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Raw, intoxicating Berlin... now in Denmark

Berlin is a must for anyone involved in contemporary art. Artists from all over the world flock there, drawn by the city's diversity, pace, comparatively low rents and international scene. The « TREFFPUNKT : BERLIN » exhibition presents a selection of Danish and international contemporary art by artists who all have a strong attachment to Berlin.



ARKEN director Christian Gether says, « At ARKEN you can explore the city’s narratives. The exhibition embodies Berlin’s magnetic effect on artists, painting a fragmented picture of the raw, intoxicating city and its importance as a concrete and conceptual source of inspiration. »

The exhibition lets you experience world-class work, including the world premiere of works by such respected artists as Sophie Calle, Elmgreen & Dragset, Jesper Rasmussen and Jacob Kirkegaard.



Sketch for Lowered Goals, 2012 - Oil on aluminium and netting - 2 parts, each 90 x 120 cm © Elmgreen & Dragset Courtesy Galleri Nicolai Wallner

Mental Circuits

Contemporary art from Berlin speaks of unique and existential urban experiences. « Poor but sexy, » Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit once described his city, relating its powerful attraction to young, aspiring artists with little money in their pockets.



The urban attraction and stories of the Berlin experience are shared by the artists in the exhibition. Their stories are as much about playgrounds, freedom, presence and tolerance as about voids, filth, absence and phantom pains. What they all have in common is the experience of myriad mental circuits continuously giving life to artistic creativity.



The exhibition thematizes the experience of the city in photography, installation, sculpture, neon lights, collage, sound and video. It documents how artists continue to be inspired by the city’s historical and architectural reality, highlighting unique stories of the city’s structured chaos. At the same time, their work investigates the utopias linked to Berlin’s unique synthesis of past and present.



Pivot, 2012 - Sound and video installation - 140 x 250 cm © Jacob Kirkegaard Courtesy of the artist
 

Catalogue and guidebook in one


The richly illustrated catalogue to the exhibition features a foreword by ARKEN director Christian Gether, an introduction to the exhibition by curator Naja Rasmussen, essays by four of the participating artists and one artist duo, discussing a place in Berlin that is particularly inspiring to them, along with new poetry by the writers Ursula Andkjær Olsen, Palle Sigsgaard and René Jean Jensen. The exhibition also comes with a mobile phone app that provides additional information about the works, while locating them at their physical or mental place of origin in Berlin.



Thanks to their highly specific approach to Berlin, the catalogue and app can be used as an alternative guidebook you can bring along when you visit the German capital.



The participating artists are benandsebastian (UK/Denmark), Sophie Calle (France), Elmgreen & Dragset (Denmark/Norway), Thomas Florschuetz (Germany), Thilo Frank (Germany), Cyprien Gaillard (France), Helen Mirra (US), Jeppe Hein (Denmark), Jacob Kirkegaard (Denmark), Jakob Kolding (Denmark), Søren Lose (Denmark), Simon Dybbroe Møller (Denmark), Jesper Rasmussen (Denmark), Agathe Snow (France) and Wolfgang Tillmans (Germany).

Is it better, 2012 - Color photograph, picture, postcard, aluminium, text, frame - 70 x 100 cm, 75 x 120 cm, 75 x 100 cm © Sophie Calle Courtesy of the artist and ARNDT, Berlin - Photo: Bernd Borchardt