this year, as although in keeping with its overall solo artist booth presentation, it also gives galleries the flexibility to abandon ‘white-cube’ booth format to create architectural or conceptual booth installations (which were fully taken advantage of by IBID Projects, BQ, Kraupa-Tuskany and Blank Projects).
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WWW.THEBROKENHEARTSCLUBBERLIN.COM

In the context of abc our partner Freunde von Freunden made a great interview with the Lisbon/Vienna-based artist Hugo Canoilas, whose work you can see at this year’s abc (Galleria Collicaligreggi).
See the whole portrait here.
 

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On Tuesday and Wednesday Bpigs checked out art events in Berlin and got some impressions for you.
They went to the opening of Cyprien Gaillard @ Schinkel Pavillon, FiggevonRosen, Klosterfelde, Crone Gallery and of course to abc to get some sneak peaks during the installations of the art works.
Have a look on all their photos of the openings here.
 

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After a long way from Italy, finally we can hold the abc catalogs in our hands as they have just arrived here at Station-Berlin. It is a two-part catalog in cooperation with Mousse Publishing, Milano. Entitled “The Reader,” the first part of the catalog was created in collaboration with Artists Space, and includes texts related to the theme of pluralistic cultural production, distribution and exchange.
The individual texts were selected by Artists Space Bazaar participants.In the second part of the catalog, abc artists’ work is shown.
For only 9,80 € you can order your catalog NOW.

When asked why there was so much alcohol flowing through the art world, a well-known art critic who prefers to remain anonymous answered: “My boozing has been bumming me out, but if I quit drinking there would officially be no more perks to my profession and that’s too depressing a fact to face sober.” Drinking and art seem to belong together, for many drinking even seems to be a means to endure, but not a means to create art. Here, however, comes a story on how drinking became the initiator of a great series of works:
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Today is the day of the Openings. To make sure, you won’t miss anything, here’s the link to our Media Partner INDEX, where you can check out all the openings and events taking place today. Here are some of our picks:
 

Mehdi Chouakri
Sylvie Fleury Do Not Think of The Color Blue for Thirty Seconds
When: 6–9pm
Where: Edisonhöfe: Eingang/Entrance: Schlegelstraße 26
Invalidenstr. 117, 10115 Berlin
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In the context of the abc, Artek will be showcasing an exclusive edition of an icon of Finnish design, the „Stool 60 Pure” by Alvar Aalto on site, thus providing all 129 participating galleries across 18 countries with seating facilities. Following the closing of abc on Sunday 16th “Stool 60 Pure” will be exclusively available via the website of abc art berlin contemporary.
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After an overwhelming response to our Call for Bloggers, Jareh Das, Frauke Fentloh, and Nabil Nadifi have been selected to report from abc within the framework of the EYEOUT residency.
 
Jareh Das lives in London where she works as a freelance writer and runs the blog Artistes Only. Jareh will be on the road as a social blogger, and aims to capture the atmosphere of the fair through short interviews with visitors and exhibitors. 
 
Frauke Fentloh is a contributor to the Berlin-based RADIUS. magazine, an online publication at the intersection of art, design, and photography. We’re looking forward to her pointed analysis and reporting.
 
Nabil Nadifi is a photographer and lives in Paris. His blog Hype Ain’t Sh*t sees itself as a platform to explore the border country between art, fashion, and advertising. Nabil will use his camera to document abc in the light of these associations.
 
EYEOUT is Berlin’s mobile art guide and the partner of abc art berlin contemporary. 

 
On Saturday afternoon, with five days to go until the start of abc art berlin contemporary 2012, the atmosphere at the venue was magical. Calm, yet dense with anticipation, the vast dimensions of the exhibition halls echoing the sound of drills and hammers, the subdued buzzing of electric motors belonging to fork trucks and lifting platforms mingling with the smell of freshly timbered line-ups in a strange sensation of synaesthesia… If you belong to those who have ever set up a gallery booth at an art fair you know: the best moment about an art fair is that time when it still belongs to those setting it up and no one else.
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Check out what you’ve missed last week! Our contributor Bpigs caught impressions for you.
Among the events: Openings at abc gallery Sprüth Magers and KOW.
Check out the whole week here.

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Openings today: Galerie Guido W. Baudach Wedding | BQ | Croy Nielsen | Duve Berlin | Galerie Max Hetzler | Lüttgenmeijer | Galerie Micky Schubert
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Openings today: Galerie Anselm Dreher | KOW | Tanya Leighton Gallery | Nature Morte | Galerie Neu | Esther Schipper | Sprüth Magers Berlin | Sassa Trülzsch | Galerie Tanja Wagner
Stop by and enjoy!
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In cooperation with Niche we offer Guided Tours on the grounds of Station-Berlin
 
From September 14 – 16 there are going to be Daily Tours at 3 p.m. (fee 5 €).
You also have the chance to book an individual Group Tour (max. 10 Persons, 75 € per group).
Don’t miss your chance and book your tour now!
Email to: tours@artberlincontemporary.com

Openings today: Eigen + Art Lab | Galerie Barbara Weiss | Soy Capitán
 
Next week abc is starting, but there’s already a lot going on in our Berlin-based abc galleries.
We keep you posted on Openings and Events you shouldn’t miss!
 
