Maake Magazine

ARTIST-RUN

VORFLUTER Project Space 

Donaustr. 112,
12043, Berlin

Kay Fischer
Jonas Käckenmester
Wiebke Käckenmester

www.vorfluter.com
Instagram @vorfluter

With three architects at the helm, it’s no wonder why Vorfluter tends to feature art that maps, collaborates with, and responds to space. Their interest in structures has recently brought them to expand outside the city and purchase a heritage-protected farm house. The renovation has just begun, but followers of Vorfluter (myself included) eagerly await the residency and exhibition space hatching in the rural village of Prezier. Until then, get to know the origin story of Vorfluter, how they value approaching their space from outside an art context, and how they balance collaboration with one’s own vision. 

Interview with Kay Fischer and Jonas Käckenmester of VORFLUTER
By Miranda Holmes

MH: How did you begin your project space, Vorfluter? 

KF: During the Coronavirus lockdown, we were all at home, and we thought it would be nice to have a space to work, but also to hang out in. We found that so many shops were closed all the time. Either they're not being used or maybe they even have to shut down because they cannot afford the rent. We saw other people already doing this, transforming these empty spaces in whatever way.

KF: Then while we were renovating the space, we realized it would be nice to exhibit artists. We didn’t have that idea before. We just said, let's renovate, and then we’ll make a really nice exhibition. 

JK: This is kind of our way. It's not that we have a perfectly made up concept and then we find the right place for it. It's the other way around. We have this place and this space, and then we are working out the qualities, which is similar to how we approach our work in architecture. 

MH: Can you describe the rhythm of your shows? 

JK: The artist has a total of 5 weeks with two of those weeks for in-situ production and installation and then 3 weeks for the exhibition. We do about 8 to 9 shows per year with a summer break in between.

MH: How do you fund your space? 

KF: We see our space as a collaborative studio to rent over a period of 5 weeks. With the artist, we share the rent of the space. The artist has access to 50m2: the gallery space facing the street and the basement, accessible by a spiral staircase. The back room is 25m2 where there is a kitchen and a studio for us to work. The artist is also invited to share the studio space in the back during their time if they want to use it as an office or co-working space. We apply for funding for our space and also help artists apply for funding. 

MH: So you never considered becoming a commercial gallery space? You knew you wanted to stay a project space? 

JK: I don't want to be in the position of selling art, and we want to show art that is not easy to sell. Our space should be open for different media. We never planned to be a gallery taking a cut from each artwork.

MH: What is it about showing art that can't sell very well that interests you? 

JK: We both studied architecture and started collaborating with artists by the end of our studies. Then we started our professional life working in architectural offices, and we never worked in the art world. So we had contact with art at the university level but never with the business side of the art world. 

We’re coming from space and material. And this is also why our personal interests are more materialized, spatial, atmospheric and multimedia works. We also are interested in paintings and layering and everything. But it's not our main focus. Things that really captivate us are when, for example, artworks are not easy to move. I mean, it sounds stupid. 

KF: People that decide to make a project space are usually people from inside the art world. So they are in this bubble, and we are not. We don't have much contact with other project spaces, we mainly just work with the artist. 

When we talk to artists, they say, “We have to [network] because making a living depends on making connections. It's a part of our profession, we have to deal with it, and we have to play the game.” 

To us it's very simple. It was the same with starting our artist residency, Prezier 8. In the beginning, people would ask, what’s the concept around your space? And then we were like, oh no, now we have to come up with a concept. You’re expected to conceptualize everything. It's not like we had the concept of an artist residency, and then we looked for a space. Rather, we found a space and said, this would make a nice artist residency. 

This also plays a role when we talk with artists. We always talk about how to put your work in the space, how to frame it, how to present it, given the parameters of the space. 

JK: We’re able to think conceptually and talk about ideas with the artists, but we also bring a different ingredient to the discourse by talking more about space and material and proportion and atmosphere. These are what we bring from our professional work which make for a valuable collaboration.

MH: It brings out a different element in the artist.

JK: We are really interested in site specific works. In-situ production puts the artwork into a specific moment and takes it out of the generic. 

KF: It also removes this comparing, competitive mode between artworks. Since it’s more about finding the specific qualities of the different situations and moments in the space, you just work with what you have. You can’t compare one moment, because an artist has a completely different setup than the other. 

MH: I imagine you have to rely on each other a lot along with your other collaborator, Wiebke, to run Vorfluter? 

KF: Yeah. We’ve been working together since the first year of uni. [Jonas and I] are super idealistic and Wiebke has a pragmatic point of view, she keeps our feet rooted to the ground. 

I would have no interest in doing it alone. I wonder also in the art world, it's still very much about the artist’s name and the personality behind the art. I wonder when this will start to move more towards collaboration. It's like in bands, you’ll find an artist working in 5 different bands or having different projects. It’s like bringing your own ingredients and what you have.

JK: I think it's really beneficial to collaborate and to have a strong profile. Just the idea of collaborating is not enough. You have to have a strong position. If you have a strong position, and then you collaborate, and you're open enough to create something that is not like 100% matching your profile, but 50% and 50% of somebody else, this becomes quite interesting. And this is actually what we're interested in: making new discoveries that lead to specificity, if you're mixing them.

KF: I think architecture is a very good background for doing work like this because you learn to be like a kind of orchestra, to have set parameters while also trying to bring a lot of different parts together. 

MH: With every exhibition, you host some kind of programming or workshop, and it seems like  that also reflects your interest in bringing in a larger community to the show.

JK: Yeah, there’s a certain “heartbeat” of exhibitions that have a strong position and topic. And this creates a framework through which we can  mix in different things, like a talk or a performance. It adds a new ingredient. 

KF: It’s so nice to be part of the working process and understand how peoples’ minds work – it's a really nice thing to have in life, to collaborate with so many different minds and just watch them work, instead of just seeing the end product.

MH: How do you curate the artists in your shows?

KF: Usually people come to us. A network comes here now, and this is also something we never thought would happen. We also put out an open call every year.

Being part of the network of the project spaces in Berlin, and playing this role, being part of a project space community is not our main interest.

MH: I want to talk more about your residency, Prezier 8. You recently bought a building in this small town in Germany, Prezier. When you talk to people there, how do they feel about the project? 

JK: We discovered this really beautiful old building there. There is this kind of barn house that is really specific to the area. The people in the village are proud of this building heritage because each of these barn houses is so unique.

KF: We’re starting to realize the responsibility we have when we do a space like this. We want to give space for artists that have it hard. You start to understand more and more that artists usually produce and make these big works at residencies. So you start to think, how can we make this possible? This is more the driving power than, say, renting out a space in the countryside and making a profit.

It felt important for us to make an opening event at Prezier [to introduce our space to the people there]. The potential investors in the space and the politicians from the area were able to see that we’re not from the “dark side”. But you need to convince people, if they don't know you… they ask you, why is this a good idea? If you don't make any money from it… 

But at our event, at sunset, I had a really good feeling about it. It was a sunny late summer day, we installed a show with different super engaged artists, achieving something great together, and then we shared it with the local community… and I said, this makes total sense in life. What else should make sense? 

Find out more about VORFLUTER on their website and Instagram @vorfluter