The autumn was warm and golden: a long, sweet aftertaste of all those scorching summer days. And now, all of a sudden, it’s winter – leaving everything gray. If you’re still not ready to accept this, you should take a trip to Kurzurlaub (“Short break”) an exhibition by artist, art director and illustrator Monja Gentschow at HVW8 Berlin in Mitte (until 14.01.2023). The title is apt: entering the gallery space, you’re instantly transported to somewhere between Rimini and Los Angeles (where the gallery’s main branch is located). Solero ice cream-colored parasols, plastic pink chairs, rippling pool waves, curved cigarette butts, cocoon-like croissants and crossed sunglasses temples populate the still lifes of the Die Zeit columnist-turned-artist. Her inspiration comes from the package holidays and travel agency catalogs of her 1990s childhood, crawling out of the in-between: fictionalized autobiography and painted longing.

Outside it may be gray, but inside it’s blue. It’s this hue that dominates the mood of the exhibition and, despite all its coolness, manages to bring back memories of squishy peaches in your beach bag, sand in your jeans, sunscreen on your sticky forehead, and that warm, sweet boredom when the heat makes everything slow and the concrete swelters – just like on holiday.

Text: Hilka Dirks / Photos: Justyna Fedec

HVW8 Berlin, Linienstr.161, 10115 Berlin–Mitte; map

Monja Gentschow – Kurzurlaub (until 14.01.2023) Tue–Sat, 14–19h

@monifaktur
@hvw8gallery

Now that the big art events of the summer are over and the weather is making Brandenburg getaways less enticing, Kunstbrücke am Wildenbruch is giving us just what we need. The venue’s event on 26 & 27.11.2022 will be the most Berlin thing ever: a limited-audience performance at a queerfeminist location in a former toilet located by Neukölln’s Landwehrkanal. Artist Dafna Maimon has invited dance/artist colleagues Victoria Camblin, Jessica Gadani, Leah Katz and Rosalind Masson for the event, which is called “Damp Footnotes”. The title is literal: the performance is about the body, or more specifically, the toes. Yes: those funny little knobbles that connect us to the earth, get blisters and dirty nails, and which reflect our lives and our suffering. They are desirable, silly, intimate, natural and give us physical balance. Speaking of balance – or rather psychological balance – that’s where our girlfriends come in. It’s with these women that we like to gossip. According to the (Duden) dictionary, gossip is “chit-chat, a conversation about private topics [of lesser importance]”. It’s this negative connotation that concerns Gossip Gossip Gossip, the “platform” created by curators Anja Lückenkemper and Sandra Teitge which is hosting the event. Toes, girlfriends and talk – this art has it all.

Text: Hilka Dirks / Photos: Nihad Nino Pušija & Ethan Hayes-Chute

Kunstbrücke am Wildenbruch, Wildenbruchbrücke/Weigandufer, 12045 Berlin–Neukölln; map

Gossip Gossip Gossip: Damp Footnotes – 26 & 27.11.2022. You can book a free space by email. 

@kunstbruecke_am_wildenbruch
@_gossip_gossip_gossip