Independent Collectors

KUNSTSAELE Berlin

Geraldine Michalke provides one of the most dynamic sites for aesthetic exchanges in Berlin

Installation view “Art & Language, Nobody Spoke”, KUNSTSAELE 2017, Berlin. Photo: Sebastian Eggler
Installation view “Art & Language, Nobody Spoke”, KUNSTSAELE 2017, Berlin. Photo: Sebastian Eggler

The KUNSTSAELE Berlin is distinguished by the fact that it is not a commercial gallery, but instead is the main forum in which the collector, Geraldine Michalke, displays works from her holdings, the Sammlung Bergmeier.

The space’s forward-looking approach is particularly notable for devoting equal interest to the display of Frau Michalke’s pieces as to the dialogue she creates in close collaboration with the artist Michael Müller and the former gallerist Alexander Hahn with other works of art, collections, and innovative curatorial and discoursive projects.

Independent curators and art professionals with a wide range of interests and tastes use the space to present themativ and monographic exhibitions including works from the Bergmeier collection, but also pieces from other private and public collections. In 2016, for example, Clemens Krümmel’s “Der Schatten des Körpers des Kutschers” (“The Shadow of the Body of the Coachman”)—the title of which derives from a novella by Peter Weiss—brought together works across genres and media to examine the ways in which embodiment and space interact. That same year, the curator, Heike Fuhlbrügge, used the KUNSTSAELE to realize the exhibition “French Connection_Perspectives on Support/Surface”. The generous interiors of the Kunstsaele acted, in themselves, as a kind of support for a range of works bringing together artists as diverse as Katharina Grosse, known for her polychrome transformation of rooms in institutions like the South London Gallery and Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof, and Shahin Afrassiabi, whose work evokes the spare geometries of the artists of De Stijl. Many galleries with far more space at their disposal would have difficulty presenting works of artists whose works are as expansive as Grosse’s and as self-contained as Afrassiabi without reducing their dialogue to mere juxtaposition, but it is a testament to the KUNSTSAELE’s ability to find the right curators and projects that exhibitions as diverse as Krümmel’s and Fuhlbrügge’s have proven so affecting.

More recent shows have followed a similar trajectory. “Klappe eins, Affe tot…” which closed in April 2017 featured works from one of the artists at the center of the Sammlung Bergmeier, Michael Müller, placed in the company of pieces by Ian Kiaer, Hajra Waheed, and Carsten Nicolai. In addition to these worthies, the exhibition also focused on the interplay of visual art and concrete poetry with the inclusion of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, a robustly interdisciplinary German artist exploring the ways text and objects inform and define each other. The most recent exhibition the KUNSTSAELE hosted was the show “Nobody Spoke” by the conceptual artist collective Art & Language, and beginning in February of 2018, the KUNSTSAELE is looking forward to hosting the fifth installment of its “Zu Gast” series (“Being a Guest” is perhaps the most accurate way to render the phrase’s meaning in English), a format with the mission to open other private collections to the public – this time with selected works by Sammlung Wemhöner. In spring a show curated by Ellen Blumenstein, lately the curator of Berlin’s renowned Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, will focus on different aspects of contemporary subjectivity.

For a collection of modest size, the Sammlung Bergmeier, and its home at the KUNSTSAELE, continue to provide one of the most dynamic sites for aesthetic exchanges in Berlin.

William Kherbek is the writer of the novel “Ecology of Secrets” (2013, Arcadia Missa) and “UltraLife” (2016, Arcadia Missa). His art journalism has appeared in a number of publications in the UK, the US, Germany, Switzerland, and Romania.

For more information visit KUNSTSAELE Berlin.

