Unlike New York, which has reinvigorated the art world’s traditionally sleepy summer schedule with blockbuster group shows, Berlin keeps to the old rhythm.  Galleries close willy-nilly for their sommerpause and some, like a few on the ailing Brunnenstraße, the brief former vanguard for young art in Berlin, ended their season as early as July. Despite a more subdued pace in August, there is still plenty of excellent work to see in Berlin.

One such exhibition can be found tucked away in the far reaches of the Grunewald at the Georg Kolbe Museum, a museum that was slightly off the radar prior to its current exhibition Romantische Maschinen (Romantic Machines). Curated by Dr. Marc Wellmann, the exhibition intends to explore the  emotional and aesthetic dimensions of contemporary kinetic art. Though the curatorial intention overreaches at times, Romantische Maschinen is a compact and engaging approach to kinetic art that is well worth the trek.

Fischli + Weiss’ iconic film Der Lauf der Dinge is presented as the starting point for the exhibition. Though Der Lauf  is only 22 years old, it is practically a senior work in a show dominated by works made within the past two years. Despite this, Fischli + Weiss’ film featuring a Rube Goldbergian series of contraptions that explode, tip, and roll into one another to form a16 minute long chain reaction delights viewers as much today as it did when it was first presented at Documenta 8. “It’s like a longer, grittier version of Peewee Herman cooking breakfast!” exclaimed my companion, the American conceptual artist Melissa Frost. 

The film is a tough act to follow, but several of the works did an admirable job. In L’angnoisse de la page blanche, a work by Berlin based, Israeli artist Ariel Schlesinger, two pieces of A4 printer paper slowly rotate against each other on a small wood plinth, engaging in an uneasy compromise between a hug and a shoving match. Originally presented as a theatre piece at the opening weekend of Skulptur Projekt, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset’s 2007 film  Drama Queens was a hallucinatory trip into a world where sculptures come to life. Works by Alberto Giacometti, Hans Arp, Andy Warhol, Barbara Hepworth, Sol LeWitt, Jeff Koons and Ulrich Rückriem bicker and snipe in shrill voices while discussing their status as artifacts.

--Jesi Khadivi 

(Images: Michael Sailstorfer, 1 : 43 – 47 Berlin, 2009, Eisen, verzinktes Stahlblech, Propangas, Popcorn, Maße variabel, Foto: Marcus Schneider, Couretsy: Galerie Johann König, Berlin; ,Fischli + Weiss, Der Lauf der Dinge, still image, 1987 © Fischli + Weiss. All images courtesy of the artists)