2006 – The Year in Review

The first German screening of films by the Lithuanian-born artist Deimantas Narkevicius took place at the turn of the year 2005/2006 in the Akademie der Künste at Pariser Platz. At the same time, the daadgalerie featured an installation by Paola Yacoub and Michel Lassere, based on a work for the Internet, which enabled seven cultural institutions from different continents to participate via new communications media.

After the installation, the daadgalerie was the setting for artists’ talks introducing the new BKP guests Sanja Ivekovic (Croatia), Pavel Braila (Moldavia) and Helen Mirra (USA).

The film Berlin File by the Canadian artist duo Janet Cardiff /Georges Bures Miller who, like many other former guests, have remained in Berlin, was shown next in the daadgalerie. On the occasion of the 2006 Berlinale, the gallery was transformed into a miniature cinema.

The daadgalerie’s openness and generous proportions were once again in evidence during the next exhibition, Helen Mirra’s minimalist sculpture installation Cloud the, 3.

Belgian visual artist Nico Dockx and his group "Building Transmissions” participated in the sonambiente music festival, – which involved many cultural institutions and was dedicated to new experimental compositions – with a sound installation in the daadgalerie.

In June the artist Jimmie Durham, who was born in the United States, left Berlin after an eight-year stay to pursue his activities in Rome. Jimmie Durham’s last Berlin studio was located in the woodside studio complex am Käuzchensteig, and he used the clean-up of his studio as the occasion to shoot Im Grunewald, an artist’s video in which many relics, tools and rubbish from his studio serve in the most varied ways as musical instruments. The film had its premiere and sole presentation on July 23rd in the daadgalerie.

On the occasion of the Berlin – Tokyo exhibition in the Neue Nationalgalerie, mounted as part of the "Year of Japan”, the daadgalerie showed the work of the Japanese photographer Noguchi Rika under the title The Perfect World. Ms. Noguchi’s pictures are impressive underwater photographs that she took deep in the Sea of Japan.

With a nod to Art Forum Berlin – the International Fair for Contemporary Art, the daadgalerie next exhibited a work by the Belgian artist Ana Torfs titled ANATOMY. Ana Torfs spent more than a year researching and composing the multiple-slide and video installation. ANATOMY is based on the original transcripts of interrogations into the murders of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht that Torfs found in the Freiburg military archive. She assembled these original texts, unaltered, into what she termed "a tragedy in two acts”, and had actors of different ages from the Berlin stage recite the texts. In parallel, there was a photo shoot in the historical anatomy lecture theatre of the Charité hospital, again with ca. twenty-four actors from Berlin. The success of this work, conceived for and in Berlin, can be measured by the fact that Ana Torfs has since been invited to present ANATOMY by four other institutions in Germany and abroad.

At the turn of the year 2006/2007, the work of Katarzyna Kozyra was presented in an extensive video installation titled In Art Dreams Come True. The title can also be understood as the motto for Ms. Kozyra’s three prior years of activity. She used her Berliner Künstlerprogramm grant to take professional opera and singing lessons, in order to rediscover this medium as a performance discipline and further develop it as a performance mode. The exhibition In Art Dreams Come True provided an overview of thirteen different performances that Katarzyna Kozyra staged in Europe and abroad after her time in Berlin.

Many Veranstaltungen took place in Berlin and other locations in Germany and abroad within the framework of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm’s literary year.

The first poetry readings were given by Matthew Sweeney (Ireland) in b-flat (Jan. 24th) and by Paulo Teixeira (Portugal) in the Literaturwerkstatt (March 2nd), followed by readings in the daadgalerie by Aleš Šteger (Slovenia; April 12th), Slavenka Drakulic (Croatia/Sweden; Nov. 8th), Eugenijus Ališanka (Lithuania; Nov. 15th), and a book presentation by Petr Borkovec (former BKP guest, Czech Republic, Nov. 29th).

