Worldwide Exhibition Openings in December

Dec. 1, 2023

Every month, Berlin Art Link shines a spotlight on international exhibitions and events with our Worldwide Hit List. We want to highlight artists, galleries, museums and new projects touching on a variety of topics, employing multiple media and featuring diverse subjects. Below are some of the stand-outs that we’ve selected for the month of December.

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

Tacita Dean
Exhibition: Dec. 8, 2023—Mar. 3, 2024
mca.com.au
140 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia, click here for map

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia is set to present an exhibition of works by Tacita Dean, an artist celebrated for her singular poetic vision across various mediums, including film, photography, sound, installation, drawing, print-making and collage. Curated by Suzanne Cotter, Jane Devery and Megan Robson, this Sydney-exclusive solo show will bring together pivotal works that encompass Dean’s explorations of chance, memory, entropy, history and time. Featuring significant bodies of work never before displayed in Australia, the exhibition includes recent film works, monumental chalkboard drawings and photographic and print series. Among the exhibition highlights are a new body of 35mm film, photographs and etchings developed out of the artist’s collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor and composer Thomas Adès on the ballet ‘The Dante Project’ for the Royal Ballet, London.

Tacita Dean: ‘Paradise,’ film still, 2021 // Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery, London and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, Paris and Los Angeles, © the artist

Museo Reina Sofia

Ulla von Brandenburg: ‘One-Sequence Spaces’
Exhibition: Dec. 1, 2023—Mar. 10, 2024
museoreinasofia.es
Palacio de Velázquez, El Retiro Park, P. de Venezuela, 2, 28001 Madrid, Spain, click here for map

The Palacio de Velázquez in the Retiro Park in Madrid will become the ideal context for a new installation by artist Ulla von Brandenburg. Initially trained as a set designer, the artist works in installations, films, murals and performances to investigate areas of interest such as psychoanalysis, magic and esoteric rituals. Within the staging of her installation at the Palacio, the artist incorporates a selection of her films, most of which are recorded in a single, long shot to encourage spectators to move through this new staging of spaces and overlapping stories. Von Brandenburg’s installation will immerse spectators in places that straddle reality and fiction. Drawing on theatre tropes, the artist gives renewed significance to the once impassable fourth wall, often employing curtains and drapery which—rather than establishing a dividing line with visitors—encourage them to participate in the work and become part of the scene.

Ulla von Brandenburg: ‘One-Sequence Spaces’, exhibition view at Palacio de Velázquez // Photo by Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Bonnefanten Museum

Shinkichi Tajiri: ‘The Restless Wanderer’
Exhibition: Dec. 2, 2023—May 12, 2024
bonnefanten.nl
Avenue Ceramique 250, 6221 KX Maastricht, Netherlands, click here for map

To celebrate the Japanese-American artist Shinkichi Tajiri’s 100th birthday, the jubilee exhibition ‘The Restless Wanderer’ will be on display at the Bonnefanten Museum. The exhibition is co-curated by Tanéa (1992) and Shakuru Tajiri (1994), the grandchildren of Shinkichi Tajiri. Joining the US Army in 1943, Shinkichi was able to escape from a concentration camp. He was stationed in various parts of France and Germany until the end of his military service. Overnight, he became a “restless wanderer.” Tajiri’s personal archive of sculptures, films, poems, photographs and paintings are full of symbols and references to his Japanese and American double identity and heritage and embody the need to search for a possible home constantly. This is why the exhibition’s main goal is not just to reveal and preserve the underlying generational trauma, but to invite the participants to engage in a dialogue on current universal themes of migration and exile. Ultimately making his home with his wife Ferdi Jansen at Castle Scheres in Baarlo, Limburg (Netherlands) in the 1960s, the artists surrounded themselves and their family with their impressive and mysterious creations. The exhibition is an intergenerational ode to Tajiri’s long and vibrant art practice.

Shinkichi Tajiri with his series of Ronins at Museum van Bommel van Dam, 2000 // Photo by Egon Notermans

Galerie im Turm

Yen Chun Lin and Tanja Nis-Hansen: ‘Dort, wo das Nichts ist’
Exhibition: Dec. 7, 2023—Feb. 4, 2024
galerie-im-turm.net
Frankfurter Tor 1, 10243 Berlin, click here for map

The upcoming exhibition ‘Dort, wo das Nichts’ is the third part of the exhibition series ‘Schwindel’ (Vertigo) at Galerie Turm. This time, Berlin-based artists Yen Chun Lin and Tanja Nis-Hansen react to the fragility of nature, and the collapse of ecological and cosmological realities. The instability of social structures and behaviours gives room for transformation in the atmosphere of the current climate catastrophe. Yen Chun Lin’s soundscapes and installations explore the tension between scientific axioms and supernatural phenomena, offering a more fluid and intuitive strategy for cognitive perception. Tanja Nis-Hansen’s work translates the psychological responses of the human body into semiotic signs and researches the connections between the body’s exhaustion and the context of the contemporary environment, through various artistic mediums. The depiction of textual motifs as ornaments shifts the practice of inscription and re-contextualization, and provides a more formalistic vision of the inner logic of space within the painting. The exhibition raises the question of contemporary projections resulting from the documentation of a black hole and translates nothingness into sound and visual codes.