Installation view “zu Gast (2) SEVEN – Sammlung DEVOTOART at the KUNSTSAELE Berlin”, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2012. Photo: Jan Brockhaus
Installation view “zu Gast (2) SEVEN – Sammlung DEVOTOART at the KUNSTSAELE Berlin”, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2012. Photo: Jan Brockhaus
Installation view “Der Schatten des Körpers des Kutschers”, compiled by Clemens Krümmel, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2016. Photo: Frank Sperling
Installation view “Der Schatten des Körpers des Kutschers”, compiled by Clemens Krümmel, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2016. Photo: Frank Sperling
Installation view “Klappe eins, Affe tot…”, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2017. Photo: Jan Brockhaus
Installation view “Klappe eins, Affe tot…”, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2017. Photo: Jan Brockhaus
Installation view “Klappe eins, Affe tot…”, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2017. Photo: Jan Brockhaus
Installation view “Klappe eins, Affe tot…”, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2017. Photo: Jan Brockhaus
Installation view “Klappe eins, Affe tot…”, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2017. Photo: Jan Brockhaus
Installation view “Klappe eins, Affe tot…”, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2017. Photo: Jan Brockhaus
Installation view “Art & Language, Nobody Spoke”, KUNSTSAELE 2017, Berlin. Photo: Sebastian Eggler
Installation view “Art & Language, Nobody Spoke”, KUNSTSAELE 2017, Berlin. Photo: Sebastian Eggler
Installation view “French Connection_Perspectives on Support/Surface”, curated by Heike Fuhlbrügge, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2017. Photo: Frank Sperling
Installation view “French Connection_Perspectives on Support/Surface”, curated by Heike Fuhlbrügge, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2017. Photo: Frank Sperling
Installation view “Der Schatten des Körpers des Kutschers”, compiled by Clemens Krümmel, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2016. Photo: Frank Sperling
Installation view “Der Schatten des Körpers des Kutschers”, compiled by Clemens Krümmel, KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2016. Photo: Frank Sperling
Installation view “zu Gast (4) Conceptual Space – works from the Sammlung Markus Michalke (München)” KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2014. Photo: Jan Brockhaus
Installation view “zu Gast (4) Conceptual Space – works from the Sammlung Markus Michalke (München)” KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 2014. Photo: Jan Brockhaus

All images courtesy of KUNSTSAELE Berlin.

Berlin (52)

You are the Concept

Private sessions with IC founder and strategist Christian Kaspar Schwarm.

Julia Stoschek

Sergej Timofejev in conversation with Julia Stoschek: one of the most active and famous collectors of time-based art.

Boros Bunker #4

This former techno-club has been home to the private collection and residence of Christian and Karen Boros.

haubrok projects

Lollie Barr meets collector Axel Haubrok in Lichtenberg

Wurlitzer Berlin-Pied-à-Terre Collection

Gudrun and Bernd Wurlitzer have created a space where artworks sit comfortably alongside signs of everyday life

The Feuerle Collection

Désiré Feuerle has turned a site of isolation and paranoia into a place infused with humanity, lightness and sensuality

Ingrid & Thomas Jochheim

The collector couple describes the discovery process, which has led them to around 700 artworks to date, as emotional

ARNDT Collection

Tiffany Wood and Matthias Arndt aim to collect works that create disturbance

PRIOR Art Space

Oliver Elst and Laura del Arco have built significant collections, both individually and together

Elke and Arno Morenz Collection

A collection about seven postwar avant-garde movements

Collection Night

A new twilight initiative takes places in Berlin to bring private collections together in a special programme.

Warhol and Works on Paper

Editions and works on paper from The Dirk Lehr Collection.

Art is a Window – Christian Kaspar Schwarm

Una Meistere in conversation in Berlin with IC founder Christian Kaspar Schwarm.

Dirk Lehr Collection

A look inside the Berlin-based collection that refuses to follow trends.

Yvonne Roeb

Inside the studio of the artist with the unusual collection.

Christian Kaspar Schwarm “Young Collections”

Inside the constantly growing and unconventional collection of the IC co-founder.

The Vague Space

The continuously contouring art collection from Independent Collectors’ co-founder.

Boros Bunker #3

A look inside the belly of Berlin's most known World War II Bunker.

Gudrun & Bernd Wurlitzer

On the occasion of the sixth edition of Berlin Art Week, Gudrun and Bernd Wurlitzer will be opening up their home and private collection to the public.

Gudrun & Bernd Wurlitzer 2017

After the German reunion Gudrun and Bernd Wurlitzer witnessed the gallery scene in Berlin change dramatically.

me Collectors Room – Picha/Pictures

"Picha/Pictures – Between Nairobi & Berlin" at Berlin's me Collectors Room features artworks by Berlin-based artists and children that live in Kibera, East Africa’s largest slum.