Under the rubric "Prose walks, but poetry dances”, a two-day homage to European poetry took place in the daadgalerie (May 5th and 6th), in which eight poets participated, seven of them guests of the BKP: Eugenijus Ališanka (Lithuania), Juri Andruchowytsch (Ukraine), Petr Borkovec (Czech Republic), Aris Fioretos (Sweden), Michael Lentz (Leipzig/Berlin), Aleš Šteger (Slovenia), Matthew Sweeney (Ireland), and Paulo Teixeira (Portugal). At the invitation of the Dresdner Literaturbüro, four of these authors also appeared in Dresden at the Bardinale (May 15th).

The culture year "Hungarian Accent” continued with "Kick’n’read”, a reading on the topic of football by the Hungarian authors László Darvasi, László Garaczi and Endre Kukorelly in the daadgalerie.

In conjunction with the Samuel Fischer Guest Professorship, public readings by the visiting professors took place, in addition to the regular semester programme, in Berlin und Bonn: Amit Chaudhuri (India) at the Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (Jan. 31st); Dubravka Ugresić (Croatia) at the Schaubühne (June 1st) und BKH, Bonn (June 21st); Fernando Pérez (Cuba) at the Instituto Cervantes, Berlin. Pérez’s lectures were accompanied by a film programme at the Cinema Arsenal.

Numerous collaborations made it possible for BKP guests to appear in Berlin and elsewhere: on the UNESCO World Poetry Day (March 21st), a reading took place with six poets in the Max Liebermann Haus at the Brandenburg Gate, four participants were from the BKP: Juri Andruchowytsch (Ukraine), Aleš Šteger (Slovenia), Matthew Sweeney (Ireland) and Paulo Teixeira (Portugal). "Poems from Around the World” was organized by the Brandenburg Gate Foundation, the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, Akademie Schloss Solitude, the Berliner Künstlerprogramm a.o.

"Ich bin ein Berliner” was the heading for a series of readings at the Instituto Cervantes, for which the Instituto Cervantes and the BKP invited former DAAD guests to Berlin: Carlos Franz (Chile, April 4th), Carmen Boullosa (Mexico, April 20th), Sergio Ramirez (Nicaragua, May 30th), Memo Anjel (Colombia, Sept. 26th) and Fabio Morábito (Mexico, Oct. 31st).

As part of the new collaboration with the westöstlichen diwan (produced by the Berliner Festspiele, the Goethe Institute a.o. with support from the Federal Cultural Foundation), paired readings took place for the first time at the daadgalerie: Gamal al-Ghitani and Ingo Schulze (June 7th); Qassim Haddad and Ilija Trojanow (June 28th).

All current guests of the literature department appeared in the ilb – International Literature Festival Berlin (Sept. 5th-16th). Former guests also received support: Ottó Tolnai appeared in the poetry festival Versschmuggel (May 31st).

Outside Berlin, collaboration with the Haus des Buches in Leipzig was intensified: the reading series "Zeit(ver)dichtung” presented Matthew Sweeney and his translator Jan Wagner (April 11th), Aleš Šteger and Matthias Göritz (Sept. 20th) as well as Petr Borkovec (Dec. 13th). Eugenijus Alisanka, Aleš Šteger and Matthew Sweeney appeared at the "Grenzenlos 2006 Poetry Reading” at the Literaturbüro Lüneburg (May 3rd). The seventh edition of the international literary festival poetry on the road invited Eugenijus Ališanka and István Vörös (Hungary) to Bremen (May 14th).

BKP guests were present at both book fairs. At the Leipzig Book Fair, the programme "Small Languages – Great Literatures” took place once again, this year with Eugenijus Ališanka and Slavenka Drakulić.
At the Frankfurt Book Fair, the DAAD had a booth in the International Centre. In cooperation with the Literary Colloquium Berlin (LCB), a podium discussion took place there with László Végel (Hungary/Serbia) and others (Oct. 6th). Eugenijus Ališanka participated in an event in the Translation Centre (Oct. 7th); Peter Nádas and László Végel introduced the anthology Berlin, meine Liebe at the Hungarian stand (Oct. 7th).

