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Fluentum productions at VIDEONALE.20
On the occasion of VIDEONALE.20, the 40th anniversary of the festival for video and time-based arts, Fluentum has adapted its annual Videonale Award to support the co-production of new works by Alwin Lay, Dani & Sheilah ReStack, and Julia Scher. These works will premiere in Bonn’s urban space as part of the V.20 exhibition, alongside 24 additional historical and contemporary positions.
VIDEONALE.20 will open on April 10, 2025, and run through May 18—save the date!
Credit: Dani & Sheilah ReStack, I AM THE FIRST LESBIAN I EVER MET, 2024 (Circulating Copies, Stiftung IMAI, Düsseldorf) © Dani & Sheilah ReStack
Raoul Klooker is appointed director of Fluentum
We are excited to welcome Raoul Klooker, who took over as director of Fluentum and its program on November 1, 2024. With this appointment, Fluentum gains an internationally experienced curator as director who has spent many years focusing his work on exhibiting and producing contemporary art in the field of time-based media.
From 2021 to 2024, Raoul Klooker was co-founder and co-director of OCT0 in Marseille alongside Stefan Kalmár, where he curated exhibitions by Ivan Cheng and Arash Nassiri, among others, and most recently published Ivan Cheng's novel Confidences / Oracle (2024). Between 2019 and 2021, Raoul Klooker was part of the curatorial team at the Kunstverein Braunschweig, where he was responsible for solo exhibitions by Gili Tal, Markues, and Richard Sides. Prior to that, he was co-director of the London project space clearview.ltd and co-curator of the screening series The Museum of Clouds at Tate Modern, London. As a freelance curator, Klooker has curated exhibitions at Galerie DREI in Cologne, Campoli Presti in London and the neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK) in Berlin, among others.
Raoul Klooker is taking over from Junia Thiede, who has been director of Fluentum from 2020 to 2024. Together with Dennis Brzek, who has been working as curator of contemporary art at the Albertinum in Dresden since January 2024, she developed a progressive exhibition program with internationally renowned artists and sharpened the profile of the young institution. Since October 2024, Junia Thiede has been a curator at the Kunstverein Braunschweig.
Photo © Marc-Antoine Serra
Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff, THEATER
The solo exhibition THEATER by Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff opens on occasion of Berlin Art Week 2024. THEATER reflects on live performance in an age of radical change and is set and shot at New Theater Hollywood in Los Angeles, the black box theater space the two artists have been operating since January 2024.
The opening of THEATER will also see the release of German Theater 2010–2022, the most comprehensive monograph to date on the work of Henkel and Pitegoff, edited by Fabrice Stroun and published by Inventory Press. German Theater 2010-2022 is published on the occasion of an exhibition at Kunsthalle Fri Art in Fribourg and was realized with support from Fluentum.
Opening and program
During Berlin Art Week from September 12 – 15, 2024, we have extended our regular opening hours from 11 am to 6 pm. THEATER is accompanied by the following events:
Wednesday
September 11
6-10 pm
Opening and late summer reception
The opening will be accompanied by a late summer reception in front of the building.
Thursday
September 12
7:30 pm
Friday
September 13,
7:30 pm
Performance, Cafe Theater Schalotte
Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi presents the performance A Hole Is A Hole by Lily McMenamy, which had its US premiere at the New Theater Hollywood.
Saturday
September 14
2 pm
Artist talk with Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff
Moderated by the curators Dennis Brzek and Junia Thiede. The talk will be in English, registration is not required. Admission is free, with limited seating available.
Fluentum at Hallen 5
Opening Saturday, September 7, 2024, 11 am – 5 pm
Fluentum will participate in Hallen 5 with a screening of works from its collection titled Portraits. The selected video works by Noah Barker & Dora Budor, Cyrill Lachauer, and Ari Benjamin Meyers share a common theme of acknowledging monuments, each of a different nature, through portraiture. The works will be displayed on a 10-meter-wide projection screen in a dedicated viewing room within the exhibition space at Wilhelmhallen in Berlin-Reinickendorf.
Hallen 5 opens on Saturday, September 7, 2024, at 11 am and will run throughout Berlin Art Week until September 15. For tickets and opening hours, please visit https://www.hallen.art/.
