Black water strikes the quay wall while the gallery Andersen’s Contemporary lights the party illumination. Next door the gallery staff of Arndt and Partner adjust the breathtaking video projection of Julian Rosefeldts “The Ship of Fool”, which reveals the changeful history of the castle Sacrow which was presented last summer at Castle Sacrow. Now the work is presented in the slick renovated section of Halle am Wasser, which Arndt and Partner have reserved as a new gallery extension. Zimmerstrasse still remains the main headquarters of the gallery, as time will show how the new art quarters at Heidestrasse will develop. If these new locations become a new art scene magnet Arndt and Partner will have already developed an impressing second stand in.

The areal behind the Hamburger Bahnhof still has the charm of post GDR destruction and the newly located galleries like Jamurschek & Partner or Wohnmaschine have worked long hours to finish up the last constructions to present their new spaces: It is “Gallery Weekend”.

On this long weekend the international art focus has shifted to Berlin. Over 10,000 visitors have been reported from the last gallery weekend and the galleries sold nicely. What 24 galleries initiated two years ago, as a spring driven counterpoint to the Art Forum Berlin, has become a total highlight. The galleries present their stars, for instance, gallery Neugerriemenschneider with a spectacular installation of Olafur Eliasson, who is currently presented with a solo show at MOMA. Gallerist Raffael Jablonka offers with Nobuyoshi Araki a master of photography and Max Hetzler designates his temporary show rooms in the Osram Yards to artist Mona Hatoum, who presents new and disturbing work.

That the Gallery Weekend has spread out like a virus and more and more not officially associated galleries have attached to the open weekend is not only due to the large public interest. Berlin gets cramped, with the closerange expanding of internationally recognized names like Sprüth Magers or Gisela Capitain as well as newcomers opening up their Berlin locations.

With every new gallery some more artists compete for the rather few notable collectors. As a consequence you find exclusive previews by invite only, press conferences in the galleries and more and more PR-Agencies hired by galleries to promote their shows. Important galleries show how to navigate on the global market. Who can’t or won’t do the same needs to develop other strategies and docks for example to the Gallery Weekend. That way a small hand selected circle of weekend open galleries has expanded to over 100 addresses of participant galleries and exhibitions that have attached to the group dynamic for this weekend.

There is plenty to see and exiting work to discover and not only with the official Weekend Galleries. Gallery Nagel (Weydinger Straße 2) introduces paintings by Merlin Carpenter and next door Warren Neidich demonstrates at Magnus Mueller Gallery how our visual sensitivity is altered by art: his wide paint brushes, soaked with color, imitate the color transitions of rainbows by Rubens, Ruisdael or Elsworth Kelly. And off course the Halle am Wasser, where among others, the Indian gallery Bodhi has opened up. Andersen’s Contemporary is a great example how Berlin’s past and presence are interwoven (entangled): During the 90ties the Dane Claus Andersen presented exciting artists like Katja Strunz and Anselm Reyle in his Berlin Mitte apartment. As a gallerist he now invites these same artists once again to his newly opened gallery space.

Gallery Weekend, Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM to 7 PM.