Introduction

On Saturday, May 31. 1997, we will open our new, freshly renovated space, in the former liqueur factory on Auguststraße 91 in Berlin-Mitte.

 

After a lengthy renovation of the building we will now take up our activities in Berlin. WAS NUN? sets a mark to visualize our present situation characterized by continuity on one hand and a new start on the other hand. It defines as much a moment in time as it reflects upon a transition on a level regarding the content of our work and where we are going.

 

WAS NUN? displaying works by Angela Bulloch, Matti Braun, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Carsten Höller, Christoph Keller, Rupprecht Matthies, Philippe Parreno, Julia Scher and Les Schliesser marks our final taking over of the new gallery space. 

 

After having shown three exhibitions in the same space last year the take-over of the the freshly renovated space is now carried out in close cooperation with the artists that have had a strong impact on the identity of the gallery as well as its inner structuring.  Artists who share a long and intense time of working together with us will be joined by artists whose work is a welcome and desired complement to our program.

 

WAS NUN? brings together contributions that will shape the functional and formal furnishing of the gallery alongside works that provide a visualisation that is rather moment oriented or else has an affinity to our situation. Rather than a regular group show or a forcefully site-specific project, we expect WAS NUN? to take up on a situation and a moment in time, to allow a glance at the future and visualize our working methods.

 

The developement of permanent contributions to the gallery space will be an ongoing process over the next weeks. Their existence should contribute to modify an understanding of the function of the gallery and consequently supplement the regular turnover of exhibitions at the gallery. The reinforcement and further developement of the gallery towards a place for production and discourse will also be one of our main self-imposed tasks in Berlin.