In Medias Res #3: Postproductions
Fluentum is pleased to announce the launch of In Medias Res #3: Postproductions. The third and final issue of In Medias Res: Media, (Still) Moving, Fluentum’s research project on the history of the premises of the former Luftgaukommando III, concludes by literally taking stock of both the production of and productivity inherent in moving images. At the core of this publication are new essays on films shot in the building.
With artist contributions and essays by Loretta Fahrenholz, Richard Hawkins, Thomas Helbig, Margaret Honda, Evelyn Kreutzer, Elisa R. Linn, D'Ette Nogle, Maya Schweizer, Richard Sides, Mike Terry, Peter Wächtler, and Florian Wüst.
Available now at our bookshop and via Mousse Publishing.
Live Stream: Last days and guided exhibition tour
Come by for the closing weekend of Live Stream and join the guided exhibition tour with curators Dennis Brzek and Junia Thiede this Saturday, July 27, at 2 pm.
Please register in advance. The tour will be held in German. Tour and general admission are free of charge.
Live Stream with Patricia L. Boyd, Jason Hirata, Nina Könnemann, Michael E. Smith, and Matt Welch
Our group exhibition Live Stream with works by Patricia L. Boyd, Jason Hirata, Nina Könnemann, Michael E. Smith, and Matt Welch opens during Gallery Weekend Berlin 2024. The works on view engage in a dialogue with the exhibition space and its specific histories and materiality.
During the opening week from April 25 – 28, we have extended our regular opening hours from 11 am to 6 pm. Live Stream is accompanied by the following events:
Wednesday
April 24
6-10 pm
Opening and spring reception
The opening will be accompanied by a spring reception in front of the building.
Saturday
April 27
2 pm
Zooms and Streams
Guided exhibition tour with Haus am Waldsee
We invite you to take part in a combined exhibition tour with our neighbors from Haus am Waldsee. They present two parallel exhibitions by the American artist Jenna Bliss (*1984) and the Scottish painter Carol Rhodes (1959-2018). The use of temporally or spatially distanced perspectives that allow new angles on established narratives characterize the work of both artists. By combining everyday observations, speculation, and meticulous research, the two exhibitions create a space in which fact and fiction meet and the wider scope of structural human intervention becomes tangible.
The tour starts at 2 pm at Fluentum and continues with the second part at 3:30 pm at Haus am Waldsee, Argentinische Allee 30, 14163 Berlin.
In German. Please register in advance. Exhibition tour and admission are free of charge.
Fluentum productions at the 60th Venice Biennale
We are proud to announce the following two collaborations at the 60th Venice Biennale, running from April 19 – November 24, 2024:
Starting from a seemingly hopeless outlook on the present, Bartana's new video work Farewell suggests an alternate reality hovering between utopia and dystopia. Based on Jewish traditions and in an attempt at collective healing that surpasses the concept of the nation-state, her work imagines new possibilities for the survival of humankind. Farewell is part of Thresholds at the German Pavilion, curated by Çağla Ilk.
Ari Benjamin Meyers’ work Marshall Allen, 99, Astronaut centers around Marshall Allen, musician and founding member of the intergalactic jazz group Sun Ra Arkestra, and the (musical) universe he has created at the Sun Ra House in Germantown, Philadelphia. The work offers a profound musical meditation on the intertwined themes of time, space, memory, and transformation. The work was commissioned and produced by the Fondazione In Between Art Film and co-produced by Fluentum in the context of the group exhibition Nebula at Complesso dell’Ospedaletto, Venice. Curated by Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi.
Gernot Wieland, The Perfect Square at Berlinale
We are excited to announce that Gernot Wieland’s The Perfect Square will premiere at Berlinale’s 2024 edition of Forum Expanded!
For twelve years, Wieland worked with an animal trainer who taught birds to fly in circles or squares. The Perfect Square examines how aesthetic norms influence Western views of the world and why these norms result in failure.
