Image: Courtesy Michael Reid Berlin
For decades now artists have been flocking to Berlin with the promise of cheap studio rent and to be part of one of the hippest art hubs in the world.
Thousands are making the move there each year so that the European base, whether permanent, part time or through a residency, has become a rite of passage for many artists.
But just how long can a city sustain that reputation – and volume of artists – when it doesn’t have a strong collecting foundation and rents keep ratcheting skywards?
Among the international influx has been a number of Australian artists and art dealers, who have capitalised on the experimental energy core to the Berlin scene. We speak with them about the wins and the pitfalls of that committed engagement.
A gateway to Europe
After a year of activities that flirted with Berlin, in 2013 Micheal Reid opened a satellite gallery in Ackerstraße, which lies in the central district of Mitte and was formerly divided by the Wall.
He is passionate about showing Australian artists in this scene, and says he has done well through the exercise. Reid is adamant that the Berlin scene is here to stay.
‘There are 740 plus million people in Europe. Really…too many galleries in Berlin? I don’t think that the Berlin art scene of somewhere between 600 and 800 galleries is overcrowded when you realise that these galleries reach out from Berlin to Europe and the world.’
This local footprint to a global market was a point also made by Paul Greenaway of Adelaide’s GAGPROJECTS, who tried the gallery model and has recently opened a residency program in Berlin, PHASMID Studios.
Greenaway said: ‘The market as such is only partly in Berlin, so while the artists and galleries are based there, the market for the art is global.’
Partnering on the project with Argentinian artists Felix Laretta, PHASMID Studios is located in a quiet semi-industrial area at the border of Lichtenberg-Marzahn 20 minutes from the centre of Berlin, and offers six rentable studios.
‘I opened GAGPROJECTS in Berlin in 2009, and realised very quickly that while I could do small projects there, it would be hard to cultivate a good collector base,’ Greenaway continued.
He made the point that while hundreds of galleries in Berlin make for a great place for gallery goers, it is tough for galleries to survive, unless well funded.
‘Gitta Weise (another Australian gallery) had tried very hard to run her gallery from Berlin and put on some good shows, but struggled in Berlin in-spite of the fact she was originally from Germany,’ Greenaway said.
The upside is that all these galleries and museums create a vibrancy that is attractive to artists.
German-born Sydney dealer, Domnik Mersch agreed. While Mersch doesn’t have a gallery in Berlin, many of his artists live in the city and he does a regular “swap of galleries” with a fellow dealer in the city most years for a month.
Mersch in contrast, however, believes that the Berlin hype will peter out. ‘Like all creative hubs – Paris in 1920s, New York and London – it is rising and falling. I think it really depends on housing and studio prices.
‘Right now, there it is leveling out. A lot of my artists are sick and tired of the Berlin hype, for example Clemens Krauss has just moved 60 km out of Berlin to get away from it. Sooner or later it (the hype) will burst, but not in the next 5 years or so.’
Creative pull versus market drain
Everyone ArtsHub spoke to agreed Berlin is a fantastic place that welcomes experimentation and has a rawness and irreverence that is like a magnet for artists.
‘Paris is fashion; Milan is design, Berlin is the showcase for contemporary art in Europe,’ said Reid.
He contrasted the German capital with the UK. ‘London is very much at the centre for the art market in Europe – but not as (much) the showcase. For many artists, London is far too expensive a place to live and work. London cannot support an experimental arts scene to anywhere near the degree that Berlin does. Berlin attracts the poor, the talented & the brave.’
There seems to two things going on in the Berlin conversation: its creative pull and its market drain.
Artist Maria Cruz has been living and working intermittently between Sydney, the Philippines and Berlin since the 1990s. She explained: ‘Berlin always hosted many artists historically and so it seems to me that it will never be overwhelmed. They (the artists), probably overwhelm each other, seeing that it has become a rite of passage for many young artists to come and ‘work’ in Berlin. There really is no art market in Berlin.’
Cruz explained that Berlin sustains the volume not because of the financial benefits for an artist living there, but for other reasons. ‘It is a city full of impermanent inhabitants looking for something else, a new way to live perhaps,’ she said.
The dealer’s perspective
While a gallerist’s job is about building the profile and careers of their artists, they also have to be commercially successful.International engagement has become easier in our age of the art fair, so opening a gallery in another city might be viewed as more risky for the end game.
