Exhibition // Saturday Happens at the Kreuzberg Pavillon

View from the Exhibition “GROOOO” (2013); copyright of the Kreuzberg Pavillon

Tucked in the maze of small city streets around the corner from Oranienplatz is the Kreuzberg Pavillon, a comfortable gallery with the perfect combination of homemade soup, conversation and experimental art. The Kreuzberg Pavillon moved into its new location on Naunynstrasse last November, and since then has consistently offered weekly exhibitions of new and innovative art. Even in the middle of what Berliners term Sommerloch, the summer slump when all of Berlin goes on vacation, the Kreuzberg Pavillon is offering its weekly shows with the same energy as before.

Last Saturday the show was titled GROOOO, an exploration of the socially constructed standards we use to define economic growth and the objective reality of that concept. This theme is suitable to the Kreuzberg Pavillon itself, a unique gallery space which attempts to undo the conventional, socially constructed illusion that art is something eternal and untouchable. Shows at the pavillon are temporary, experimental, and accessible to its viewers: they happen every Saturday and last only from 8pm to midnight. Concentrating an art show in four hours changes the viewer’s experience of the art, stressing the relationship between the physical and social space, time, and art, resulting in what can be better defined as happenings rather than exhibitions.

View from the “All Coiffeurs are Brushmakers” group exhibition (2013); copyright of the Kreuzberg Pavillon

The Kreuzberg Pavillon is run by three artists, who opened the pavillon because they wanted a gallery with a comfortable, living room feel and stimulating social space for artist to interact. Shows are sometimes planned, and sometimes spontaneously emerge from artists who have never worked together before. This improvisatory nature is a useful platform for real risks and experiments to take place and new connections to be created.
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