From A for aura to Z for cinnamon herb 

Stroll through five galleries - our fall Charlottenwalk 

Text: Katja Bartz | Team Events

The umbrella could stay at home, the weather showed its benevolent side during our fall Charlottenwalk. First stop for the 30 or so members and friends of the VBKI: the wonderful Friedmann-Hahn Gallery. Alexander Friedmann-Hahn founded the gallery in Berlin Charlottenburg in 2005 with a focus on contemporary, figurative painting, photography and sculpture as well as urban art. The gallery currently represents twenty international artists whose works are shown in solo and group exhibitions. We were welcomed with a welcome drink and immersed ourselves in the extensive and inviting exhibition space. We are also delighted to welcome Mr. Friedmann-Hahn as a new member of the VBKI!

We continued on to the aKonzept gallery, where the artist of the current exhibition, Emmanuelle Rapin, was waiting for us alongside the gallery owner. "Stich der Weitergabe" is an artistic exploration of resilience, transformation and transmission between the natural, cultural and cosmic worlds. The artist was inspired by the cinnamon plant. The connection between this small plant, art history and the cosmos stimulates a reflection on the persistence of life forces through time and space.

At Galerie Michael Haas, we came across stones held as if by a ghostly hand and floating in the midst of glass constructions. Wires and the edges of broken and melted transparent panes form poetic depths in the wooden frames. The Catalan artist Jordi Alcaraz creates the impression of a multi-layered reality with free, random and yet carefully placed forms. He plays with seemingly irreconcilable opposites, which he refutes through his choice of materials and their treatment, without revealing how. His works are the result of a process whose course remains hidden from the viewer.

Next, we visited the Michael Janssen Gallery. The gallery offers a contemporary program showing mainly European, American and Southeast Asian artists. The program focuses on painting, sculpture and installation by both established and emerging artists.
In his 1936 essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", the German cultural critic Walter Benjamin describes the "aura" - the unique presence that a work of art possesses - as a symbol of authenticity, the soul of an art object in the age of mass reproduction. Filipino artist Augusto 'Gus' Albor, who has been known for his minimal non-objectivism for over 50 years, uses this concept to explore the transcendent qualities of abstraction in his new solo exhibition at Michael Janssen.

The last stop on our Charlottenwalk took us to the Mathias Güntner Gallery.
Currently on display here are works by Endre Tót, who is one of the most important artists of the Hungarian neo-avant-garde. His extensive oeuvre encompasses a variety of media and materials such as works on paper, photography, video and painting and combines pictorial, performative and conceptual elements.

Many thanks to Susanne Burmehl, who organized the Charlottenwalk for us and accompanied it with her expertise. It was a pleasure to immerse ourselves in the world of art together and discover new perspectives. The curiosity and interest of the tour guides enriched the day and we hope that everyone went home inspired and with new impressions.