Behind the scenes of Berlin Art Week: Prof. Dr. Dorothea von Hantelmann discusses contemporary art exhibition High Spirits

Last month, Bard College Berlin collaborated as an artistic partner of Berlin Art Week for the first time with the exhibition High Spirits, curated by Professor of Art and Society Dorothea von Hantelmann. The exhibition took place at Monopol, a former industrial site built in the 1880s that historically functioned as a distillery. Now serving as a collaborative art venue, Monopol has partnered with BCB to host a variety of practicing arts courses in its spaces.

Berlin Art Week is one of the foremost occasions in the city of Berlin to celebrate the arts. “Berlin is known as a ‘creative’ city and a vibrant center for the arts,” says von Hantelmann, “During this one week thousands of visitors stroll through the city to see exhibitions... That creates a wonderful and exciting context and it was great for BCB to be part of this.”

With an aptly named title referencing both the alcoholic spirits distilled in the former factory as well as the 'higher' metaphysical aspirations of art in modern societies, High Spirits was “a contemporary art exhibition that shed light on the tension between art and the industrial, the two spirits of Monopol.”

“The challenge in curating this exhibition was to find artworks that work well in these very unique, industrial spaces. The spaces of the former distillery – rooms in which giant tanks of alcohol used to be heated, cooled, and stored – are themselves quite spectacular,” von Hantelmann continues, “We wanted to present works that create a dialogue with the industrial, yet also somewhat ’sacred’ atmosphere of these rooms.” 

The installation of the exhibition also proved to be quite challenging. For example, the sculptural installation by artist Franka Hörnschemeyer required large, heavy crates and steel ropes extending throughout a massive room with high ceilings. Each crate needed to be manually lifted and positioned to give the appearance of hanging in space, with one particular crate taking 12 hours to install.

Installing another work required the help of Monopol’s community of artists. In order to hang a mobile by artist Martin Boyce that descended from a ceiling of 17 meters, von Hantelmann enlisted the climbing skills of an artist at Monopol, Paula Riquelme, who previously performed in the circus as a climber. “It was quite an adventure,” von Hantelmann notes.

In addition, painter Alain Urrutia created a series of large-scale paintings as part of the exhibition. The paintings, which featured subjects that seemed to return the viewer’s gaze, worked beautifully in the large space of Monopol—however, the installation process was not easy. Von Hantelmann explains, “While the spaces are huge, the doors are very small, so we had to saw off some parts of the stair railing to get the pictures into the exhibition room.”

During the exhibition, students in von Hantelmann and John Kleckner’s art courses had the opportunity to meet some of the artists behind High Spirits—Urrutia and multimedia artist Julian Irlinger. “It was a great opportunity for our students to engage in a conversation with professional artists,” von Hantelmann says, “and also to get the chance to learn more about the curation and production of a contemporary art exhibition in such a unique and special place like this former factory.”

Photos from the exhibition can be viewed on Bard College Berlin’s Instagram account.

By: Sophia Paudel, Bard College Berlin Communications

Post Date: 10-13-2023