We had a bit of news for the Berlin art world this last week:
First, the Flick collection is leaving Hamburger Bahnhof. The museum is also losing its huge exhibition hall because the contract with a private real estate is finishing in 2021. Luckily, a few years ago, in 2015, Friedrich Christian Flick gave 104 works of 44 artists to Hamburger Bahnhof. This was at the same time also kind of unlucky, because it made the Hamburger Bahnhof collection even more white and male (there were only, if I remember well, three women artists involved).
Talking gender, I found it very interesting that in the reporting about this loss of the Flick collection and the exhibition hall, no journalist seemed to bother to ask or even mention Gabriele Knapstein, who is the director of Hamburger Bahnhof since Eugen Blume left a few years ago. She is not only the director, but she is also the curator who has been in charge of the Flick Collection since the beginning. Instead, as always, it was Udo Kittelmann all over the place. Udo Kittelmann is leaving the SMB in October, so with that this kind of Mister-Big-reporting might be ending too.
Me Collectors Room is also going away, to Essen. I read it this morning and while people were leaving tearful emoticons on Facebook, I smiled. I haven't known a more boring art collection. I admit my perception might be biased since that Queensize exhibition in 2014 - a female art exhibition named after the size of a bed (king size bed is bigger, by the way).
Also Julia Stoschek is leaving Berlin, as reported by Die Welt. The space in Leipziger Strasse was amazing and it was nice to have a collection focused on video art. But you can't call Julia Stoschek an innovative person. She does everything what everyone else (the biggies like Hans Ulrich Obrist) is doing. She has never discovered anyone, nor has she supported with all her money the local artists from the Berlin art community. Is Julia Stoschek going back to Düsseldorf? I can't tell, I didn't read the whole article.
Anyways, the good news is that space is opening up. Maybe this time around, new players can come in, innovative ones who don't only want to play it safe but want to try out new things and support the glocal (sic) art scene of Berlin. I'm excited, what about you?