Save the Date: Berlin Art Week

Two exhibitions, 15 museums and theatres as well as 200 galleries, Berlin private collectors and project spaces will be hosting exhibition openings, artist films, performances and numerous special events during the week. Berlin Art Week is organized with the financial support of the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises.  

The Berlin art scene is a significant economic and locational factor for the city. Art provides strong impetus for Berlin and contributes to the atmosphere that makes Berlin so attractive as a location for enterprises, creative and talented minds.

The Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises is funding the umbrella campaign for the Berlin Art Week already for the sixth time as well as the prize awarded for Berlin’s most innovative gallery. Tanja Mühlhaus, responsible for creative and media industries/Project Future at the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, explains the underlying motivation, “Our aim is to strengthen the Berlin landscape of galleries, to position Berlin as a location for the production and sales of art and to attract more local and international visitors to the variety of contemporary art Berlin has to offer.”

The success speaks for itself: By offering a wider range of events such as art festivals (Festival of Future Nows 2017), awards (Project Space Award and for the first time VBKI Award Berlin Galleries) and conferences (Art Talking Business), Berlin Art Week now exerts a much stronger attraction for tourists to the capital than it did in its early years in 2011. For Art Week 2016 alone, the organizers counted more than 100,000 visitors – trade visitors, art lovers, Berliners, guests from Germany and abroad. Whereas in 2015 they counted just 80,000 visitors.

As every year, the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises not only funds the umbrella campaign Berlin Art Week with 280,000 Euros, but also for the first time this year the prize awarded to the most innovative galleries in Berlin.

The VBKI award BERLIN GALLERIES is particularly focused on promoting small and medium-sized newcomer galleries, which – with their entrepreneurial commitment – inspire the variety of artistic production in Berlin. For the first time, the Association of Berlin Merchants and Industrialists (VBKI) and Galleries Association of Berlin (lvbg) cooperate with the Senate Department for Economics/Project Future to offer this award for an outstanding gallery exhibition project on Berlin Art Week 2017.

The tender involves  a prize-money of 10,000 Euros for the award-winning gallery and a guided shuttle tour for all selected galleries on the shortlist during the Berlin Art Week 2017.

The visitors of this year’s Berlin Art Week can expect not only new partners and venues, but also an artistically comprehensive and unique programme with openings of solo shows by Monica Bonvicini, Danny Lyon, Willem de Rooij, Daria Martin, Thomas Feuerstein, Geoffrey Farmer, and Wilson Díaz. In addition, the group show Portrait of a Nation at me Collectors Room will present the work of 50 contemporary artists from the United Arab Emirates. The Festival of Future Nows at Hamburger Bahnhof will be gathering formats by over 100 artists working across the disciplines for four days according to the motto “The challenge lies in the moment. The time is now.”

At the sixth Berlin Art Week, artist films will play a central role. The haubrok foundation in collaboration with Kino Arsenal Berlin and Villa Aurora in Los Angeles will present the art film festival la > x. The focus will be placed on films from and about L.A.

From September 14–17, the two art fairs art berlin and POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair open their doors for art lovers: The new art berlin is a collaboration between abc art berlin contemporary and Art Cologne, and will take place for the first time in 2017. It will present around 110 international and national galleries from 16 countries at Station at Gleisdreieck.

The fourth edition of POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair will return once again to Arena Berlin together with around 70 exhibitors, showing what is important in the art world around the world: discoveries and rediscoveries, quality and a discourse that reaches both established collectors and a young audience interested in art.

At the same time, the BERLNER LISTE is held at the former train station Postbahnhof from 15^th to 17^th September 2017. For the 14^th time, the capital’s oldest and most modern art exhibition will be presenting a wide range of emerging contemporary art.

About Berlin Art Week

Berlin Art Week is a highlight on the contemporary art calendar in the German capital. For the sixth time, the Berlin art world will be hosting commercial and institutional exhibition openings, fairs, prize award ceremonies, artist films during the week and offering a glimpse of private collections and project spaces, thus strengthening the economic development of the Berlin art scene. Ramona Pop, Senator for Economics explains, “The art scene is a significant economic and locational factor for the German capital. Freelance artists, galleries, art trade and auction houses – almost 2,900 companies in the art field create more than 6,800 jobs and generate sales of more than 610 million Euros per year. The companies range from online portals to small galleries and even world-renowned names. Berlin is one of the major places where art is actually ‘made’”.