Berlin_Germany/ngbk

NGBK

address : Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst e.V.,Oranienstraße 25, D-10999 Berlin

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From "about" page

Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst
New Society for Visual Art

The New Society for Fine Art NGBK was founded 1969 in Berlin in a climate of social upheaval that at the end led to basic changes in diverse sectors of society such as politics, science, work and culture. The founders envisioned their institution for the arts as an alternative to conventional, hierarchically structured institutions, where each member would have the opportunity to participate directly in the process of decision and therefore in the planning of the program.

Since then this basic democratic essential has been shaping the public image and program as well as the inner structure of NGBK: Members engage in groups where they work on concepts and projects, which will then be presented to the membership at one of the two meetings per year, where the next years' program will be discussed and decided. This is the way various groups within NGBK conceive concepts, organize their projects and at the end form the annual program of NGBK.

So the program of NGBK does not follow an individual taste of a director, or a curator, as it is quite usual in other institutions. Nevertheless over the years a red thread respectively crucial points in NGBK's history can be recognized. For example, an approach to historical contexts, research concerning the social context of the arts as well as dealing with fascism under special consideration of the oppressed artists or on the other hand the collaboration of the arts with fascism. This led to projects such as Renzo Vespignani - Über den Faschismus/ Renzo Vespignani - Concerning Fascism (1976) or Inszenierung der Macht - Ästhetische Faszination im Faschismus/ Staging the Power - Aesthetic Fascination in Fascism (1987).

Due to the initiative and the engagement of many women in the mid-seventies, women artists and women's issues became integral part of the program. Künstlerinnen International 1877 - 1977/ Women Artists International 1877 - 1977 (1977), Das Verborgene Museum/ The Obscure Museum (1987/88) were two of the more exemplary shows.

Even with the second exhibition in 1971 an attempt was made to investigate the role of fine art in society titled Funktionen der bildenden Kunst in unserer Gesellschaft/ Functions of Visual Art in Our Society. Although the following projects abandoned more and more the didactic approach, they continued to ask for the function and the roles art and culture have or could have in society. While the early projects focused on theoretical discourses on art, today certain attention is devoted to confrontations with everyday contexts and installing art at unusual sites. For example, integrale Kunstprojekte/ integral art projects (1993) were installed in 16 different sites in the city, from a shopping center to the forensic department of the Bonhoeffer Clinic. At each location the art was to incorporate itself into the given conditions. Generally more attention is paid to artists dealing with social issues; as for example, Janine Antoni, Manfred Erjautz, Carsten Höller, Fabrice Hybert, Zbigniew Libera, Ma Luming, Tracey Moffat, Heli Rekula, Ugo Rondinone, Annika Ström and many others in the exhibition Pink for Boys/ Blue for Girls (1999). Discussions about different approaches and views accompanying the exhibitions become more and more important.

Two other groups the RealismusStudio/RealismStudio and the AG Fotografie/ Photo Group work continuously in contrary to the temporary projects. The latter works thematically and laid in early years a particular emphasis on the theme city, e.g. Berlin von außen/ Berlin from Abroad (1987), or Über die großen Städte/ About the Big Cities (1993). The RealismStudio was founded 1974 and since then concentrates on presenting contemporary artists who deal with contemporary social issues. Erzeugte Realitäten/ Manufactured Realities was the theme for 1994 framing two projects: Jeff Wall: Das computergenerierte Historienbild/ The Computer Generated History Image and Louis Bec, ORLAN and Stelarc: Computer und Körper/ Computer and Body.

In 1997 we started a series of exhibitions titled in order to present the work of artists and curators whose careers found a sudden end caused by a deadly disease. The first retrospective of the photo artist Mark Morrisroe was followed 1999 by an exhibition presenting the work of three persons (Christian Borngräber, Wolfgang Max Faust und Manfred Salzgeber) engaged in various fields of art and in 2000 by the largest retrospective of the US-artist Hannah Wilke ever seen in Europe.

From its inception, NGBK has been supported by the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin / Berlin Class Lottery Foundation.

Anyone interested in becoming a member is invited to contribute their ideas.
They also receive:
• free admission to all NGBK events
• 50% discount off all NGBK publications
• as well as free admission at art instituions, which are also part of the Association of German Art Societies.