How to Be Unique

An exploration of the interlacing of textual, structural, and lingual elements and painting with a special emphasis on their material manifestations.

Kuhn Collection

Offering a bright perspective of young contemporary art.

Archivio Conz x KW

Archivio Conz presents “Pause: Broken Sounds/Remote Music. Prepared pianos from the Archivio Conz collection” at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.

Haus N Collection & ROCCA Stiftung

Two collections joined forces to create a unique cultural experience in an abandoned car dealership in Kiel, Germany.

Kuhn Collection I

This exhibition is the first in a series in which Michael Kuhn and Alexandra Rockelmann share works from the Kuhn Collection on IC.

Recording Memories

Mimi Kolaneci shares parts of his collection

Haus N Collection & Wemhöner Collection

ach, die sind ja heute so unpolitisch

STUDIO BERLIN – Boros Foundation x Berghain

We are here with insight into the seductive new Berlin happening, STUDIO BERLIN, with an interview with Karen Boros and Juliet Kothe, Artistic Directors of the project.

me Collectors Room Berlin/Stiftung Olbricht

My Abstract World

Haupt Collection

Dreissig Silberlinge

Désiré Feuerle

Publicly accessible private collection in an old bunker.

Lapo Simeoni

Collectors who have a special bond with Berlin.

Timo Miettinen

Finnish collector talks about the impossibility of ignoring Berlin’s relevance in today’s art world.

Kai Bender

Collectors who have a special bond with Berlin.

Olaf Schirm

Collectors who have a special bond with Berlin.

From Sponsorship to Authorship

Creative workshops for brands who want to become great story-tellers.

Manfred Herrmann

The Berlin based tax consultant Manfred Herrmann and his wife art historian Burglind-Christin Schulze-Herrmann have been collecting contemporary art for the last 30 years.

me Collectors Room – Private Exposure

For the fifth time, the Olbricht Foundation has invited London Metropolitan University students from the ‘Curating the Contemporary’ Master’s program in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery, to curate and develop an exhibition with works from the extensive art collection of Thomas Olbricht.

Safn

From a very early age, Pétur Arason enjoyed visiting artists in their studios with his father. Today, Arason has built up his own collection spanning more than 1 200 works.

Cindy Sherman – Works from the Olbricht Collection

Arguably one of the most important photographers of the late 20th Century, Cindy Sherman is not just a master of disguise but also a master at captivating her audiences.

Gute Kunst? Wollen!

Born into a family of textile merchants that spans over four generations and a long tradition of passionate art collecting Thomas Rusche’s passion for collecting art started early, with his first purchase at the age of 14. Over the years that followed, his passion for collecting has grown into a vast accumulation of 17th century Old Masters, contemporary painting, and sculptures.

Frisch Collection

The Berlin based couple, Harald and Kornelia Frisch, have been collecting idiosyncratic painterly and sculptural positions from different artistic generations free from market-based aesthetics since the 1960s.

Slavs and Tatars: Friendship of Nations

An exhibition from the Berlin-based collector Christian Kaspar Schwarm, featuring work from the art collective, Slavs and Tatars.

Queensize

Female Artists from the Olbricht Collection at me Collectors Room, Berlin.

Barbara Klemm: Photographs

A new exhibition from the Berlin collector Werner Driller.

I Have Nothing Against Women But…

A look inside the exhibition “I Have Nothing Against Women but Can’t You Ring at Another Person’s Door”

Collection Regard

En Passant

To the patrons of tomorrow

Laurie Rojas on the future of art patronage and how to nurture enthusiasm for good art, worldly sensibility, curiosity, and connoisseurship.

A Travel Companion to access private art

What started off as an ambitious task back in 2012 to gather a world-wide list of the most exciting art collections, resulted in unique book that would radically increase the accessibility of private art to the general public.

The Rediscovery of Wonder

»Good art is rarely simple, but it is hardly ever incomprehensible, « says Christian Kaspar Schwarm, IC founder and avid collector who has never lost his excitement for complexity.