November 2001 - Nr. 11
In Brief
TWIG - Berlin opened its doors to the international art world Tuesday (October 2) as dealers from 172 galleries displayed their wares at Art Forum, the city’s fair for contemporary works from Germany and abroad. The six-day event has transformed the plaza at the foot of the Berliner Funkturm into an enormous exhibition space, where photographs, video art, paintings, sculpture and installations from more than two dozen countries are on display. Among the best-represented countries are Great Britain and the U.S., with 12 galleries each, and the Scandinavian states, with 19 dealers. Galleries from China, Cuba, Israel and Iceland are also taking part for the first time in the fair’s six-year history, along with 70 galleries from across Germany. The terror attacks on New York and Washington have led to very few cancellations, organizers say. Volker Diehl, managing director for European galleries, has suggested dealers respond to the crisis by promoting dialog with contemporary art in the Islamic world.
The renowned Marzona collection has been purchased by Berlin for its contemporary art museum, the Hamburger Bahnhof, State Minister for Cultural Affairs Julian Nida-Ruemelin announced Tuesday. Collector Egidio Marzona, a native of Bielefeld, generously sold the city his vast array of late-twentieth-century works for a third of their market value, estimated at DM 36 million (US $16 million). Close to a thousand pieces are included in the collection, which is especially rich in conceptual art and arte povera from the 1960s and ‘70s. Marzona’s extensive archive of exhibition posters and artist books came as part of the deal. The acquisition represents an "incomparable enrichment" of the city’s holdings, said Peter-Klaus Schuster, general director of Berlin state museums. An exhibition of 120 works from the collection will open at the Hamburger Bahnhof November 23.
Works from an even larger collection will be moving temporarily to Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie in a few short years. Starting in March 2004, 180 works from the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) will go on display at the Berlin gallery while MOMA undergoes six months of renovations. "In 2004 MOMA will take place at the Nationalgalerie," says Peter-Klaus Schuster. Berlin was chosen to represent MOMA from a large pool of international applicants. No restrictions have been placed on the selection of works, says Peter Raue, president of the Associations of Friends of the Nationalgalerie, a sponsor of the show. "We can have anything we want." The exhibition, which organizers say will be the most ambitious in the gallery’s 25-year history, will bring together works from "the whole spectrum" of the MOMA collection, including works by American artists, such as Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe, that have yet to be shown in Germany.