The Perfect Square will screen on:
February 19, 2024, 1 pm, Arsenal 1 (premiere)
February 21, 2024, 9 pm, Betonhalle at silent green
February 24, 2024, 4 pm, Arsenal 1
Commissioned by argos centre for audiovisual arts, Brussels, produced by Fluentum, Berlin, and Videoart at Midnight Productions, Berlin, co-produced by Tannenbaum Films, with the support of Berlin Senate for Culture and Europe.
Sven Johne, Das sowjetische Hauptquartier
Program
Saturday
November 25
5 pm
Marked spaces: Screening, reading and conversation
with Isabel Fargo Cole and Sven Johne, moderated by Daniel Völzke
In the context of his exhibition Das sowjetische Hauptquartier, Sven Johne invited author and translator Isabel Fargo Cole to read from her book Die grüne Grenze (Edition Nautilus, 2017). Cole's debut novel unfolds the story of an artist couple whose life in the Harz Mountains, on the border between East and West, is shaped by a progressive blurring of personal, natural, and political frontiers. Afterwards, Cole and Johne will discuss their perspectives on working with fact and fiction as well as the ability of narratives to let the large speak through the small. The discussion will be moderated by Daniel Völzke.
The evening begins at 5 pm with a screening of the 33-minute film Das sowjetische Hauptquartier (2023). The reading and discussion will follow immediately after.
The event will be held in German, participation is free of charge. Please register in advance (limited capacity).
Sven Johne, Das sowjetische Hauptquartier
Program
Saturday
October 21
2 pm
Public guided tour in German
with June Drevet
No pre-registration needed. Exhibition tour and admission are free of charge.
Saturday
October 28
2 pm
Public guided tour in English
with Donna Schons
No pre-registration needed. Exhibition tour and admission are free of charge.
Sven Johne, Das sowjetische Hauptquartier
As part of Berlin Art Week 2023, Fluentum presents Das sowjetische Hauptquartier (The Soviet Headquarters), a solo exhibition by artist and filmmaker Sven Johne. The core of the exhibition is the titular film, produced by Fluentum and premiering in September. The presentation is complemented by an installation of earlier video works by Johne—some of which are part of the Fluentum Collection—which continue the thematic strands in Das sowjetische Hauptquartier.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue designed by André Fuchs, to be published in December.
Loretta Fahrenholz, Trash The Musical: Closing weekend
In the framework of the exhibition Trash The Musical by Loretta Fahrenholz we warmly invite you to join us for our public guided tours in July and a special program around our Closing Weekend.
Program
Saturday
July 15
1 pm
Public guided tour in German
with June Drevet
No pre-registration needed. Exhibition tour and admission are free of charge.
3 pm
Public guided tour in English
with Donna Schons
No pre-registration needed. Exhibition tour and admission are free of charge.
Events during closing weekend
Friday
July 28
7 pm
Screening with a lecture by Evelyn Kreutzer
In her lecture, Dr. Evelyn Kreutzer will speak about the concept of Alternate History by looking at major Hollywood films and the transatlantic implications of its way of memorializing the Holocaust. Afterwards, there will be a film screening, picking up on Loretta Fahrenholz's engagement with films such as Inglourious Basterds in preparation of her exhibition Trash The Musical, which directly fed into the new image series Once Upon a Time in Enemy-Occupied France (2023).
Evelyn Kreutzer is a postdoctoral researcher and video essayist at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. Previously, she was a research fellow in the project “(Con)sequential Images – An archaeology of iconic film footage from the Nazi era” and received her PhD in Screen Cultures from Northwestern University.
English / German (The film will be screened in OV with German subtitles)
Free of charge, please register in advance (limited capacity).
Saturday
July 29
3-6 pm
Book Launch of Loretta Fahrenholz: Trash The Musical
We celebrate the release of the artist's book Trash The Musical, published on the occasion of Loretta Fahrenholz's exhibition at Fluentum. The book was designed by HIT and is published by Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne. The essays were written by Felix Bernstein and Magnus Schaefer.
The exhibition will be open until 6 pm. We invite you to join us for cold drinks, a DJ-set as well as exclusive Trash merch!
Saturday
July 29
4 pm
Thank You for Letting Me Be Obsessed with You
A cabaret performance by Alicia McDaid
Performance artist Alicia McDaid turns Fluentum into a stage: In a cabaret revue, McDaid presents her characters and alter-egos, known from her social media world and immortalized in the film Trash The Musical. We close the exhibition with music, songs — and a dog cage.
