Berlin, from neo pop to crossculture


Since the reunification of Germany, Berlin has become a hive of international innovation and creativity—a city headed towards the future. Extensive renovations and high expectations have transformed the city into one of the world’s most treasured cultural centers, on a par with New York and London. Berlin, however, still has to fulfill all its promises. Since the mid-’90s, the number of new galleries in the city has been constantly on the rise: several galleries have moved to Berlin from other German cities; and a number of foreign galleries have opened secondary project spaces in Berlin. Among the attractions the city offers artists under age forty is the 100,000 marks prize recently established by the Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst. Rightly considered the equivalent of the Turner Prize, the award was established with an eye to promoting Berlin’s image worldwide. Two of the four artists nominated for this year’s event, Icelander Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967) and German Christian Jankowski (b. 1968), live in Berlin. Since 1994, the internationally recognized Eliasson has been exploring the kind of social themes that also figure in the work of Rirkrit Tiravanija, Tobias Rehberger, and Elisabeth Peyton. Jankowski, on the other hand, takes a critical look at institutions, addressing various aspects of the visual arts. He uses video in a “documentary” style...


The full text is published in "tema celeste" No. 83, January-February 2001.




Miriam Bers