From Wild Roots. Neue Nationalparkgalerie shows art in Karow for one day | 16.09.2023

On the occasion of Berlin Art Week, the Neue Nationalparkgalerie (New National Park Gallery) will be a counter-proposal to the city’s exhibition hustle and bustle for one day on 16 September 2023. Away from the classical art context, the exhibition “Aus wilder Wurzel” (From Wild Roots), organised by Johannes Mundinger, Daniel Hahn and Zebu, becomes an experimental field for chance encounters with contemporary art.

Fig. above: Zebu, Neue Nationalparkgalerie, 2023

How do the works relate to an audience that is not familiar with art? It is not uncommon for art that is open to the public to be the first contact, to spark enthusiasm for art. Just as the Berlin district of Karow presumably arose “from wild roots” at the beginning of the 13th century, the New National Park Gallery has planted the seed to perhaps take root as a meeting place for art.

Eight free-standing, roofed walls can be found in the middle of the landscape of Karow, a district on Berlin’s outer border. The geometrically designed architecture on the small hill resembles the New National Gallery, only in significantly reduced size. But here the walls not only open outwards like glass, but also allow entry without barriers or fear of thresholds. The place is a meeting place far outside, for cyclists, walkers and residents. In fact, the strange-looking shelter is a compensatory green space because soil has been sealed elsewhere. Why not create a compensatory area for art far away from the urban centre? This is not the first exhibition initiated by Raum www, which was founded in pandemic times as an online archive. It is only logical, since Raum www feeds on the idea of networking and can draw on a large pool of material.

The twelve participating artists are united by their expansive work, the site-specific nature of their works and their realisation in public space. Friederike Feldmann, for example, develops large wall works based on the specific conditions of the respective exhibition site. An illusionistic interplay of colour and form unfolds, as if her motifs were breaking the boundaries of the real. An exploration of supposedly fixed circumstances also characterises Marta Vovk’s works, whose pictorial personnel consisting of comic and cartoon figures, motifs from the advertising and media landscape infiltrate meaning-creating institutions as vehicles. Tom Kròl, on the other hand, is dedicated to the dissolution of formal boundaries when the figurative and the abstract flow seamlessly into one another. A total of twelve artists paint and hang on the free-standing walls, creating an installation on a free surface.

On the occasion of Berlin Art Week, the Neue Nationalparkgalerie will be a counter-proposal to the city’s exhibition hustle and bustle for one day on 16 September 2023. Away from the classical art context, the exhibition “Aus wilder Wurzel” (From Wild Roots), organised by Johannes Mundinger, Daniel Hahn and Zebu, becomes an experimental field for chance encounters with contemporary art. How do the works relate to an audience unfamiliar with art? Not infrequently, publicly accessible art forms the first contact, can spark enthusiasm for art. Just as the Berlin district of Karow presumably arose “from wild roots” at the beginning of the 13th century, the New National Park Gallery has planted the seed to perhaps take root as a meeting place for art.

WHERE?

16 September 2023
12 – 8 pm

WHEN?

Neue Wiesen
Am Luchgraben
Berlin-Karow