PREVIEW BERLIN presents itself as self-assured trade fair in Berlin’s autumn art season and is also developing a perspective for 2012.

It’s a well-known fact that the Berlin art market is constantly changing. But in 2011, Berlin’s entire art landscape was radically reformed. The most drastic change – the omission of the Art Forum – was disconcerting. But it also brought new challenges and opportunities for the players in Berlin’s autumn art season. PREVIEW BERLIN presented itself in its seventh edition as the Berlin art fair format, a fact that was widely attested.

PREVIEW BERLIN’s profile has stood the test of time: young national and international galleries and project spaces show their most promising emerging positions. In conceptualising the art fair, its directors, Kristian Jarmuschek, Ruediger Lange and Ralf Schmitt, place an emphasis on their experience with the mechanisms of Berlin’s art scene.

For the upcoming 2012 edition, they intend to create a platform that established galleries can also be affiliated with. The main objective of the PREVIEW BERLIN 2012 is to use this special profile to strengthen Berlin as an art marketplace.

To meet the demand for continuous improvement and also the expectations of the art market in 2012, PREVIEW BERLIN is changing its structure. A new, independent jury will be integrated, consisting of innovative protagonists from the art world, but excluding gallerists from voting power. Given this prominent advisory board, discussions will once again focus on analysing the most convincing artistic positions – the basis for acceptance into the exhibit. In this way, confidence will be regained in Berlin as an art market location.


History

PREVIEW BERLIN is organised by the Berlin gallery owners Kristian Jarmuschek (Galerie Jarmuschek + Partner) and Rüdiger Lange (loop – raum für aktuelle kunst) and the artist Ralf Schmitt (MyVisit.to).

Ever since 2007, the art fair, established in 2005, has been held in the former Berlin Tempelhof Airport, where the historical hangars are characterised by a generously-sized room layout. For the fifth edition in 2009, the fair moved into the singular main hall of Tempelhof Airport. Under the title LESS REGRESS / MORE CONGRESS, it developed a progressive art fair concept in the form of a curated exhibition without a classic fair construction, which was enthusiastically taken up by the media and the general public. Some 10,000 visitors over the course of three days made the PREVIEW BERLIN the “hub of the Berlin’s autumn fair season“(Der Tagesspiegel).

In 2010, the PREVIEW BERLIN once again presented an ambitious stand concept that reflected the wide-ranging experiences of the previous years: a combination of large-scale white cube exhibition booths and open spaces for expansive installations and performative works. A central lounge provided a meeting place for the over 12.000 visitors while also serving as an event venue for the multifaceted supporting programme, which consisted of tours, dinners, receptions and discussions. Another new programme feature was the focus on galleries and art spaces from Eastern Europe. The auspicious result: a flood of galleries from these nations applied for inclusion in 2011.

Two new plug-ins were also added in 2011. The cooperative project between Fresh Paint, Tel Aviv and PREVIEW BERLIN started with Israeli curators and collectors travelling to Berlin for a panel discussion with the directors of the partner fairs. The VIDEO ART BOX by Fresh Paint took centre stage in the main area of Hangar2. Here the Tel Aviv art fair presented German premieres of video works by Israeli artists. With FOCUS ACADEMY, PREVIEW BERLIN is turning to art universities and their students for a new format. In this 2011’s fair, works were shown by students from the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel and the Academy of Arts in Nuremberg.