23.4.08

Berlin: Art

Jeff Koon's Flower
It was overwhelmingly everywhere. There is a whole "island" of museums(5), two of which I experienced: The old museum and the Old Nation Museum. Guess I will just have to go back to see the rest.
Old Museum: The red neon reads"All Art Has Been Contemporary" I also went to the New National Museum: A lovely building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (65-68).
New National Museum: Flags are from the biennial Upstairs I found some Berlin Biennial sculpture and film pieces. I was fortunate enough to be with Jorge who worked with the biennial . Even though the pieces weren't especially thoughtful, save one or two, it was nice to hear about the artist thoughts in combination with the incidentals that affected the development of art work. Specifically the artist's work held in the New National Museum were asked to respond to the architecture. So the artist couldn't necessarily use old work.
That same day I walked down to the East Side Gallery which is a long section of the wall. Originally several artists covered sections of the east side of the wall with murals. Now there are a lot of "tags" and "Suzy wuz here" layering over the work. Even though there are signs discouraging this, I saw parents handing there children pens to leave their mark.
East Side GalleryI am not sure what I think of this or if Berlin has a collective opinion thought. I would assume not since the marking continues. Maybe by not policing the wall, it allows the freedom that the wall once suppressed.
More on Berlin biennial / art to come..

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