Visitors at Preview Berlin 2012, Photo: Malte Nies

PREVIEW BERLIN ART FAIR 2013

In its ninth year of existence, from 19 – 22 September the PREVIEW BERLIN ART FAIR will once again present galleries from Berlin and the international art scene in Berlin's former Tempelhof Airport. In addition to the popular white cube booths, the fair will also feature solo walls established for the first time in 2012, allowing young, emerging artists and galleries to show their most promising positions and the latest trends.

With the plug-in FOCUS ACADEMY, PREVIEW BERLIN is also turning to the graduates of art universities. At the moment of transition from university studies to artistic independence, the intention is to give promising young artists the chance to present their works to a wider public of art enthusiasts and specialists and also gain experience on the art market.

Together with the Berlin Hyp, PREVIEW BERLIN will once again honour two artists represented in the show with an art prize.

In 2013, as part of the second Berlin Art Week (17 – 22 September), the art fair will raise the profiles of the individual institutions of contemporary art in Berlin while also positioning and strengthening the heterogeneous art location Berlin internationally. Last year, the PREVIEW BERLIN ART FAIR was one of the initiators of Berlin Art Week, which took place for the first time in cooperation with the exhibition format abc – art berlin contemporary, as well as the most important institutions of contemporary art in Berlin (National Gallery, Society of Friends of the National Gallery, KW, Berlinische Galerie, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein [n.b.k.], Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst [NGBK] e.V., c/o Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Akademie der Künste). With a longer timeframe leading up to this year’s Berlin Art Week, Berlin’s art landscape can offer an even stronger concentration of appealing events during Berlin Art Week and is expected to attract more visitors interested in art to the capital.


Perspectives

Founded in 2005, the PREVIEW BERLIN has been held since 2007 in Berlin’s former Tempelhof Airport, a historic building with spacious hangars. For the fifth edition in 2009, the fair moved into the distinctive main hall of the former airport. Here, under the title LESS REGRESS / MORE CONGRESS, it developed a progressive art fair concept in the form of a curated exhibition without classic trade fair booths. The fair was enthusiastically received by the media and the public: 10,000 visitors in three days turned the PREVIEW BERLIN into the “hub of the Berlin’s autumn art fair season.” (Der Tagesspiegel)

In 2010, the PREVIEW BERLIN once again presented an ambitious exhibition concept that reflected the wide-ranging experiences of the previous years: a combination of large-scale white cube booths and open spaces for expansive installations and performative works. A central lounge provided a meeting place for over 12,000 visitors while also serving as a venue for the multifaceted supporting programme, consisting of tours, dinners, receptions and discussions. Another innovation in the 2010 exhibition programme 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.

Joint projects are realised annually as part of a cooperation with Swab in Barcelona. In 2011, for example, Hanno Millesi and Ralf Schmitt conducted a performative reading on the Placa de Catalunya. A collaborative project between Fresh Paint, Tel Aviv and PREVIEW BERLIN was also inaugurated in 2011, including a trip to Berlin for Israeli curators and collectors, a panel discussion with the respective directors of the partner fairs and the VIDEO ART BOX by Fresh Paint in the art fair’s central exhibition area in Hangar2. The Tel Aviv art fair presented the German premieres of video works by Israeli artists here.

In its eighth edition in 2012, the PREVIEW BERLIN raised its profile even further, giving not only international newcomers but also established galleries the opportunity to show their promising artistic positions. Solo walls were also featured for the first time, enabling a continuing focus on the works of emerging artists. Galleries and project spaces from 14 countries, including Mexico, Colombia, Japan and Australia, attracted 17,000 visitors, a new record. With support from the Sony Center Berlin, selected video works by artists from participating galleries were also presented on a large LED video wall at Potsdamer Platz to an urban audience. For the first time, the PREVIEW BERLIN ART FAIR was held in 2012 as part of the newly established Berlin Art Week, which unites under one umbrella the exhibition format abc – art berlin contemporary as well as the most important institutions of contemporary art in Berlin.