The Rallies and Runways of Berlin's Hallen 05

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Hallen 05 at Willem Hallen kicked off Berlin Art Week on Saturday. Running from 7 to 15 September 2024, it’s the largest edition since the festival began in 2020. This year’s lineup features 16 contemporary art galleries, including Peres Projects, Galerie Russi Klenner, and Van Horn, alongside more established names like Berlinische Galerie and Kestner Gesellschaft.

New visitors to the venue were especially excited about the voguing contests, organised by Haus of Telfar and House of Juicy Couture, which set an energetic tone for the festival’s opening weekend.

Dancers battled head-to-head on a runway in one of the lofty, former iron-foundry spaces, while an electric crowd cheered them on. Walking sculptures sashayed down the catwalk as the MC announced, ‘Bizarre, bizarre, bizarre... tens across the board!’

In addition to the voguing contests, Hallen 05 set the stage for a faux political rally through performances by Casey Spooner. The American multimedia artist, who ran for U.S. president in 2020, revisits his provocative persona to challenge traditional leadership and protest rising fascist ideologies threatening freedom of expression.

A vast warehouse is dedicated to Spooner, featuring a stage with scattered ‘SPOONER 2020’ leaflets, confetti, balloons, and smoke machines. During a performance on 10 September, Spooner—clad in leather trousers and a rhinestone shirt—took the stage, waving a large American flag and emphatically chanting ‘immigration, racism, sexism, genocide, antisemitism’, as visitors spurred him on.

Film is a highlight of this year’s festival. Rarely afforded so much space, film installations transform entire rooms into immersive cinematic experiences.

Yalda Afsah‘s film Curro (2023), presented by Berlinische Galerie, captures long, unobtrusive moments with human and animal subjects. Documenting the ritual of taming wild horses in Galicia, called ‘Rapas das Bestas’, the film examines how masculinity, human dependency, and disconnection from nature are shaped through the act of taming. It’s projected onto a large screen bordered on three sides by a curved structure that creates an enclosure in the otherwise airy industrial architecture.

Presented by Sies + Höke, Hedda Roman‘s inkjet prints from the ‘Maenads’ series (2024) glow under lights that cast dappled, multicoloured patterns, creating the illusion of looking through a crystal. The surreal, cinematic scenes awash in blue and purple hues evoke a radiance reminiscent of UV lighting.

Another highlight is Miriam Jonas’ tactile installations, which are presented by Galerie Russi Klenner. These pasty, powdery foam sculptures feature mattresses that are squished, folded, and bound by thick ropes, suspended above the concrete floor.

Art Collection Telekom, participating at the festival for the third time, showcased two works by Polish artist Iza Tarasewicz and a mural by Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov. Tarasewicz’s Turba Turbo (2015), composed of various configurations of metal hoops, frames, and shelves, transforms an entire room into a workshop-like space where viewers can zig-zag between her industrial assembly, rethinking their relationship to space, objects, and the unseen forces of production.

Curators Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacher, who led the Art Collection Telekom presentation, expressed their enthusiasm for the continuity provided by Hallen 05, stating, ‘The festival offers a fantastic platform to show works of art to an ever-growing audience in an excellent company of galleries, collections, institutions... The atmosphere, the serenity, the great interest in art is simply unimaginable.’

Emphasising its identity as a festival rather than an art fair, Hallen 05 showcases galleries’ commitment to presenting art in a unique setting. This environment offers artists the freedom to explore unconventional spaces and formats, resulting in a more immersive experience for visitors.

New participants found the event promising. ‘The spacious setting, paired with its timing during Berlin Art Week, gives us a great opportunity to showcase our artists beyond the gallery space,’ said Johanna Neuschäffer, co-founder of OFFICE IMPART.

The gallery presented works by Constant Dullaart and Salomé Chatriot, ranging from video to AI-based conceptual sculptures. Neuschäffer added, ‘We were thrilled to see serious interest from collectors, placing a piece into a private collection within the first days.’

While sales aren’t the primary goal, the festival’s diverse formats reflect a growing appetite for innovation, with collectors increasingly drawn to installation and multimedia art. —[O]

Main image: Casey Spooner, SPOONER2020 (2019) x Kestner Gesellschaft at Hallen 05, 2020. Courtesy Wilhelm Hallen, Berlin. Photo: Devid Gualandris.