Gallery Weekend in Berlin was a sad affair this year. Klaus Biesenbach made a tour. I know because he posed together with gallerists, who then took great pride in posting the photos on their social media. I took note of those galleries that still think, after Nan Goldin, that Biesenbach is amaaaaazing.
There were Gallery Weekend talks (at the Neue Nationalgalerie). I scanned the list and none of them discussed topics that touched even slightly upon what is happening in the Berlin art world at the moment. For instance, how art critics are now also spies - I mean, for real, they tag the police in their posts to denounce artists. Yes, art critics tag the police! And yes, this is the year 2025.
So yes, everyone was just acting as if the sky is blue. I myself did go to an opening at Chertlüdde on Friday night. The ghost of the former legendary costume store that was housed in this space in Schöneberg, never seems to have left the building. A certain theatricality, drama, and storytelling always permeate the exhibitions.
Urbano's environment "September and the Lions" references the Tiergarten park in the area surrounding the Lion's Bridge, since the 1950s known as a queer cruising site, while Di Massimo's painted self-portraits and notebooks, "Son of a Witch", use reenactments and automatic writing as a form of channeling.
When experiencing the late-summer atmosphere of Urbano's park setting and the curtains and spirits of Di Massimo's paintings and writings, Christopher Isherwood 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin comes to mind, the tale of a British emigré drawn to Berlin's queer culture in 1930s Germany. Outside the window at Chertlüdde, in the courtyard of this majestic Berlin house, there is, as always, the sculpture to be seen of what must be an angel because it has wings. I like to believe that the curator and writer Chus Martinez is right when she asks: "How many mystical creatures, avatars, puppets, artworks, poems, voices, performances, and tales, to regain a sense of wonder and innocence, and be able to face democracy again?"