Today, Sept. 6th 2012:
 

 
Eigen + Art Lab
Marc Desgrandchamps Palindromes
When: 5–9pm
Where: Ehem. Jüdische Mädchenschule, Auguststraße 11–13, 10117 Berlin
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We’re looking forward to stumble into the installation of artist Marcel Frey (*1980), presented by Thomas Fischer gallery. Besides sculptures, casts and prints, Frey’s works involve common concrete tiles arranged on the floor, which might turn into fun obstacles on a crowded fair.
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abc is getting closer
Our abc posters are decorating the streets of Berlin City. This morning on our way to work we could catch first snap shots @ Prenzlauerberg and Kreuzberg. Watch out for more!
 

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It’s Monday, a new week starts and another week is over. Our partner Bpigs shows you what you’ve missed during the last seven days.
Among the photos of Saturday: impressions of the exhibition “In the mirror of myself” at abc gallery Galerie Zink.
Check out the whole week!
 

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We love the way Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs (both *1979) comment on the phenomenon that almost every text about photography cites the same few authors, mostly Roland Barthes or Susan Sonntag: The Swiss photographers have compiled twelve classics from the realm of photography theory, caved them, added a lens in front and a plate in back and thus turned them into a self-made camera. At the forefront of the manipulated book stack: Barthes Camera Lucida (1980), directly followed by Sontag’s On Photography (1977). If these authors’ highly cited words have become hollow by repetition, the least they can do now is use their hollowness productively by serving as the body of a DIY picture-making device.
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Artists: heather rowe, sabrina fritsch, german stegmaier, yuri masnyj, michael just, ignacio uriarte
 
In the mirror of myself describes the continuous self-questioning that is an important basic motivation for artistic creation. At the same time, the exhibition title addresses the loneliness of the internal dialogue during the creative process. For the exhibition, abc participant Galerie Zink has selected six artists whose work makes such a dialogue legible for the viewer.
Don’t miss the opening today!

 
When
Opening
Friday Aug 31st, 2012.
6 – 9 p.m.
 
Where
Galerie Zink
Linienstrasse 23
10178 Berlin

 
Multimedia-artist Michaela Meise will be presenting her new publication “Ding und Körper” at our abc book store Walther König today. As the title already implies, the focus of Meissen’s work is set on two groups: the inanimate object and the human body. Come along for the podium discussion starting at 7 pm between the artist, Anja Casser (director of the Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe) and designer Hendrik Schwantes.
 
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In his first major museum exhibition, French artist Guillaume Bruère will be providing an insight into his diverse artisic activities. On show with GIOM Millipede from August 26th to November 4th at the museum Marta Herford. See his works at Andrae Kaufmann Gallery at the abc!

 
Our sponsor Artek invited the do you read me?! Satellite Store to the Artek Flagship Store in Helsinki
 
The Helsinki Satellite will open tomorrow, on August 23, right on time for the Helsinki Night of the Arts. A number of Artek events will take place there and at the same time it coincides with the Helsinki Design Week from September 5 – 11.
So if you’re in Helsinki, check it out!
 
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Take a look at the participating galleries:
 
This year, 126 galleries from 18 countries will participate: 66 galleries from Berlin, 8 from Vienna, 6 from London, 4 each from Dubai, New York, Zurich and Paris, 2 each from Beijing, Brussels, Cape Town, Frankfurt, Malmö, Milan, Munich and Rome; and 1 each from Antwerp, Bremen, Catania, Copenhagen, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Glasgow, Hamburg, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Innsbruck, Istanbul, Jeddah, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Naples, Prague and Seoul.

 
abc is happy to be partner of the newly founded Berlin Art Week
 
“A start to the season, which does justice to Berlin’s multifaceted character as one of the world’s leading locations for the production of contemporary art – with its numerous galleries, museums and exhibition spaces – Berlin Art Week is of interest to international audiences. We are pleased to strengthen the city’s importance as an art capital in conjunction with key institutions and actors in Berlin,” note the organizers of the abc.
 
Take a look at Berlin Art Week: www.berlinartweek.de

abc and EYEOUT, the mobile art guide, are looking for two contributing writers who are into the contemporary art scene and interested in covering the abc.


What you get: three nights at Berlin’s fashionable Hotel Mani, where you’ll be right at the heart of things, for 13–16 September, plus VIP credentials for abc.


