/// ARTIST-RUN
PROJECT SPACES IN BERLIN
Four Interviews with art spaces in the neighborhoods of Neukölln and Kreuzberg
By Miranda Holmes
Graffiti on nearly every building, thrift stores to satisfy sartorial lovers, an open market along the canal, and more DIY project spaces than one can keep track of – these are some of the defining characteristics of the south-east corner of Berlin spanning between the neighborhoods of Neukölln and Kreuzberg. Unlike the neighborhoods of Charlottenburg and Mitte, home to many of the city’s commercial galleries, this area, often called “Kreuzkölln”, has a more experimental reputation. One of those experiments is starting a place where people can experience art, exchange ideas, and over time, build a solid following; in other words, a project space. Continued below.
Click on each project space for the full interview!
I’ve experienced being on both sides of the operation, both as the artist and host. Before moving to Berlin on a 10-month grant, I co-organized the project space, Dream Clinic, in Columbus, Ohio alongside a small group of artists. A highlight of the work was doling out affirmations, telling artists “yes”, we want your work here. As an emerging artist, I know how rare those messages can be. So when the Berlin project space, Vorfluter, put out an open call and accepted my proposal to show my work while I was in the city, I felt like the stars aligned.
Knowing Vorfluter favors installation work, I had proposed to make a large-scale, 3-D version of my paintings. The work would feature multiple pieces of painted mesh fabric that would hang from the ceiling in a row, simulating the separation of a painting’s layers in space. Looking through the mesh, the viewer would see an image taken from my work: people sitting across a table from one another, grasping hands. I had never made something like this, and now I had the chance (obligation?) to fulfill my own promise. Vorfluter’s interest in site-specificity, paired with Berlin’s emphasis on experimental work, conspired to pull my practice off the stretcher bars and into the realm of space.
During the two weeks the team at Vorfluter gave me to install the show, I got to know them and the philosophy of their space. Jonas, one of the co-organizers, would work on his freelance architecture projects in the back room while he played techno, and I would occasionally pop in to ask about drilling into the basement’s brick ceiling or about the new lighting they were planning to install. Eventually, we would get on the topic of running a project space and trade stories of our experiences: evaluating open call submissions, helping artists with ambitious installs, balancing the love of the work with the unpaid labor of it all. Our conversations left me wanting to know more about what made Vorfluter singular while also wondering about the commonalities they shared with the other art spaces in the neighborhood.
The four project spaces featured in this series of interviews cover a wide range of the types of spaces spotted in Berlin; as such, they all tend to show vastly different work from one another. Talking to the people running each space, it became clear to me how much the itch to see a certain type of work drives one to create a space that can show it.
Though the diversity of shows gestures towards a thriving art scene, project spaces typically hold precarious positions. Lack of money, time, energy, or a combination of the three cause many to scrap the whole thing. But as one of the few places that provide emerging artists and curators with opportunities to build their communities and their CVs, these spaces remain crucial. Without them, how can a city stay friendly to creatives starting out in their careers?
Read my interviews with Vorfluter (architecture and in-situ work), alpha nova & futura galerie (focused on feminist and gender-related topics), SAP space (the garden and its various metaphors), and New Fears (performance and body-related work), and get to know the highs and lows of running a project space in Berlin.
NOTE: These interviews took place prior to recent budget cuts that Berlin’s Senate plans to carry out starting in 2025. Around 12 or 13% of the city’s current annual budget for the arts and culture will be cut, although the arts make up only 2.5% of the city’s overall budget. The decision will affect around 450 institutions and galleries as well as an untold number of individuals who rely on state funding. Art workers around the city have responded by hosting protests and a “funeral” march for Berlin culture.
Sources: The Guardian / Art News
Miranda Holmes is a U.S.-based artist whose work explores intimacy and identity. She received her M.F.A. from Ohio State in 2022. Holmes has had solo shows at Peeler Gallery at DePauw University, Greencastle, IN (2024), and in Berlin, Germany at Vorfluter Projektraum (2024) and Raum für Sichtbarkeit (2021). Her work has been published in Maake Magazine and New American Paintings. She has participated in multiple group shows, including at Olympia in New York, NY and Curiouser KC in Kansas City, KS. Holmes has received various awards, including the Ellen Stoeckel award to attend the Yale Norfolk School of Art, and a Fulbright Research Scholarship to pursue her practice at the University of the Arts in Berlin in 2017. Holmes has attended residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO and GlogauAIR in Berlin. This year she was supported by a 10-month DAAD Fellowship in the Arts in Berlin. She co-organizes Dream Clinic Project Space in Columbus, OH and is an adjunct lecturer at Ohio State.
Find out more about Miranda on her website and on Instagram @disco.salad