By Michael Zöllner
The Neue Nationalgalerie became the center of Art Week. Hundreds of visitors came again on the weekend to see the performances and exhibitions. But it’s not just there that it’s worth stopping by.
A man lies on the ground in front of the Neue Nationalgalerie, another stands with his feet on his face. Finally he climbs down, picks up his partner and carries him in his arms over the museum plateau to the balustrade. They stop there, look at each other and hug.
Hundreds watched Constantin Hartenstein’s performance on Saturday evening. People came and went, but the men remained in their intimate embrace.
The Neue Nationalgalerie was the meeting point for Art Week, which has been running since Tuesday and ends on Sunday. The museum has managed to become the hotspot of Art Week. Rarely have you seen so many visitors there. The museum welcomed 30,000 guests during the festival. The house attracted crowds of visitors, especially on Saturday. When the weather is good, there are bars and food stalls, you get a cultural, folk festival feeling.
The Gallery Weekend Festival invites you to the former Hotel Mondial. The artist Nadira Husain will also show her work Photo: Michael Zöllner
Further cultural trails these days led to the Sprüth-Magers, Esther Schipper galleries and the Reinickendorfer Wilhelm-Hallen, where performances also took place and an exhibition could be seen.
For the first time, the Gallery Weekend festival took part in Art Week. At the Hotel Mondial on Kurfürstendamm, which will cease operations in 2021, there were film screenings, an exhibition and of course performances.
Unfortunately only the ground floor and the courtyard were used, one would have wished for more. But the beguiling sound performance “Being a Goddess” by Leyla Yenirce and Vienna Gist made up for it. Vienna Gist’s sonorous voice filled the room.
Even the fire alarm, which the smoke machine activated twice, couldn’t unsettle the singer.