Fire for the city: A weekend full of talks, cacti and religious moments

Inside there are man-sized cacti made of stainless steel, shiny silvery agaves bloom one last time before they die in beauty. And the banana blossoms on the wall, which are also made of blackened steel, turn out to be completely unnecessary: ​​our bananas have long been a product of the test tube, the male pollen without a destination.

The Berlin artist Stefan Knauf reflects the current discourse about masculinity in his highly aesthetic objects. He does it subtly, but opens up a wide field for mind games. Gallery owner Robert Grunenberg managed to place one of the cacti in the middle of Kantstrasse. With official permission until the end of Gallery Weekend. And this is exactly what makes the event, which has now been running for over 20 years, so appealing: it mobilizes energies that no one knew even existed.

Madonna and Keith Richards

Gregor Hildebrandt, a busy artist and academy professor, has just reopened his legendary project space “Grzegorzki Shows” – this time in Reinickendorf, where the rents are apparently moderate enough to support young artists. At the same time, it expands the radius for exhibitions, the border of which was previously Wedding. At the other end of the city, in Schöneberg almost at the Volkspark, the Nadan gallery shows monumental, somewhat sacred, but above all meticulously painted pictures by the 23-year-old student Max Grothe.

Other places are temporarily enlivened. The St. Elisabeth Church on Invalidenstrasse has been completely cleared out. As a shell of monumental proportions, it makes Izzy Weissgerber’s large formats shine; if only because the painter equipped her alienated portraits of Madonna, couturier Valentino and Keith Richards with golden halos. The “lender” of the prominent faces is the photographer Lorenzo Agius, whose prints hang next to Weissgerber’s pictures. “ICONIC” is a monumental three-day project in every respect.

The entire city benefits from this momentum. A few days ago, Carsten Höller traveled from Italy specifically to take part in a talk with Jenny Schlenzka. Organized by Ephra, an organization for innovative cultural projects. The house in Kreuzberg was packed, everyone wanted to hear what the inventor of the artificial slide and the head of the Gropius Bau with his “Radical Playground” just for children had to say about playing.

Markus Lüpertz on the podium

And it continues. With free admission to the Neue Nationalgalerie, artists will talk about various topics as part of the “Gallery WeekendArt Talks” until Sunday. Guests include Anne Duk Hee Jordan, who has just opened her fantastic exhibition at the Alexander Levy Gallery, and Markus Lüpertz, who is exhibiting at the same time at the Werner Gallery.

The Gallery Weekend has managed to become a shining fixture. His energy extends to the monumental shop windows of the KaDeWe, which curator Sebastian Hoffmann is staging with contemporary art for the second time. There can hardly be more to life. A few corners away, a collector from Los Angeles is sitting at dinner and talking; that he loves the weekend and that’s why he comes to Berlin every spring. He has already bought – far more than fits in his hand luggage.