The literature section also presented the works of its guests abroad; for instance, the anthology Berlin, meine Liebe was presented at the Budapest Literature Festival (Oct. 28th). In cooperation with the Goethe Institute, a Cees Nooteboom Evening took place at the Goethe Institute in Amsterdam (Nov. 16th). And jointly with the music section, and in cooperation with the Goethe Institute & SICA (Foundation for International Cultural Activities), an introduction to the Berliner Künstlerprogramm took place at the Felix Meritis Foundation in Amsterdam (Nov. 21st) with a concert, readings by BKP guests Eugenijus Ališanka and Matthew Sweeney, and a video installation by Jimmie Durham.

The book series Spurensicherung (securing the evidence) has been published since volume 16 by the renowned publisher Matthes & Seitz Berlin. Spring marked the release of Berlin Hüttenweg, an anthology of works by the Samuel Fischer visiting professors, as well as the short story volume Spiel auf vielen Trommeln (play on many drums) by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland), which was introduced at the Literary Colloquium Berlin (June 6th).

A highlight of the fall literature programme was the presentation of the anthology Berlin, meine Liebe. Schließen Sie bitte die Augen (Berlin, my love, please close your eyes), with contributions by Péter Nádas, Péter Esterházy, György Konrad, László Darvasi a.o., at the LCB (Oct. 11th).

Two guests presented their works at Cinema Arsenal Director’s Night series: Robert Fenz (USA, May 10th) and Tsipi Reibenbach (Israel, June 1st).

The longstanding cooperation with the Berlinale, Berlin’s international film festival, was given new emphasis in 2006 when the DAAD Short Film Prize for the Panorama short film competition was presented for the first time (Feb. 14th). The award, a Berliner Künstlerprogramm grant, went to Rony Sasson of Israel.

There was renewed cooperation with the film festival achtung Berlin – new berlin film award (May 11th–17th), now in its second year: In the "Special Programmes” series, the BKP curated a retrospective in which three films by former guests were screened: on May 13th: Torsten C. Fischer and Jean-Philippe Toussaint (former BKP guest) with Berlin 10:46 (1994); on May 15th: 6 ½ / short films by BKP guests in film (2000–2004); on May 17th: Wieslaw Saniewski: Der Fremde muss fliegen – Berlin-Breslauer Platz (1993).

Ayelet Bargur (former BKP guest from Israel) presented her book, Ahawah heißt Liebe (Ahavah means love – published by dtv in 2006) at three cooperative Veranstaltungen in Bremen (Sept. 12th), at the daadgalerie in Berlin (Sept. 14th) and in Hamburg (Sept. 19th).

Since 2000, the music section of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm has been a guest with a portrait concert at the Ultraschall Festival for New Music, produced by Deutschlandradio and RBB. The 2006 concert was a double portrait: the renowned Ensemble Recherche of Freiburg with soloist Barbara Maurer and the Experimental Studio of the Heinrich Strobel Foundation of SWR performed works by both Mark André of France and Lucia Ronchetti of Italy. Lucia Ronchetti’s Pinocchio, una storia parallela – commissioned by the DAAD and Musik der Jahrhunderte – enjoyed a successful premiere by the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart. The work has since been performed many times around the world.
Many former BKP guests also enriched the festival programme.

In the concert series Music in May - Inventionen 2006, produced by the Berliner Künstlerprogramm, the Technisches Universität (TU) Berlin and tesla, six concerts with nine premieres took place between May 24th and 28th:
-- on the 25th, the programme consisted of several multi-channel audiovisual works in tesla – including two premieres by Wolfgang Mitterer (Austria) and Jocelyn Robert – as well as the music theatre performance Itinerario do sal by Miguel Azguime from Portugal. This work was composed mainly in Berlin and it has since been performed throughout Europe.
-- the 26th to 28th featured acousmatic music in the Villa Elisabeth from the Sonic Arts Research Centre SARC Belfast; the Canadian BKP guests Christian Calon, Francis Dhomont and Robert Normandeau; Mario Verandi (Argentina) and Kees Tazelaar (NL), who was the 2006 Edgard Varèse Guest Professor at the TU.
-- from the 24th–28th, sound installations by Robert Normandeau at the daadgalerie and an interactive audiovisual installation by Kotoka Suzuki (Japan) and Claudia Rohrmoser (video) rounded off the programme.
On the 27th, a series of lectures on the theme "Models and Algorithms for Sound Design” took place; speakers included the Edgard Varèse Guest Professor Axel Röbel (IRCAM Paris), Stefan Bilbao (U. Edinburg), Edgar Barroso (MTG Barcelona) and Ludger Brümmer (ZKM). Afterwards Björn Gottstein’s publication Musik als Ars Scientia - Die Edgard-Varèse-Gastprofessoren des DAAD an der TU Berlin was presented.
Inventionen received financial support from the Canadian Embassy and the Embassy of Portugal.