Free of charge, no pre-registration needed.
Loretta Fahrenholz, Trash The Musical
In the framework of the exhibition Trash The Musical by Loretta Fahrenholz we warmly invite you to join us for our public guided tours in June.
Program
Saturday
June 10
3 pm
Tour with the curators
Dennis Brzek and Junia Thiede will guide you through the exhibition Trash The Musical and give an in-depth insight into the program series In Medias Res: Media, (Still) Moving, which they conceived. Loretta Fahrenholz's solo presentation is the third and last in that exhibition and event series, which since 2021 has been focusing on methods and processes of remembering and narrating in the moving image, using the historical, political and discursive levels of the place where Fluentum works today.
In German. Please register in advance. Exhibition tour and admission are free of charge.
Saturday
June 17
1 pm
Public guided tour in German
with June Drevet
No pre-registration needed. Exhibition tour and admission are free of charge.
Saturday
June 17
3 pm
Public guided tour in English
with Donna Schons
No pre-registration needed. Exhibition tour and admission are free of charge.
Loretta Fahrenholz, Trash The Musical
We are happy to announce the solo exhibition Trash The Musical by Loretta Fahrenholz, which opens during Gallery Weekend Berlin 2023. The works on view emerged from a two-year dialogue with Fluentum’s historically marked space.
Opening and program
During the opening week from April 26 – 30, we have daily opening hours from 11 am to 6 pm. Trash The Musical is accompanied by a number of events:
Tuesday
April 25
6 – 10 pm
Opening and spring reception
The opening will be accompanied by a spring reception in front of the building. The film Trash The Musical (2023) premieres at 6:30 pm.
Saturday
April 29
2 pm
The Messy Picnic
An exhibition tour with Caroline Busta and Jak Ritger
Loretta Fahrenholz’s transmedia experiments refilter the past through the lens of Hollywood, using machine-learning images as a prism to sense off-screen violence, trauma, love stories, dreams and finding freedom in the forest. Caroline Busta (new media theorist and art critic) is joined by Jak Ritger (activist and production artist for Trash The Musical) to imbibe, dissect and extrapolate the entangled political and art history cobwebs contained within.
In English. No pre-registration needed. Exhibition tour and admission are free of charge.
Sunday
April 30
2 pm
The Home as Everyday Stage
Combined tour through the exhibitions Loretta Fahrenholz: Trash The Musical and Margaret Raspé: Automatik at Haus am Waldsee
During the tour we discuss the film Trash The Musical (2023) by Loretta Fahrenholz and how the cinematic image has evolved since Margaret Raspé. The own domestic environment as a performative investigation of perceptual processes is also central to Raspé's work: already in 1971, she developed the so-called "camera helmet", which enabled her to film her automated everyday processes, including housework. The resulting films in Automatik show the artist's lived realities and question both social and cultural structures.
In German. Please register in advance. Exhibition tour and admission are free of charge.
VIDEONALE.19 Award
The VIDEONALE.19 Award by Fluentum goes to Eliane Esther Bots for her video work In Flow of Words. Many congratulations!
During the opening night, the Videonale Award by Fluentum was conferred for the fourth time on one of the participating artists. The award is endowed with 5,000 Euros and is intended to support young artists in the production of new works.
This year’s jury members were Prof. Dr. Stephan Berg (Kunstmuseum Bonn), Julia Höner (Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen), Lisa Long (Julia Stoschek Foundation), Anna Lena Seiser (Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.)) and Niels Van Tomme (ARGOS centre for audiovisual arts).
The V.19 exhibition as well as this year's prize-winning work can be visited at Kunstmuseum Bonn until May 14, 2023.
Ab ins B! Fluentum presents The Cinematic Eye and The Knowledge of Images
As part of Ab ins B!, Fluentum is hosting special screenings of works from its collection on March 25 and April 1. With thematic focuses on The Cintematic Eye (March 25), and The Knowlegde of Images (April 1), the two events bring together works by renowned artists such as Omer Fast, Patty Chang, Mario Pfeifer, Hiwa K, and many more. Ab ins B! is a program that highlights cultural sites located in the fare zone B, outside Berlin's S-Bahn ring.
