Zeitmaschine Balthus – Eine Berliner Sammlung

“At the beginning, as is the case with most collections, the collection was not planned as such. It was about engaging with the unknown, the incomprehensible, and surrounding oneself with it. It was about the fascination of craftsmanship and about giving this fascination room in one’s own home, in order to remain conscious of the constant stimulus of life. What the collector brought inside were the depths of the unconscious, of philosophy, of painting technique, and with them he also brought wild, bustling Berlin into his own contemplative four walls. Let us set out in search of the traces of this collection, let us follow the various (un)reliable narrators. Whether these narrators are collectors, gallerists, authors or viewers – what remains are their stories. Stories of one-day exhibitions for Danish heirs to the throne followed by a feast, or of pictures only just finished in time for the exhibition that did not make it into the exhibition catalogue – because of the editorial deadline. Stories of pictures which, once purchased for one’s own home, first disappear into museums for years, of glittering parties after and before openings, just like that … The metaphysical dimension of art is timeless and precisely for that reason a time machine; individual works of art, by contrast, are not. They are always the expression of a time, whether they want to be or not, and therefore they also tell the story of their time: the story of their making, an exhibition history, a collection history, a price history. This collection, too, tells a particular contemporary history. If one wishes once again to follow an unreliable narrator, then this collection tells of a Berlin of the 1990s and 2000s in which so much was possible because there were large spaces to be had for little money. The collection also tells of backyard galleries, of improvised project spaces that later became institutions, and of Club Berlin, which brought together parties with art, techno with politics.” Katharina Hajek

Artists:
John Baldessari, Carol Bove, Louise Bourgeois, Mark Bradford, Nathalie Djurberg, Marlene Dumas, Marcel Eichner, Günther Förg, Theaster Gates, Adrian Ghenie, Nan Goldin, Thomas Hirschhorn, Jenny Holzer, Thomas Houseago, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Sherrie Levine, Jonathan Meese, Gabriel Orozco, Raymond Pettibon, Sigmar Polke, Richard Prince, Janne Räisänen, Anselm Reyle, Jason Rhoades, Daniel Richter, Gerhard Richter, Gregor Schneider, Dana Schutz, Cindy Sherman, Dash Snow, Philip Taaffe, Tal R, Kara Walker, Wawrzyniec Tokarski, David Weiss & Peter Fischli, Rachel Whiteread, Marlon Wobst