BERLIN—ArtInfo’s correspondent in Berlin takes us on a tour of exhibitions in that city, which currently boasts one of the most exciting art scenes in the world. Included are the inaugural exhibition at Yasmine Gauster and Alexander Schroder’s new non-profit space, Polish sculptor Pawel Althamer’s provocative follow-up to his celebrated 2003 show at Neugerriemschneider and New York artist Amy Sillman’s Berlin debut.

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NON-PROFIT SPACES

Projektraum von Yasmine Gauster und Alexander Schroder
“Henrik Olesen”
Through March 25

Danish conceptual artist Henrik Olesen inaugurates this new not-for-profit space with a dazzling show. For years, Olesen has been engaged in an ongoing project to reclaim gay and lesbian histories from either general neglect or from absorption by the mainstream. For this installation, the Dane has covered every wall of the gallery—and one specially constructed for the show—with an archive of documents Xeroxed from history books and printed from the Internet.

Dividing the information into sections, Olesen takes the viewer on an engrossing tour of homosexual history and its representation in visual culture throughout the ages. In the grouping Some Faggy Gestures, the artist makes abundant use of the treasures of the Louvre, gathering flamboyant gestures that figure prominently in the iconography of artists such as Bronzino, Van Dyke or Thomas Eakins (whose scenes and studies of bathers make multiple appearances in the show).

Another section of the show charts the development of sodomy laws in medieval Europe. In great detail, Olesen charts the increasingly harsh edicts, as well as how they were carried out (raids, betrayal, burning at the stake).

But he also catalogs sites of resistance. Olesen himself raids the history of the public pissoir to document how restrooms have served a long-standing function as a meeting place for gay men.

What emerges in his work is not only a moving history of repression, but also the fact that gay life has been present and—most importantly—part of public discourse since long before the Stonewall riots brought it to contemporary attention.

[This exhibition will become part of a larger installation opening at the Migros Museum in Zurich on June 2.]

COMMERCIAL GALLERIES

Neugerriemschneider
“Pawel Althamer: Black Market”
Through March 27

Pawel Althamer’s second solo show in Berlin presents a striking ensemble of works made from ebony. Figurines and detailed depictions of objects, such as cell phones, all carved from the dark wood, surround a supine, life-size self-portrait of the artist.

The portrait is deliberately rough. The feet are unfinished and the eyes are indicated by inlaid cowry shells. The figurines and trinkets are similarly depicted; coarsely hewn out of wood, they appear primitive and seem to reference African sculpture while simultaneously presenting an image of the sort of smattering of objects (cheap electronics, trinkets) that might be found at an artisan’s booth in a third world bazaar.

During the show’s first two weeks, Althamer hired Poland actors of African descent to play the part of the artist. The three men set up shop in the gallery, fashioning objects out of wood at a workbench under the artist’s guidance.

The works they produced then found their way into the pile around Althamer’s self-portrait, where they were joined by objects made by the artist. For the remainder of the exhibition, a small photograph of the men at their worktable serves as a stand-in for and documentation of the show’s making.

“Black Market” revisits themes that have featured in Althamer’s installations and performances for the past decade: self-portraiture, slight of hand and the involvement of others (particularly marginal groups such as the homeless or immigrants) in the process of artistic production.

Whether “Black Market” successfully analyzes these themes, or simply reiterates the racial dynamic it purports to tackle, is up for debate. In the end, the exhibition’s greatest strength lies in its undeniable aesthetic appeal.