German Short Film Award for Gernot Wieland
Gernot Wieland has received the German Short Film Award 2022 for his 2021 film Bird In Italian Is Uccello. The work, co-produced by Fluentum and Phileas Projects, won in the category "experimental short film up to 30 minutes"and centres around planned but never performed theatrical production of Maurier's story The Birds in a psychiatric clinic in northern Italy. Heartfelt congratulations to the artist for winning one of Germany's most prestigious film prizes!
Christopher Kulendran Thomas’ Another World at KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Tonight on October 21 is the opening of Christopher Kulendran Thomas’ Another World, a solo show at KW Institute for Contemporary Art that was realized with the support of Fluentum. Kulendran Thomas’ multimedia exploration of the lost legacies of the Tamil-Eelam movement founded during the Sri Lankan Civil War also features The Finesse, a major new commission that was developed together with longtime collaborator Annika Kuhlmann.
In Medias Res #2: Architecture in Motion
Fluentum is pleased to announce the launch of In Medias Res #2: Architecture in Motion. As the second reader from our project series In Medias Res: Media, (Still) Moving, the publication focuses on a material, visual, and historical analysis of the architecture of Fluentum’s grounds. Beyond exploring the architecture of the building, In Medias Res #2 discusses the political ramifications of the continued presence of buildings from the Nazi era.
On Saturday, September 17, from 4 to 7pm, we’re celebrating the release with a launch event including a talk by architect and partner at Sauerbruch Hutton, David Wegener, at 5:30 pm. Wegener oversaw the efforts to refit the historic marble-clad hall into Fluentum’s exhibition space and will be elaborating the strategies as well as difficulties in the re-use of historically charged buildings. The lecture will be held in German.
Kino with Rosa Aiello and Dylan Aiello, Noah Barker and Dora Budor, Marie Karlberg, Ted Fendt, Simon Lässig, Katz Tepper, Peter Wächtler, and Jiajia Zhang
We're excited to announce our two-part group exhibition Kino, opening September 14, 2022, on the occasion of Berlin Art Week 2022. Kino will be split into two distinct parts, with an addition of new works and a rearrangement of the display taking place in the middle of the exhibition's runtime. The first chapter taking place from September 15 to October 29 includes works by Rosa Aiello and Dylan Aiello, Noah Barker and Dora Budor, Marie Karlberg, Peter Wächtler, and Jiajia Zhang. Chapter two featuring works by Ted Fendt, Simon Lässig, Katz Tepper, Peter Wächtler, and Jiajia Zhang will be on view from November 4 to December 17.
Anja Kirschner, UNICA: Closing weekend
As Anja Kirschner's exhibition UNICA is coming to a close, Fluentum is celebrating a joint finissage and exhibition catalogue launch. On July 16, opening hours will be extended until 7 pm and an artist talk between Kirschner and philosopher and art historian Marina Vishmidt will take place at 4 pm. Vishmidt, whose research practice centers around the relationship between art, value, and labor, is the Rudolf Arnheim Visiting Professor at the Institute of Art and Image History at Humboldt University Berlin and has been teaching at Goldsmiths College in London since 2016.
Featuring essays by Luisa Lorenza Corna, Claire Finch, and Lisa Jeschke, as well as an introduction by the curators Dennis Brzek and Junia Thiede, the catalogue understands itself as both UNICA's final chapter and a key for the project's entangled references, intersections and repetitions principle. It was designed by Katja Gretzinger and is published by DISTANZ Verlag.
Anja Kirschner, UNICA
Fluentum is pleased to present UNICA, a new video commission and eponymous solo show by artist and filmmaker Anja Kirschner. UNICA is the second exhibition in Fluentum’s three-year program series In Medias Res: Media, (Still) Moving, which focuses on the methods and processes of remembering and storytelling in moving image works.
In Media Res #1: Histories Read Across
Fluentum is pleased to announce the launch of In Medias Res #1: Histories Read Across. The book is published on the occasion of the exhibition and project series In Medias Res: Media, (Still) Moving, which takes place at Fluentum from 2021 to 2023.
