Tue, 9 February 2010
Leisure
Arts & Culture
Talking Vernissage: A former fish factory gets a new life...
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Our local art critic, Jessica Saltz, talks to the owner of Dada Post, Berlin’s coolest art space you don’t know about yet.The ‘König’ plaque is still at the entrance of the former fish-smoking factory in Reinickendorf, but there is a new ruler: American sculptor Howard McCalebb is busy transforming century-old dilapidated outhouses into spaces for international artists to live, work and exhibit.
McCalebb, a renowned conceptual artist and former teacher at Parsons School of Design, bought the entire property from the König family for €180,000 in 2008 after just two visits to Berlin from his native California. Although still very much a work in progress, he hit the ground running and the Dada Post inaugural exhibition ‘Youth Cult’ in March pulled together an interesting mix of young contemporary artists from the USA to Peru, who tackled the space with the same breadth of imagination as its proprietor.
The old war bunker that squats in the central courtyard was transformed into a gushing water fountain, the body of which is visible if you descend the steps into the dank bowel of the bunker but which also trickles ominously through the ceiling into the outside space – appearing like a trail of blood on the dark evening of the vernissage.
McCalebb is working together with Lou Andrea Savoir, a fellow artist and former pupil, to curate the exhibitions. He aims to make sure the original features of the building are maintained so its history still resonates in the working spaces: McCalebb’s sculpture studio is lined with the original tiles and fish-gutting sinks; the gallery space was once the smoking room, complete with original scuffed brick floors and high wooden beams; the reception area was a former fish shop front. Two gigantic old refrigerator rooms that used to hold the piles of fish before it was smoked will house video and music installations – the acoustics are brilliant.
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