REVIEW: The Berlin Art Prize

The Berlin Art Prize announcement and exhibition opening happened on the evening of Saturday 14th 2014. The exhibition took place mainly on the fourth floor of the industrial warehouse space at Kühlhaus Berlin. The works on show are varied, intriguing and light and there is a good balance across mediums of contemporary art.

The winner of the prize for Best Composition was Ulu Braun, with his work FORST (2013), a 10 minute single channel video. A crowd was gathered around the video for most of the evening watching the intriguing mix of layered video collage of a surreal narrative unfolding within a forest. A running race of stolen elements which transcend time and place, transposed by saturated colour and children who run wild in their fantasy land. The paintings in the exhibition are strong; in particular, Fehler (2012/13) by Jenny Brosinski an oil on canvas work on bright abstract block colour and text. Works with coloured varnish on wood, untitled (door_01) (2014) and untitled (door_02) by Jean-Baptiste Bouvet are humourous, refined and punctuate the exhibition space well. The winner of the prize for Best Concept was Des Ptohograhpies with Roche 1-V (2012), a series of photographs of mouldy blocks of cheese with a stone marble effect background. Colours clash aggressively and the juxtaposition of the two opposite materials (chalk and cheese) with the same veiny effect is witty.

Highlights of the exhibition included Hoji Tsuchiya’s two animation films, The Singing Line (2013) and Black long-skirt, (2010). The artist’s techniques using paper, ink, water, cut-outs and photocopying seem simple, but are highly skilled and Tsuchiya creates a magical and intricate world. Both films are brilliant constructions of people moving through their worlds, playing out short narratives with a careful classical soundtrack. The artist captures “a gentle lonliness where your daydreams and reality merge” (http://www.hojitsuchiya.com). Nico Ihlein’s glazed ceramics Untitled (vase 1-5) (2011-2013), winning an Honourable Mention, are abstract mounds of ceramic, which are like headless mounds of human body, dressed up in 17th century abstract Rococco dresses of lime green and pale pink. Winner of Jury’s choice was Okka-Ester Hungerbuhler, with her sculpture, Blume (2014). It’s a clumsy object created from adhesive foil, newspaper, wood and acrylic, and the battery operated flower opens up to a viewer who walks by.

Receiving an honourable mention, photographs by Daniel Hoflund, particularly the mirror mounted found object, a stamped library book page, titled Inside the Bell Jar (The Bell Jar) (2012) and a photograph of a library titled Inside the Bell Jar (Färjestadens Bibliotek) (2012) are both well composed and presented. His other work in the exhibition, St. Sebastian (2012) is a montage of Tupac photographs on the theme of blue smoothly presented directly on the wall. Another photographic work of interest, images of sculpture by Benjamin de Burca and Barbara Wagner, Edifice Recife, 2013 (inkjet print on cotton paper) which documents and explores the artistic effects of a municipal law introduced in the 60’s in Northeast Brazil, which made mandatory the placement of three dimensional sculpture outside the entrance of residential buildings. Comments by the porters and security guards of the buildings are placed beneath each photograph. They are always stationed nearby and are continuous observers of the artworks.

Berlin Art Prize announcement