"Introduction: Real Estate Show," in Changes on the Fly, ed. Matthias Mayer, Catalog to the exhibition series, Spor Klübü, Berlin, 2017.
How do Berlin artists deal with the changes in their city, the changing living and work habits? Many are losing their studios because real estate owners are targeting higher rents and more lucrative contracts with new paying tenants. Enough new affordable studios are simply not available. Artworks done in the last few years is generally disposed of quickly, because space – even storage space – is not affordable. The nomadism of artists reaches its limits, because even in the outer districts of Berlin alternative real estate has already been taken. How does this external pressure manifest itself in the work of the artists? The exhibition series “Changes on the fly” started with an example from New York City in the early 1980’s. In New York’s speculator-eldorado Lower East Side, artists occupied a storefront at the beginning of the 80’s to stage an exhibition on the topic of real estate speculation titled “The Real Estate Show”. This was cleared shortly afterwards by the police. Documentation of that exhibition organized in cooperation with Becky Howland - provided an introduction to the series, followed by the group exhibition “The Real Estate Show Extended/Berlin” which refers to Berlin and a further four individual exhibitions with Berlin-based artists at the project space Spor Klübü.
