黑料不打烊

Berlin is a city filled with interesting artists, and so the expectation is that Art Forum Berlin (the Art Fair) will be fresh, lively and interesting. With the art world it is impossible to please everyone. There was the positive feed back, "It was not the tired list of names that predominated at Frieze and Fiac". But perhaps for this reason there were people complaining, "It was provincial". Provincial or fresh- it was a place where one could make new discoveries and reaffirm old prejudices. I was drawn to the Contemporary Fine Art Stand, this Berlin gallery's one-man show of Georg Herold, where the pieces looked very fresh and contemporary despite their dates. The stall was installed well. The entrance almost blocked by an installation so one had to jostle into the centre to look at this bad boys work. Herold is famous for his juxtaposition of base materials with ideas elevated above their materials. When Herold questioned, "How does one process confrontations with the unknown and the unbelievable?鈥� he responded, 鈥淥ne laughs, say, out of embarrassment or out of enthusiasm." I particularly liked some of the free-form pieces that were made of some particularly fragile material as they literally quivered in the disturbance of passers by. Jan Wentrup, of Berlin, had a strong stand with a striking work by Thomas Kiesewetter, a German artist born in Kassel but now based in Berlin. Kiesewetter, like several of his sculptor peers, is exploring the troubled relationship between base and work. Here the bright turquoise metallic work was reminiscent of Anthony Caro's works of the 60鈥檚, but was paired with a colourful if leery plinth which enlivened and transformed the work. Sculpture was the strongest art in Art Forum, and I am drawn to Galerie Klemms and the work of Ukrainian artist Alexej Meschtschanow, an artist born in Kiev, but who now lives and works in Berlin. I have seen Meschtschanow's work before and am intrigued by the fusion of the imaginative with the archaeological recovered materials. Here the floor pieces have become yet more complicated, sprouting more of the now recognizable chandelier-like branched supports. For the first time Art Forum鈥檚 special show, "Difference, what difference" curated by Vienna-based Hans-Jurgen Hafner, was integrated into the fair. Participating galleries put forward proposals and were invited to present works by the approved artists. The projects led to discoveries of several interesting artists. Verena Pfisterer, a product of the Dusseldorff academy is no longer a full time practicing artist, but recreations of her earlier installations reminded the viewer of an interesting if short career. On GMG, a Moscow gallery a shelf of works by Vadim Zakharov, a member of the Russian conceptual artist school captured my imagination. Here Russian ceramic knick-knacks had seemingly crash-landed fused together into works, their sum more interesting than their parts. I walk into the project hall and come upon the work of Peter Liversidge on Ingleby Gallery from Scotland. Liversidge comes up with a proposal, often some simple chore, collecting branches, fishing which he defines on a single page. He then fulfils it sometimes with the help of others and sometimes by himself. Here booth is defined by neon tubes, which form palpable if invisible walls inside arrayed a simple group of highly conceptual, yet still aesthetic drawings. Liversidge uses not new paper, but recycles endpapers he has found in books, each washed with the thinnest wash of watercolour. The drawings are made from carefully cut tape; the resulting works looking simple, elegant and beautiful. On the floor, a group of what looks like simple branches, but on closer examination turn out to be branches cast in bronze, one selected from every town where he had an exhibition, chosen to be the measurement of arm to elbow here. It all sounds too cerebral to please work but it is not. Still with the mindset of Liversidge, I set off for Brunnenstrasse where many younger galleries have set up new galleries and project spaces. My destination, a one man show by Stefan Saffer, an artist who I have followed since I met him when he was was an international artist in residence at Delfina Studios in London. In a small temporary space Saffer displays two sculptures drawn on a theatre piece by Heinrich Muller. One is lit simply, the other slowly rotating, illustrating a text of destructive love. Saffer's work displays wit and gravitas together, a hard balance, and I enjoy the intimacy of the space. Next door in Invaliden 1, an artist-run space, "Life In A Bush Of Ghosts" by Rui Cal莽ada Bastos. Bastos, a Portuguese artist currently based in Berlin, uses as his inspiration here a residency he had in China. I like the show, the photographs and video engaged with the specificity of place without obviousness. Picking up on the Chinese desire to keep shaded from the sun to stay white skinned, he focuses on their sun visors, simple yet frightening. Finally on to gallerie Koal where there is "Capsules", the first one man show in the gallery of young photographer Ingo Mittelstaedt. The work was made in Istanbul, but like Bastos, his works do not deal with specific issues of place. Mittelstaedt collected objects and made sculptures of the collections and then photographed them. My favourite piece was "Morgen", a work in which a swathed gourd has been carefully tucked up in what appears to be a comfy bed. It seems appropriate to end my visit to Berlin in the small galleries, which have recently sprung up to accommodate the increasing numbers of artists in this city. Lively here and not that concerned with the monolithic art market, appealing to the younger and fresher collector with a still unjaded eye.