PS81E

Stefan Bertalan, Martin Boyce, Matti Braun, AA Bronson and Reima Hirvonen, Angela Bulloch, Nathan Carter, Etienne Chambaud, Jean-Pascal Flavien, Ceal Floyer, Simon Fujiwara, Ryan Gander, General Idea, Francesco Gennari, Liam Gillick, Andrew Grassie, Ann Veronica Janssens, Gabriel Kuri, Jac Leirner, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Roman Ondak, Philippe Parreno, Ugo Rondinone, Christopher Roth, Anri Sala, Karin Sander, Julia Scher, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Tao Hui.

In a normal year we would be at Art Basel right now. We curated an extraordinary booth for this year’s fair, selecting major works and producing many new ones. Crated and shipped from around the world, the booth installed in three full days, our team would be ready to greet you. As doors would open and visitors rush in, time would become elastic: a million short encounters compressed into these hours.

Instead we have installed these works in our Berlin gallery. To some extent, this is an anti-fair: with certain social distancing requirements in place, there will be ample space and plenty of time to engage with each visitor. While access may be limited at times, time is not. With our exhibition PS81E we acknowledge the irreplaceable experience of encountering an artwork in person. We take this as an opportunity.

Yet, we also realize that our artists, friends and colleagues trust us to continue to be present around the world. Information, documentation, mediation: the gallery’s in-house research department has always produced comprehensive viewing and reading materials focused on our artists, their works, and exhibitions.

When we launched our first Online Viewing Room back in October 2019, we wanted to bring our artists’ program to a wider audience – this project has now found a new function: continuing to connect you with the ideas and works of our artists, bringing exhibitions, fairs, and works to an audience that cannot travel, near or far, In a similar spirit of connection, we have begun a new weekly newsletter, titled Letter from Berlin, with an editorial, narrative format that features texts by our team, artists and guest writers. All our digital content can now be found on our website at Continuity.

As the gallery has enhanced its digital accessibility, the last months have also led to an expanded dialogue with our artists that has informed this exhibition. What might have been Art Basel 2020—our fair booth—has grown in long conversation to become part of a new beginning, a new way to tell the story of our exhibitions—live and online.