Studio Berlin CN/HK/DE

About

During Studio Berlin Import Projects eschews its white cube status, functioning instead as an open studio for a group of artists from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Germany. Throughout the project's duration the space at Keithstrasse will serve as a social hub, workshop, discussion and exhibition space. This international project was initiated by the artists' collective BAUREIHE # (Emi Bohacek, Jan Fiege, Sebastian Omatsch and Daniel Stammet), Marie Luise Birkholz, and Janin Walter — following a period of residency in Hong Kong and Guangzhou in 2013. Building upon collaborations with with local artists, Studio Berlin constitutes a reciprocal movement — with Chinese partners invited to Berlin to continue the creative dialogue. The exhibition component of Studio Berlin is conceived as an exchange, in which the participating artists will work together to negotiate similarities and differences, alien and familiar perspectives on the city of Berlin. Testing the productive potential of both abstract and experiential approaches to place, the project will compare and contrast some of the key conditions of artistic life in Europe and China — building upon the reciprocal residency experiences. The group exhibition will be manifest both within the walls of Import Projects and in public space. Throughout, special concern will be given to the characteristics of the city as a site artistic production context. All works will be new and realized within a short time, on-site as a reaction to temporal urban life. The essential element of the project will be the relation between the interior of the exhibition space to the context beyond. Art as a part of ‘real' life: confronting ideas and expectation with actuality. In addition, a series of public and closed workshops will further tease out the aforementioned themes. Each workshop will be artist led, and anchored in their unique practice. These events are conceived as participatory moments and vehicles where the interaction between art and everyday is addressed and taken further. THURSDAY, 03. JULY 19.00 - 22.00 Him Lo, Sebastian Siechhold, Daniel Stammet, Sampson Wong, Liu Yin THURSDAY, 10. JULY 19.00 - 22.00 Thomas Adebahr, Paul Darius, Jan Fiege, Xiaopeng Huang, Klaas Hübner, Zhu Jianlin, Liu Jiawen, Sebastian Omatsch, Janin Walter, Josh Zielinski