Скачать или смотреть Artists reflect on pandemic at Berlin Art Week

(11 Sep 2020) LEAD IN  :  
Each year Berlin hosts an Art Week festival of special exhibitions.
2020 is no ordinary year, the global pandemic has disrupted normal life for many.
But the Berlin Art Week has returned, with the challenges posed by coronavirus at the forefront of the artists' minds.

STORY-LINE  
This large installation is called "Blow Up Regime".
It is on display at the Berlinische Galerie as a part of the annual Berlin Art Week.  
For five days, galleries across the city are putting on special exhibitions and performances, in what they call the "first major cultural event in Berlin since the coronavirus pandemic."  
Swiss artist Marc Bauer's large installation shows large pictures on the walls of the gallery, including recreations of the inauguration of US. President Donald Trump.  
But this year the artistic process was harder than before, because the coronavirus made travel impossible and collaboration more challenging.
"Yeah well, this project was, as I just said, quite collaborative. So, with people in different countries. And of course, during the lock-down it was impossible to travel," explains Bauer.
"And, in Paris it was quite hard, so the musician really had a very difficult time. And at some point, he disappeared a bit. And the e-paper display comes from Holland, and the software is developed in Poland. And the idea was of course to visit this place and work really with the engineers there, but that was also not possible. Then there was delays. So, it has been a bit… I'm super happy that we managed to have it the way it was conceived"  he adds.
In total over 130 galleries are participating in the Berlin Art week that has been running annually since 2012.  
But of course, this year has been special, from wildfires in Australia, large-scale protests and the coronavirus.  
Bauer says he is trying to capture the sense of constant crisis in his art:  
"You have the feeling that one crisis blow up after another. And we are just trying to follow the craziness of the world."  
Over at the Centre for Contemporary Art German artist Nik Nowak is showing an instillation that tackles propaganda and misinformation.  
In his 'Schizo Sonics' inslatlation, two giant machines with speakers hold a sound war across a barbed wire fence.  
The work echoes the Cold War when people on both sides of the Berlin wall would set up speakers to blast propaganda and information over to the other side of the divided city.  
"Both of the sculptures are connected to various phenomenon of the speaker wars and phenomenon from sound clashes and sound system cultures. And the use of sounds as a weapon," he says.  
These days there are occasional speaker wars still happening, most notably on the border between North and South Korea, says Nowak.  
But in general, a far more powerful tool of propaganda and misinformation has been invented, he says.  
"Back then, during the Cold War, there weren't the means or the technical tools to make it very complex and to reach everyone. So they had to use mobile units on site and the you had pretty much two systems against each other. Today its far more complex. A lot more is hidden and there are many more ways to access each individual.  And there are far more channels that want to represent their interests. And the Internet and social media is for sure the most effective propaganda weapon that has ever been developed."  
At the IFA gallery in the Mitte neighborhood of Berlin an installation called "Time Goes By" fills the whole exhibition space.  
The event runs through to September 13.

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