At the end of his BKP grant, Japanese artist Takumi Endo realized a prototype of his work Phonethica - Off the Wall, together with the British artist Martin Riches, in one of tesla’s studios from February 2nd–25th. The work was subsequently shown in Tokyo and in Hong Kong.

Musicologist Christine Anderson introduced Stefano Gervasoni (Italy) and works he composed during his residency in Berlin in a composer portrait at the daadgalerie on Nov. 14th.

The cooperation with the Berliner Festspiele made it possible for several BKP guests, including Akio Suzuki (Japan) and Chen Shi-Zheng (China), to participate in the MaerzMusik 2006 Festival für aktuelle Musik. Works by former American guests James Tenney and Alvin Lucier and others were performed.

Many former BKP guests (also from the field of visual arts) were invited to show their work in sonambiente berlin 2006 – the festival for hearing and seeing, including Nicolas Collins, Paul de Marinis (USA), Bernhard Leitner (Austria) and Robin Minard (Canada). Former guest Bernhard Gál, the sound artist from Austria, realized a multimedia sound installation in the Austrian Culture Forum Berlin.

The longstanding successful collaboration with the singuhr audio gallery continued with a renewed invitation to former BKP guest Maryanne Amacher (USA). From Sept. 21st to Oct. 29th, Amacher turned the Parochial Church tower and adjacent rooms into experiential acoustic spaces.

The Berliner Künstlerprogramm contributed to the success of the Total Music Meeting 2006, which took place Nov. 2nd–5th in the Berlinische Galerie, with its invitations to the Tuvan vocalist and overtone singer Sainkho Namtchylak (BKP 1994), who performed in a trio with William Parker and Hamid Drake, as well as the pianist Fred van Hove of Belgium (BKP 1983).

Through close collaboration with the Electronic Studio of the TU Berlin, our guests Miguel Azguime (Portugal), Maryanne Amacher (USA), Robert Normandeau (Canada), Mario Verandi (Argentina) and Clemens Gadenstätter (Austria) had the opportunity to present their work and their latest compositions to an interested young audience.

Mark Andre and Lucia Ronchetti were guest speakers at the Berliner Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (BGNM) as well as at the Hanns Eisler College of Music.

An event designed to provide an introduction to the work of the Berlin Künstlerprogramm, organized jointly with the literature section, took place in November in Amsterdam (Felix Meritis) in cooperation with Felix Meritis, the Goethe Institute & SICA. The Kammerensemble Neue Musik played works by Mark André, Jean-Luc Hervé (France) and Richard Barrett (GB); two readings and a video by Jimmy Durham also were on the programme.

Axel Röbel (IRCAM, Paris) was appointed the Edgard Varèse Guest Professor at the TU Berlin for the summer semester, and Eduardo Reck Miranda (U. Birmingham) was appointed for the winter semester 2006/07.

The choreographers Sasa Bozic and Zeljka Sančanin from Croatia, together with two other dancers, developed the project vertigo/territory of the eye as part of an international project with artists from countries in Central and Eastern Europe, all of whom met at the end of May for performances in Dubrovnik.

In autumn, Michael Laub, the director, choreographer and founder of the Belgian company Remote Control Productions, realized preliminary work in Berlin for a new project in cooperation with the Tanzwerkstatt Berlin.

Print