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Silke Wagner
28.07.1957, neon-work, 120 × 50 cm, 2008, © Neuer Berliner Kunstverein/Jens Ziehe
of the West-German economical miracle, in a Berlin reconfigured
as a redoubt of the capitalist West, which heavily financed the local
scene with the purpose of winning the cultural-ideological fight with
the communist space. Secondly, let’s not forget that West Berlin is
the war theatre for the student movements of 1968 (68er-Bewegung),
the developing of which announced the reverse of the political
status-quo by taking stand against the conservatory Prussian ideal
of the docile and educated “good citizen“, by asking for a broadening
of the civil rights, for the social and identity emancipation and
for the establishment of a really representative democracy, as well as
protesting against the war in Vietnam and against the infiltration and
the emergence of crypto-fascism in the power structures. Finally,
we mustn’t neglect the emergence of some new forms of artistic
expression, resulting from the development of performance and
video-art media, whose flag was carried by the neo-avant-garde
groups (like Fluxus) or as a result of the extended popularity of popart.
Due to the increasingly representative role played by the n.b.k,
they shortly established, outside the exposition space itself, an
artotheque (1970), that is a space of alternative education, of archiving
and borrowing contemporary art works (over 4,000 works have
been purchased in time) and a video-forum (founded in 1972, it represents
the oldest collection of video works in Germany, with more
than 1,000 works, from the pioneers of video-art, like Marina
Abramovic, Rebecca Horn, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Ulrike
Rosenbach, Bill Viola, Wolf Vostell to contemporary video artists like
Reynold Reynolds, Corinna Schnitt, Hito Steyerl or Hague Yang).
Meanwhile, n.b.k. has legitimated itself as an institution, being
endorsed by the city of Berlin, and proving for itself the permanent
financing of Stiftung Deutsche Klassenloterie Berlin.
With a growing importance in the ’70s and the ’80s, in the early ’90s
n.b.k was put in the position of seducing the new publics of the East
Berlin, which was marked by moving headquarters to Mitte, a district
where, due to the small rents, there was already an array of competing
galleries, and which became gradually a colony for the international
artists, with art taking on the avant-garde positions of the long
awaited economic boom. Along with what was left of the artistic
scene of the ’80s and because a slow response of pragmatic reaction
to the new conditions of artistic production, n.b.k. was losing ground
in front of some young institutions such as Kunst-Werke (subsequently,
organizer of the Berlin Biennale, becoming a platform for the
international art), Tacheles (scene for the Berlin subculture) and
Kulturbrauerei, which managed to explore the new conjuncture of
Berlin, turned into an El Dorado for artist looking for consecration. 2
Entering the second echelon of the Berlin galleries came gradually,
as n.b.k. was aging alongside its new director, the curator Alexander
Tolnay, who remained in office for 12 years and under whose command
n.b.k. could not change its dusty, dull look, like a life form surviving
from the Jurassic of the contemporary art, languishing in the
lack of ideas under the firmament of the bureaucratic swarm it has
turned into.
Tolnay’s retiring and the coming of a new team has surprised many.
In May 2007, a press release announced that starting with January 1,
2008 the n.b.k. management is being taken over by Marius Babias,
as he manifested the desire to renew the institution and to reconstruct
it on the foundations of history and tradition, in order for n.b.k.
to consolidate its position on the art market starting from the
resources already available. This process was supposed to happen
by adhering to the networks of art institutions, by conquering new
layers of the public sphere and engaging the new forms of discourse.
Meanwhile, the gallery space and its programs were meant as
barometers of the artistic contemporary discourses, reflecting on art
developments, since in the 10th decade of the last century it became
more and more an instrument for different interests. Returning to
the topic of art’s autonomy was inevitable, as n.b.k. engaged into
an effort of performative argumentation, which had to emphasize
the importance of art for society and for our individual development.
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