Reid pointed out one very practical point: ‘Germans in particular think through their mouth. They ask questions. The what, where, why, when, how & who of art – Germans are not a passive viewing public. The trick is that as a gallery you must be there to answer these questions.
‘You cannot represent Australian artists overseas if the overseas collector needs to be up at 11pm at night to call an Australian gallery. You must be in the Euro-time-zone to answer the questions that Europeans ask. This is the very basic start.’
‘You are where your clients live and go. My clientele is global and forever on the move with business, and so am I,’ he concluded definitively.
Reid said that real estate and artists are not exclusive to the success of a gallery abroad. The professionalism of his colleague Toby Meagher who runs the Berlin space has been vital.
Mersch echoed the point that staffing can make or break an off-shore gallery. ‘I do not believe in this (multi-city) model where the gallery has to subsidies the dealer with a manager – it’s not your gallery anymore – and from 16,000 km away it doesn’t work.’
While Reid reports he is ‘selling up a storm’, Mersch told ArtsHub: ‘To be perfectly honest, there was never a commercial market in Berlin. After the Second World War it was this island in middle of East Germany that was subsidised by the government. There is not a big collector base in Berlin, and there still isn’t. With that regard, that is why I have never had a gallery in Berlin – commercially it is totally unsustainable.’
He believes that the big brand galleries are there only to protect their artists so they don’t go to other galleries.
He made that point, however, that once or twice a year collectors and curators flock there for the Berlin Biennale and Berlin Art Weekend.
Courtesy 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art.
The 9th Berlin Biennale opens next week (4 June – 18 September 2016). In some ways it is a metaphor for this conversation, couched in experimentation – this year it is curated by post-Internet rooted curatorial team DIS and uses the city as the site for contemporary dialogue.
This sits well with the history of the Berlin Biennale, which was started by “super-curator” Klaus Biesenbach in 1998, and has been consistently aimed at an international audience, yet rooted in Berlin’s physical and cultural landscapes.
The artist’s perspective
That axis of gentrification, history, politics and fashion makes for good art making.
Cruz says that Australian artists are received well in Berlin, adding: ‘That recognition is very important. It is important to keep a dialogue with other artists, and exhibitions.’
Melbourne-based painter Emma Coulter told Indesignlive blog: ‘Artists also find that they receive more visibility in Berlin. There are so many galleries and vacant spaces that it is very easy to exhibit your work often.’ Coulter’s experience of Berlin was through a residency.
She added: ‘People go to galleries here as often as they do the beach in Australia, so it’s a great city to get your work seen by a wide and diverse audience.’
Cruz who has been practicing for over twenty years offered a reality check: ‘As far as I see, Australian artists show works here in Germany, not necessarily in Berlin. But many artists produce their work here because they live here,’ rephrasing the point that Berlin is a site for making, not selling.
Greenaway put it more blankly: ‘Unless you already have a profile and are taken on by one of the top 15 galleries, it will be difficult. Enrolling in a MA or even undergrad at one of the main Art School in Germany, and working your way in along with other German artists may be a better strategy. In any event it will take several years before you will be recognised as living in Germany rather than just staying for a short time.’
Reid’s advice is to be original.
‘Australian artists with an original visual language are well received in Europe. However, beware the trick that many well-known Australian artists who are big in Australia are a yawn overseas- because their visual language is not original,’ he warned.
Mersch added: ‘The more conservative ones have to fight their ground a little harder. Berlin is very much a cross media city, and if you are a painter or doing conservative work it is hard. The good thing about Berliners is that they are curious, open-minded.’
Australia is expensive and the old tyranny of distance still exists.
Sculptural installation artist Carly Fischer divides her time between Melbourne and Berlin. She told Indesignlive: ‘I wouldn’t say that there is better art, a better art scene or better opportunities outside Australia, but the art scene is international and if it’s hard to work internationally that definitely hinders creative practice.’
‘While the Internet affords a lot of opportunities, there is nothing like being physically grounded in a place and making ’real’ connections,’ added Coulter.
Clearly there is no right formula. Mersch’s drop-in swap, Reid’s total embeddedness and Greenaway’s studio option all work to explore new ways of taking Australian artists abroad.
What protects Berlin is that its appeal is not based soley – or even primarily – on its own marketplace and without a market there is no bubble to burst. The consensus is that Berlin’s role has long been – and will continue to be – a hot spot for artists offering a steroid sized injection of creative inspiration – and that is the only expectation.
