Between Spaces

Artistic positions on urbanism and public space, with Gordon Matta-Clark, Annemirl Bauer, Sibylle Bergemann, Simon Faithfull, Antje Fretwurst-Colberg, Brigitte Fugmann, raumlaborberlin, Isa Melsheimer, Sabine Peuckert, Andrea Pichl, Marjetica Potrč, KUNSTrePUBLIK, Tomás Saraceno, Diana Sirianni, Ursula Strozynski
How do political and economic interests shape the urban environment? Which boundaries and power structures are encoded in it? And which creative media can be used to make them visible and overcome them?

In Between Spaces, 15 artists examine questions and contradictions found in urban life. The exhibition places work by Gordon Matta-Clark and perspectives on East Berlin into a dialogue with current artistic positions.

The featured artists appropriate unused spaces and lend new forms to the inconspicuous spaces in-between. From 1970s New York to 1980s East Berlin and the global village of today, the exhibition brings together these various frames of reference – thus itself shifting “between spaces”. A historical point of departure is the pioneering work of Gordon Matta-Clark, the New York artist who began cutting buildings in the 1970s to reveal their innermost core, and who created places of social interaction on urban wastelands. Matta-Clark revolutionised the practice of art in the public realm, and to this day remains a source of inspiration for contemporary artists.

The exhibition shows current artistic positions that question, deconstruct and break down the conditions of spatial demarcation and production. Material and virtual structures are superposed; Fragments become installations, voids become sculptures. Contemporary works are set against films and photographs by Matta-Clark, works that emerged from an era of upheaval. Drawn from the Kunstarchiv Beeskow, the exhibition showcases six GDR artists who dealt with the urban landscape of East Berlin. Using pictures, sketches and photographs, they address urban space beyond any form of political instrumentalisation, and capture the specific atmosphere of the divided city. The continuing relevance of their work is also highlighted in the dialogue with the positions of contemporary artists from Berlin. With its second exhibition, the ZKR opens a domain in which the interplay between historical positions and contemporary perspectives leads to an evaluation of public space, something currently more contested than ever.