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Art fairs, I’ve seen a few of them. The Berliner Kunstsalon I have attended a number of times, it’s first two years and now this year. In the beginning there was much fresh and interesting work from many of the local artists who were marginalized in the Berlin art market. However since then it has transformed into the same banal copycat pap seen at all of the other art fairs.

It’s one saving grace this year was a generous soul who gave me his entrance card as he was leaving. He obviously took pity on anyone paying the eight euro entrance fee for an art fair that was totally underwhelming.

Soft gay porn seemed to make a popular showing along with the ubiquitous hastily assembled installations. While many of these mundane artworks show no hint of any thought, you of course would be derided by the art intelligentsia as ignorant and uneducated.

My friend Garth Gregory attended the opening and confirmed that the Berlin art circle spent their time discussing concepts. This is being apparent by the lack of time devoted artworks, hastily shot photos, out of focus and poorly photoshopped; offering the most inane of scene or topics, lacking any sense of composition. If you want a real challenge, try and look at the leatherman who has his todger out, and try to keep a straight face.

Technique is handwork, and therefore out, out of fashion, out of the circle of whit and intelligence of the postmodern contemporary art world. This is painfully evident in the paintings on show. No one dared raise their standards above anything mediocre lest they be labeled a craft worker. If you work with your hands too much you obviously don’t spend enough time thinking, and therefore too much time wanking.

Anja Brinkmann who attended the Berliner Salon with me made and astute observation, as we took a restive pause from trekking from floor to floor of the old power substation, warming our bones and hands on the few heating radiators to be found in that cold building. She reflected that if art reflects the zeitgeist, then what we had just viewed was indeed a mirror to our current world situation. Currently we face a crisis, (one of many) in an international finance system that is built on nothing tangible, only concepts and possibilities; the unmanifest, in short, nothing.

The populace is so anesthetised from the media assault we live in, where anything is viewable and entertainment now, shock and outrage garners little more than a whimper. Any fetish may be now labeled as art. Thus we are left with soulless banality as the pinicle of contemporary art that needs the constant assistance of concept, a blizzard of words, which like the natural phenomenon, obscures any sight and direction.

Should you be brash enough to state the obvious and name it as the emperor’s new clothes, then obviously your intellectual rigeur and wit is below par. There is a joke that is being had and snickered behind the hands of the arts intelligentsia. The joke is that clueless people looking to invest in the next big thing will buy anything, and the quest is who can exceed the others with the biggest price tag for the most pointless things sold. Banalities and whimsical curiosities are now equated with the Old Masters, because were they not also interested in profiting from their patrons who were also following fashion dictates?

All jokes repeated conceitedly, bore the audience. And this was evident as the Berliner Salon audience filed through each room barely pausing to view or engage any of the artworks. The party was over on the opening night as was evident from the dull looks in the eyes of gallerists and artists who stood listlessly by their artworks. We’d missed the party and missed the joke, by expecting so see “serious” artwork and anything of note.

Max Ernst (1891 – 1976), Le triomphe de l’amour / fausse allégorie (Der Triumph der Liebe / falsche Allegorie), 1937, Oil on canvas, 54.5 x 73.5 cm

Today Anja Brinkmann and I travelled to Charlottenburg in the west of Berlin to see the “Surreal Worlds”, Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection. The collection is a great surprise and contains many well known names in Surrealism.

Otto Gerstenberg, the founding president of the German Victoria insurance company, assembled a fabulous art collection in Berlin. During the second world war, the collection was stored in a bunker. Much of the collection was destroyed or seized by the Russian Army during the battle for Berlin in 1945.

What remained of the collection was passed to his daughter Margarethe Scharf and, after her death, to her two sons, Walther and Dieter, where it became a starting point for their own art collections. Dieter upgraded the inheirited collection with exquisite examples of surrealistic art by Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí and Rene Magritte, and with works by Odilon Redon, Paul Klee and Jean Dubuffet.

The Scharf-Gerstenberg show encompasses 300 works of “Surrealism and its predecessors,” and has created excitement with its spectacular examples of dark architectural prison scenes by Italian engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

There is also a selection of surrealist films on show, such classics of Surrealist cinema as ‘Un Chien Andalou’ by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí will be shown alongside selected films by contemporary artists.

The “Surreal Worlds” exhibition is not permanent, but is on a ten-year-loan, with conditions attached.  One such condition is that that the artwork does not disappear into depots but remains on display on a permanent basis to the public

The exhibition sports some fine examples of Max Ernst’s decalcomania technique and quite a few Dalí sketches. I found the works of Hans Bellmer exquisite.

The collection is well worth a visit and makes a great change from the dominance of modern contemporary artwork that prevails in Berlin.

Contact
Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Schloßstraße 70
14059 Berlin
Phone: +49(0)30 – 3435-7315
Fax: +49(0)30 – 3435-7312
www.smb.museum/ssg

Opening Hours
Tues – Sat 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Tickets
11 July 2008: free entrance
from 12 July 2008: 8 Euro, discounted admission 4 Euro

Madeline Von Foerster in her studio with her painting “Amazon Cabinet” in the background.

On one of my customary Sunday afternoon meanderings through Friedrichshain to the Boxhagner Markt, I dropped by Strychnin Gallery. I had missed Art Fair 21 and was interested to hear how Strychnin went. As a side note, Strycnin’s director, Yasha Young, is now on the selection commity for the Art Fair 21.

The most entertaining story was how one of Madeline Von Foerster‘s artworks, “Amazon Cabinet” was held by customs in Frankfurt Germany, because they thought that it was an Old Master’s artwork and not painted by a living 35 year old American artist. While in hindsight this is a great compliment to Madeline, the clock was ticking and the painting was due to hang at the art fair.