Tanja Nis-Hansen: ‘The biggest mystery in the universe,’ 2021 // Photo by Aurélien Mole, courtesy Sans
titre and the artist

K11 MUSEA

Korakrit Arunanondchai: ‘Painting with history in a room filled with people with funny names 3’
Exhibition: Dec. 17, 2023—Jan. 14, 2024
k11artfoundation.org
18 Salisbury Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, click here for map

‘Painting with history in a room filled with people with funny names 3’ is the fourth in a series of video installations that Korakrit Arunanondchai began creating in 2012. Spanning sculpture, film, performance and painting, it explores the co-existence of humans, machines and spirits in 21st-century Bangkok, where animistic beliefs and the desire for modernisation both prevail. Suffused with poetic ruminations, the hybrid narrative formed within the artist’s work brings together a variety of subjects⁠—from history and geopolitics to the cultural impact of globalisation⁠—while delving into the notion of self-representation and questioning one’s existence. For the upcoming presentation of his expansive video installation at K11 MUSEA, Arunanondchai works closely with the K11 Art Foundation to create an immersive experience that will adapt to the exhibition space.

Korakrit Arunanondchai: ‘Painting with history in a room filled with people with funny names 3,’ installation view at K11 MUSEA, Hong Kong, 2019 // Courtesy of K11 MUSEA and K11 Art Foundation

Peres Projects

Shuang Li: ‘Forever’
Exhibition: Dec. 12, 2023—Mar. 29, 2024
peresprojects.com
Piazza Belgioioso 2, 20121 Milan, Italy, click here for map

Shuang Li’s third solo exhibition with the gallery and first in Milan, titled ‘Forever,’ will open this December at Peres Projects’ Milan location. The exhibition showcases a new definition of intimacy in the era of globalized communication systems and infrastructures. Li’s work explores how technology brings us into contact with each other, and how it regulates the body and desire. Her focus is not only on virtual spaces but also on the material life and body of these digital landscapes. Her artistic practice emphasizes interactivity between the medium and its users and among the mediums themselves. Her work encompasses performance, interactive websites, sculpture and moving image installations, building a bridge between virtual space and reality. Centred around the video installation ‘Heart is a Broken Record’ (2023), Li’s personal fascination with the emo pop-punk band ‘My Chemical Romance’ forms the conceptual backdrop of an impressionistic montage of YouTube videos that explore the emotionally weighted experience of fandom.

Shuang Li: ‘All the letters I’ve ever written,’ 2023, plastic pearls, fabric samples, resin, acrylic, 159 x 102 x 4 cm // Courtesy Peres Projects

Pinakothek der Moderne

Group Show: ‘Glitch. The Art of Interference’
Exhibition: Dec. 1, 2023—Mar. 17, 2024
pinakothek.de
Barer Straße 40, 80333 München, Germany, click here for map

Initially used as technical jargon among radio and television engineers in the 1950s, the term “glitch” entered the world of computer games to describe programming or graphic errors. In the art context, glitch finds its immediate expression in the field of computer-generated imagery, digital and net art. The group exhibition ‘Glitch. The Art of Interference’ at Pinakothek der Moderne comprehensively traces the global phenomenon of glitch art, which specifically draws attention to the aesthetics of the flawed. Curated by Franziska Kunze and featuring works by more than 50 artists⁠—including Arthur Jafa, Joan Jonas, Man Ray, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Carsten Nicolai, Nam June Paik, Sondra Perry, Sigmar Polke, Pipilotti Rist and Wolfgang Tillmans—it critically questions one of the youngest and most unpredictable art forms as well as its capacity to uncover normative orders and socio-political disparities, and create new worlds.

Rosa Menkman: ‘A Vernacular of File Formats,’ 2010, installation, wallpaper, single-channel video, color, sound, 3 min. 12 sec. // © Rosa Menkman

Thailand Biennale Chiang Rai 2023

‘The Open World’
Program: Dec. 9, 2023—Apr. 30, 2024
thailandbiennale.org
Various locations, Chiang Rai, Thailand

By alternating locations across the country, the Thailand Biennale aims to decentralize artistic activities and emphasize local heritage. Its third edition takes place in Chiang Rai, with Rirkrit Tiravanija and Gridthiya Gaweewong as Artistic Directors and Angkrit Ajchariyasophon and Manuporn Luengaram as Curators. Titled ‘The Open World,’ the biennial draws inspiration from the Buddha image in Wat Pa Sak, one of the most important ancient sites in Chiang Rai, representing wisdom and awakening. It also responds to the post-globalization era as well as the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, while aiming to manifest the entanglements of traditions, mythology, animism, geopolitics and ecology and imagine a better future. Spread across many sites in Chiang Rai and Chiangsaen’s Golden Triangle area, it features artists from the Mekong to the Amazon and beyond, including Korakrit Arunanondchai, Kader Attia, Baan Noorg Collaborative Arts and Culture, Pierre Huyghe, Arto Lindsay, Ernesto Neto, Ho Tzu Nyen, Precious Okoyomon, Tomás Saraceno, Citra Sasmita, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Haegue Yang and many others.

PAF Olomouc 2023

Festival of Film Animation and Contemporary Art
Group Show: ‘True Stories’
Exhibition: Dec. 7-10, 2023
pifpaf.cz
Various Venues, Olomouc, Czechia, click here for map

The theme of the latest edition of PAF Olomouc, co-curated by New York-based collective DIS and taking place this December in Olomouc, Czechia, is ‘True Stories.’ Invited curators and artists have been asked to add their own interpretations to the theme, in the form of various projects including screenings, performances and installations that naturally move between cinemas, galleries, gaming environments, the internet and clubs. Reconfiguring truth as a subversive tool, the program will include works by artists like DIS collective and Berlin-based performer and musician Colin Self. Together with Bobbi Menuez, Self will be presenting their performance-puppet play, ‘Paraphrase of a Shadow,’ at the festival. The festival will also highlight local Czech talent, including Natálie Sodomková, who will hold a workshop for kids and Lukáš Prokop, who will present a collective project, the world premiere of the video ‘Cauchemar: Spectral Shapes on Infrared.’