Time Without End with 13BC (Vic Brooks, Lucy Raven, Evan Calder Williams), Klaus vom Bruch, Keren Cytter, Loretta Fahrenholz, Margaret Honda, D’Ette Nogle, Richard Sides, Valerie Snobeck, and Florian Wüst
On the occasion of the Berlin Art Week 2021, Fluentum is pleased to open Time Without End—a group show with 13BC (Vic Brooks, Lucy Raven, Evan Calder Williams), Klaus vom Bruch, Keren Cytter, Loretta Fahrenholz, Margaret Honda, D’Ette Nogle, Richard Sides, Valerie Snobeck, and Florian Wüst.
VIDEONALE.18 Award
The VIDEONALE.18 Award of the Fluentum Collection goes to Che-Yu Hsu for his work 副本人 (Single Copy). Congratulations!
For the third time, Fluentum is funding the Videonale Award of 5,000 Euros to support artists in the production of new works.
The competition jury was consisting of: Stephan Berg (Director of the Kunstmuseum Bonn), Fatima Hellberg (Director of the Bonner Kunstverein), Matthieu Lelièvre (Art historian, independent curator and consultant at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon) and Linnea Semmerling (Director of the Düsseldorf Inter Media Art Institute).
This year's iteration of the Videonale with the title Fluid States. Solid Matter as well as this year's prize-winning work can be visited at the Kunstmuseum Bonn until April 18, 2021.
Fluentum presents In Medias Red: Media (Still) Moving
We are excited to announce this year’s curatorial team behind the program series In Medias Res: Media, (Still) Moving. Dennis Brzek, at the invitation of Junia Thiede, joins Fluentum as curator. Together they have co-curated an extensive exhibition and project series that is dedicated to a concrete investigation of the historically charged architecture of Fluentum’s grounds. Featuring a group exhibition as well as several solo exhibitions, both in parallel to a three-part publication series, the program marks the first time Fluentum will focus on the political, visual, and discursive dimensions inscribed into its building’s history.
Dennis Brzek (Curator) and Junia Thiede (Artistic Director). Photo by Frederic Schweizer.
Publication: Sender and Receiver by Christian Jankowski
We are excited to announce the launch of the bilingual publication Sender and Receiver – Christian Jankowski in conjunction with the eponymous exhibition by Christian Jankowski at Fluentum.
Closing due to Corona lockdown
Due to the coronavirus shutdown in Berlin, we have to close Christian Jankowski's show Sender and Receiver.
The Art of the Moving Image in Digital Times Symposium and Project Pitch Award
Fluentum's founder and director Markus Hannebauer participated in the symposium The Art of the Moving Image in Digital Times on the occasion of the 4th edition of the international film and art festival Kino der Kunst in Munich (October 27 - November 1, 2020). Markus was also a jury member for this year's Project Pitch Award, which supports young European artists and filmmakers to produce new works.
Christian Jankowski, Sender and Receiver
On the occasion of the Berlin Art Week 2020, Fluentum was pleased to open Sender and Receiver – a solo show with Christian Jankowski.
Closing due to Corona lockdown
Unfortunately, we had to cancel our exhibition with Emilija Škarnulytė because of the coronavirus shutdown.
Speaking Images with works from the Fluentum Collection
On the occasion of the Berlin Art Week 2019, Fluentum was pleased to open Speaking Images – its first exhibition of works from the collection.
Guido Van der Werve
On the occasion of the Gallery Weekend Berlin 2019, Fluentum was pleased to inaugurate its collection publicly with a solo exhibition by Dutch artist Guido van der Werve (born 1977).
VIDEONALE.17 Award
Sohbrab Hura wins the Videonale.17 Award of the Fluentum collection.
VIDEONALE.16 Award
Randa Maroufi wins the Videonale.16 Award of the Fluentum collection
Premiere of The Long Way Home by Sven Johne
Fluentum supports Sven Johne's premiere of The Long Way Home at Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.
Omer Fast, Talking isn't always the solution
Fluentum supports Omer Fast's exhibition Talking isn't always the solution at Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin.
Collecting Video Art — A panel at VIDEONALE.14
