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| Mat Collishaw at Blain Southern |
It was the second time I visited Sprüth Magers to see John Bock’s latest movie. The first time I had O., A.’s dachshund, with me and that didn’t work in the darkened space. I must say I also didnt’ really like what I saw. As an historian I have a horror of historical costume films. Very strange indeed. Anyway, Saturday I decided to try again because people on social media are so enthusiastic about this show. I stayed now for 20 minutes, looked at a scene in which pus was distracted from a horrible abscess in some medieval hut. Again, I tried my best to get interested. I talked about it with a friend later and she said she had the same experience. We decided we probably need to read more background information to appreciate it because, so my friend said: “I trust John Bock.”
Amen to that.
Then I visited n.b.k to see an exhibition about A 37 90 89. The “A” stands for Antwerp and the number is the phone number of the project space that was founded the 1960s in Belgium. I got excited by this show. It’s beautifully curated and it was great to see how small events and actions can be big art. I loved the Jef Cornelis film of Marcel Broodthaers on the bus together with the visitors of the finissage of his museum exhibition in Brussels, driving to the opening of a new show at the project space in Antwerp the same evening. Doesn’t that show that Broodhaers had a great mentality?
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| Charlotte Dualé at Thomas Fischer Galerie |
I had a little intermezzo at Café Einstein in Friedrichstrasse before I headed to Potsdamer Strasse. I can really feel I’m in Germany when I’m at Café Einstein and that gives me pleasure. At Potsdamer Strasse I first ran by Thomas Fischer because I knew Charlotte Dualé was exhibiting there in a group show. I’m a fan so although I know the work, I like to see it again and again. Then I visited the Mat Collishaw exhibition at Blain Southern. I got excited there, which I hadn’t expected because Blain Southern has been disappointing me too many times lately with its high-flying artists.
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| Mat Collishaw at Blain Southern |
First of all, the mise-en-scene of the Mat Collishaw show was immaculate. And the craftmanship was superb, which could be boring but there was such a humor to it. The whole exhibition had a baroque feel to it. It was over the top, it entertained but in such a voluptuous way it was fantastic. I enjoyed. On my way to the subway station I stopped at Gallery Klosterfelde where I saw a new publication on Ingrid Wiener. It wasn’t yet available for sale but on February 6, so Herr Klosterfelde told me himself, there will be a book presentation. Maybe Wiener will sing her Bananas song?