The situation proved farcical as they demanded a huge import duty to release the painting. Customs had unwrapped the top half of the artwork, but not the complete thing, which if they had done so, they would have perhaps noticed the chainsaw in the bottom right hand corner of the painting. After many phone calls it was finally proven that artwork was indeed a modern work by Madeline. Her painting finally made it to the art fair, hung on the opening night and duly sold.

Congratulations of Madeline on all counts.

Madeline has an up coming show at Strychnin’s Berlin Gallery on Friday 7th. More details can be found the the Strychnin Gallery website.

The Boom Festival had already been in progress for three days when I finally arrived. I had planned to arrive a day earlier, but I had not reckoned with the lack of syncronization of various modes of transport. On this particular Thursday evening I was due to participate in the Visionary Art Culture Creators Panel at the Liminal Village. It was not possible to communicate with Delvin who was presenting the panel while I was in transit. So I rightly guessed that he was beginning to wonder if I would make an appearance. Thankfully, I was not to disappoint him.

I found Delvin hard at work in the Liminal Village MCing various presentations. It was a rather welcome rest for me to put my bags down while he tended to his tasks. It was then that various other faces started to make an appearance. Faces I had until then only know on the internet. First was Laurence Caruana, just fresh from his painting course in Northern Italy, where my friend Micha Krebs (colory.de) attended as a student. Laurence then introduced me to Robert Venosa and Martina Hoffmann. The unmistakable Luke Brown then suantered in and joined the throng. I later came to meet the rest of the panel, Carey Thompson, Andrew Jones and Zariat.

Again Delvin took on the roll of MC for our discussion panel. He started off by introducing us all and noting our rolls in creating visionary culture in the community. He gave us the starting points or questions from which one of us would start and in turn inspiring another to expand on the topic further. It was very insightful to hear our ideas developed between each other. One of us would answer and then the others would follow expanding upon the last speaker or furthering the line of discussion in another direction.

Accompanying this post is the video from our discussion panel.

After us then came Erick Davis (techgnosis.com) who unfortunately I missed. I was not aquaited with his work until I came across is Boom Festival blog post. Through visiting his site, I came to order his book “Techgnosis” which is proving to be an interesting read. I’ve also since learned that he was involved in the book “True Visions“, which is next on my reading list.

Most galleries open late in the day and close early, but the Liminal Village Visions Gallery does things differently and was open the whole night. Now strange you might think seeing the gallery was situated in a large festival where people are usually doing their stomp through out the whole night until the break of dawn. When I was first told of the gallery hours I had my doubts and thought it was going to be a non event. How wrong could I have been?

It was a resounding success from opening until closing, with us usually having to herd people out before we could have our well earned slumber. The gallery was a psychedelic illumination in the night, attracting the psychenaught moths to it’s light.

While these nocturnal visitors were supping on our creative nectars, I had the opportunity to get know the other artists. There were also a number of other people who were working on site or friends of the artists that added to the congenial mix.

Being free from the gallery in the daytime I roamed over the huge site that was Boom. I have been wistful for a real Summer, by Australian standards, since my first in Europe in 2003 which had been an exception. I duely had my dose of Portugese sun which was merciless and sought the comfort of the lake on a number of occassions.

Little oasis of green permaculture were dotted over the site, and one of those was just on the doorstep of the Liminal Village and constructed by Delvin’s craft. Anja (anja-brinkmann.net) had assisted some weeks before with the German translations for the accompanying info booklet.

Robert and Martina gave their workshop, “Sketching the Fantastic“, and were rather surprised by the number of people that came to participate. Word had obviously spread. Undeterred, they proceeded as best they could with the limited materials and their limited persons, that being only two for an estimated 100+ people. As they commented they usually take a personal hands on approach to running their courses, and so with so many people this was rather hard to actualize. Even so they both managed to pull off a successful workshop.

Over the course of a week the Liminal Village conference and gallery was visited by many of the 25,000 festival goers from 80 countries. The Liminal Village was also diverse, presenting 30 speakers and artists from 23 countries. The intention of this gathering was to create a mosaic message which can open up dialogues on many levels to help give momentum and generate inspiration for visionary art and culture.

I was certainly inspired spending time with great artists. It was a wonderful meeting of minds and just simply a great social time.

Boom Festival 2008 is shaping up to be a very potent mix for Visionary arts. The epicentre for this can be found at the Liminal Village where a number of events and activities will take place. I’m looking forward to attending the festival for a number or reasons.

As I wrote in my previous post the Vision Gallery will exhibit Visionary artists from all over the world, and I have been fortunate enough to be included.

Two artists that I have long admired, Robert Venosa and Martina Hoffmann are giving a presentation entitled, “Some History, Thoughts and Images on Visionary Art“.

They will also be running a workshop, “Sketching the Fantastic” in which participants will be guided in exploring a simplified, exciting technique which provides a rapid entry into the magic of sketching, as well as allowing access to one’s innermost, intuitive visions.  Anybody can participate.

The Visionary Art Culture Creators Panel will explore the new world of visionary culture with a fascinating panel discussion about the place where art present meets art future. As a catalytic force in the co-creation of planetary culture, visionary art may be a key to unlocking the secrets of what is to come.

I have also been invited to participate as one of the panelists. The panel will be moderated by Delvin Solkinson and feature the other following speakers, Laurence Caruana, Carey Thompson, Luke Brown and Jen Zariat.

The Boom Festival runs from the 11th to the 18th of August, in Portugal.