What you contribute: three blog entries to be featured on the abc website. If you’d like to be part of this project, write and tell us why you’re the blogger to choose: residency@eyeout.com.
Deadline: 28 August 2012

abc and A.P.C. are launching a limited edition of tote bags. The design of the bags plays on the similarity of the abbreviations of the two names and feature the letters A.P.C., acronym for Atelier de Production et de Création, on one side and A.B.C., acronym for art berlin contemporary, on the other.

The bags will be sold from A.P.C. stores in Mulackstrasse, Berlin, Rue Vieille du Temple, Paris, and Mercer Street, New York from the 20th of August and from the art berlin contemporary fair from the 13th to the 16th of September. Don’t miss your opportunity to get it!

Dear friends of abc – art berlin contemporary
Welcome to our Journal! Together with our contributors Freunde von Freunden, Sugerhigh, Available Works, Niche and Bpigs we look forward to keeping you updated on abc artists and program highlights, as well as offering you the latest art news and recommendations for interesting events in Berlin.
 
Updated regularly – so visit us for the latest!
 
Best,
abc

By Sunday night, some 15.000 guests have visited abc this year.
 
But we will be back:
Gallery Weekend Berlin / 27 – 29 April, 2012
abc / 13 – 16 September, 2012
 
In case you want to take another look at the exhibited artworks, our catalogue is still available from Mousse Publishing
 
…and needless to say that we went with a bang! As soon as the last visitor has left the exhibition grounds, thunderbolt and lightening took over.

On Saturday September 10th, our partner Y-3 hosted a small dinner on the occasion of art berlin contemporary.
 
Taking inspiration from Y-3′s A/W 2011-12 campaign by artists Collier Schorr and David Benjamin Sherry, the dinner was staged in the poetic setting of an abandoned space on the abc site, which has been embraced by nature in the course of time.

Don’t expect grandiose statements from Henning Bohl. His works convey a feeling, tell a story, yes, but leave out any specific commitment to meaning.
 
His sculptures, such as MTV cribs crib, 2011 are jovial one-liners of an almost ‘choose your own adventure’ variety. While there is an imminent art-referential element in the horizontally suspended canvas frame, the eye is more immediately drawn to it’s legs, Schultüten, given to German children on their first day of school filled to the brim with treats. Their emptiness as well as the void formed by a arched piece of fibreboard suggests either disappointing lack or heartfelt anticipation. Take your pick.

Michael E. Smith’s sculptures rot, at least in spirit. The Detroit-born and based artist’s work reflects on post-industrial, post-urban detritus.
 
Smith’s sculptures often employ clothing or other fabric-based used materials as readymades, which are subsequently altered to further emphasize the already overwhelming sense of decay. Untitled, 2011 an assemblage of pillowcase, recycling bag, debris, and seeds, sits conspicuously on the floor (as is typical for Smith’s work), communicating a precariousness in its state, constantly in flux between crippled beauty and disgust. (sugarhigh)

TODAY: THANK-YOU-ABC !!!
 
ON THE BAR: BJÖRN, ROMAN, KATHARINA, INEZ !!!
ON THE TÜR: TBC !!!
ON THE WHEELS OF STEEL: Dju Dju B Juliette Bonneviot & Aude Pariset !!!
PREISSCHILD: Alexej Meschtschanow !!!

One of China’s rising stars in a new breed of artists investigating the tensions between capitalism and socialism, poverty and rampant economic growth, Liu Wei is no friend to boundaries.
 
His work spans all disciplines and mediums, from rawhide models of cities and human sized feces to minimalist canvases. Meditation No. 7, 2011 is one such example. The painting’s horizontal stripes recall an abstract landscape, the orientation facing in direct opposition to Chinese urbanity’s rampant skyward growth. (sugarhigh)

When you speak, write, or type a sentence, what are you saying? Michael Müller would argue much more than the words’ manifest definitions.
 
Taking cues from post-strcuturalist literary and liguistic theories, Müller produces paintings and large scale wall installations that investigate the relationship between language and identity. Yes or No, No or Yes, or No and No, 2011, is a ten part work, four panels of which are exhibited at ABC, consisting of portrait-style canvases composed of tile with bold, black ‘X’s painted slightly off center. Müller will also open an exhibition at Galerie Thomas Schulte on September 9th. (sugarhigh)

Vibeke Tandberg likes to mess with the viewer. Her work focuses on the subtleties of psychological perception, especially with regard to social interaction and identity.
 
Often working with photography, her subjects become stereotyped versions of themselves through digital manipulation. Tandberg mimetically reproduces cultural effects on the individual. At ABC she presents a series of three paintings which, through nuanced punctuation and alternate spellings, disrupt the ability of instantaneous and complete language comprehension. (sugarhigh)