Twice a day international experts will give insights into an increasingly global world of art based on their particular fields of work.
On Friday, 31 October, discussions with and about collectors and artists will be held at the ART FORUM BERLIN TALKS 2008. Saturday’s programme will be dedicated entirely to new media, video and film. Whereas the topics on Sunday will be the examination of the current situation of art from the Near and Middle East as well as this year’s special exhibition “difference, what difference?”

The discussions take place at 3:00 pm and 5:30 pm in the Talk Lounge, Palais am Funkturm - upper floor.

3:00 p.m.
Artists’ Talk: Aesthetic Positions in the 21st Century
Panel in German in cooperation with monopol

Since the end of the 1990s, a realm of seemingly unlimited artistic possibilities has unfolded in the world of the aesthetic community: there is hardly a material that has not been used before, scarcely a concept that has not already been explored. However, the art system is capable of integrating the different versions and manifestations of visual art. What characterizes artists in their efforts to express themselves? What influences do present upheavals have on art, its form, appearance and conception? How do artists judge the current situation and what do they expect from the future? Artists talk about art as a way of interpreting the present and about the subtle plexus of the art world.

with
Valérie Favre, Berlin
Christian Jankowski, Berlin
Thomas Rentmeister, Berlin
Thomas Scheibitz, Berlin
Kai Schiemenz, Berlin
Moderation: Daniel Völzke, monopol, Berlin

5:30 p.m.
Collectors’ Talk: Private Collecting
Panel in English in cooperation with monopol

Collectors will discuss current artistic tendencies, their passion for collecting and last but not least their relation to institutions, the public and the art market.
Since the early 1990s, the artmarket has gone through incisive changes. An increasing number of collectors today buys more actively and with higher budgets.
Driven by the countless number of artfairs, biennials and auctions, galleries had to change their mode of operation. Altogether the artworld is constantly aspiring to discover, promote and buy art more mind-blowing, newer and younger than before. How do private collectors deal with these conditions?

with
Themistocles Michos, collector, San Francisco
Abaseh Mirvali, former director Jumex Collection, Mexico
Izak Uziyel, collector, London
Liesbeth Willems, curator Chadha Art Collection, Amsterdam
Moderation: Daniel Schreiber, db artmag, Berlin

3:00 p.m.
The Public Gaze — Architecture as Place of Art and Media
Panel in German in collaboration with Media Facades Festival

City looks are increasingly dominated by large image formats almost all coming from a commercial background, no matter if digital or analog. Does this imply any chance for new exhibition formats? Or is art just being usurped and exploited? Is this format able to support local identities — e.g. by participatory approaches — and is it permeable enough to use traditional art spaces as well as digital picture elements in public space?

with
Thomas Eller, director Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin
Andreas Orth, director Berliner Fenster GmbH, Berlin
Alexander Stublic, artist, Berlin
János Can Togay, director Collegium Hungaricum, Berlin
Moderation: Mirjam Struppek, artistic director Media Facades Festival, Berlin

5:30 p.m.
Video & Film III
Panel in English in cooperation with LOOP international Festival and Fair for Video Art

Video, film and media art have become very important forms of expression in contemporary art. This talk will explore the position of video art on the artmarket and fathom the motivation of collecting an almost immaterial work of art. Furthermore: What is it that intrigues so many artists to work with moving images? In which ways are the special concerns of the presentation of this time-based medium taken in account in public and private collections and how are questions of copyright being dealt with?

with
Phil Collins, artist, Glasgow/Berlin
Llucià Homs, co-director, Loop international festival and fair for video art, Barcelona
Friedrich Meschede, head of exhibitions, MACBA, Barcelona
Jean-Conrad Lemaitre, collector, London
Paul Young, curator, LACMA, Los Angeles
Moderation: Kathrin Becker, director Video-Forum nbk, Berlin

3:00 p.m.
The Middle Eastern Art Scene — Emerging Trends and Directions
Panel in English in collaboration with Canvas Magazine

Central to our talk is the development of this region. The talk will explore its emerging art scene currently experiencing a substantially growing interest. We will also discuss the development of the art market and the status of cooperation and interconnections between the Western Art World and the Middle East.

with
Saleh Barakat, founder Agial Gallery, Beirut
Marina Sorbello, journalist and curator, Berlin
Akram Zaatari, artist, Beirut
Moderation: David Galloway, art critic, Wuppertal/Forcalquier

5:30 p.m.
“difference, what difference?” – Exhibition versus Market: an institutional critique
Panel in German

To what extent can art – or what we consider to be art – benefit from the self-destruction of existing institutional systems? Is there any potential in the economic situation that negates the essence of art, which has to be ignored due to an inability in use? How can the discourse about astronomically high auction results be productively turned over to an awareness of the reality of precarious working conditions within the cultural industry?

with
Paco Barragán, author of The Art Fair Age, Madrid
Raimar Stange, journalist and curator, Berlin
Barbara Steiner, director Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig
Barbara Weiss, galerist, Berlin
Moderation: Hans-Jürgen Hafner, curator, Berlin

monopol magazine

Canvas education

LOOP international Festival and Fair for Video Art

Media Facades Festival

TALKS 2007

TALKS 2006

TALKS 2005

TALKS 2004

TALKS 2003

TALKS 2002