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Quobo: Art in Berlin 1989-1999

by John McGee

Albrecht Schafer, florina, 1998 (Image courtesy the artist)

This diverse show captures the artistic zeitgeist coming out of Berlin's recent metamorphosis via unexpected works such as Maria Eichhorn's irregular eight-ball installation, Game on a Sloping Billiard Table (1989). 

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, great political and cultural upheaval occurred as the two halves of the formerly divided city rejoined. Artists began to move into the cheap housing and studio space in the eastern Berlin district of Mitte. Over the next decade, bars, clubs and galleries sprang up, transforming Berlin-Mitte into an art center not only for Germany, but for all of Europe. In 1998, the city held its first Biennial. And in 1999, the German capital moved from Bonn to Berlin. 

"Quobo," organized by the German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, compresses this decade of energy into a modest touring exhibition of work by 14 artists and art collectives. The generation of artists (most in the show were born between the early 1950s and mid-'60s) that emerged during Berlin's '90s cultural rebirth eschewed the bombast of '80s big paintings for concept-based production. Crossed-cultures, pop-sculpture, perception—thematically, nearly all the works are different. Most of the show's sculptures, installations and videos, however, either invite viewers to interact or describe a dynamic flux. 

(e.) Twin Gabriel, Lemonade. From Africa, 1996 (Image courtesy the artist)

Carsten Nicolai entertains visitors' DJ fantasies in his simple but addictive noto kit ° (1997-98). Four turntables create an analog sequencer that lets you play at being a pattern musician, experimenting with layered tracks in real time. The pale translucent records contain multiple short tracks of pops, hisses, sine waves, wa-was and other electronic noises. Play one, two or all the records. Adjust the speed. Choose the hole in the center of the record for regular effect or the secondary, slightly off-center hole to produce a warped effect of the same sound. Each element has a narrow range of functions, but the combinations are limitless. 

A pair of installations take spectacular visual command of MoT's huge, open lower-floor gallery. Monica Bonvicini covered the entire floor with gypsum wallboard, raising it on bits of styrofoam placed here and there underneath. As visitors tramp along the top, they punch through the thin gray construction panels into the white gypsum center and the floor below. Over time, the pockmarked surface resembles a road in a war zone. At one end of this floor, glass cube plankton incubation chambers sit on top of cement blocks. The plankton in Lemonade. From Africa (1996), by the duo (e.) Twin Gabriel, grows under overhead sunlamps, slowly changing the color of the liquid to a dark, increasingly opaque green. 

For florina (1998), Albrecht Schafer enlarged a basic children's building toy—notched discs—into white styrofoam units the size of garbage can lids. He fit the pieces together to create a tunnel, an ice cave of oversized, uniform snowflakes. Light filters down, bouncing off the surfaces in sensual shadow play. 

There are a few duds, like Nina Fischer and Maroan El Sani's update of a Warhol screen test. And a couple of pieces lose viewers in their uber-concept. But the thematic variety and general lighthearted spirit of "Quobo" offer a positive glimpse inside Europe's thriving new art capital.

The Quobo: Art in Berlin 1989-1999 exhibition was held Oct-Nov 2002 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MoT) in Kiba, Tokyo, Japan.

©2006 John McGee

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