WeGetCloser 1
The debut of the exhibition series, which took place in November 2024 at the FAHRBEREITSCHAFT in Berlin, unites the idea of coming together - of individual artistic togetherness, of being together.
Thanks to the selection of artistic positions and their neither work-specific nor thematic placement – in three different buildings, some partly intricate exhibition spaces and several floors, including the Fahrbereitschaft’s function room – the curator is able to give tangibility to the associative possibilities and tensions between the artistic works. The ‘Fahrbereitschaft’ (car pool) in Berlin-Lichtenberg was originally the headquarters of the transport division of the communist-party central committee. East Germany’s so-called high-level passenger service was organised from here. Today it houses workshops and small industry alongside exhibition spaces and the studios of artists, dancers and musicians, thus linking art, history and trade. In its former function the location was a place of constant coming and going, while it was also characterised by East Germany’s restricted freedom of movement. A contradiction that also allows historical reflections on the removal of boundaries. The curatorial narration, which deliberately places the focus on the works themselves instead of a stringent exhibition concept, enables a convergence that can’t be planned but that unfolds organically.
The topographic exploration of the site – which requires visitors to enter and exit spaces, floors or parts of buildings via a courtyard that is also part of the exhibition – makes it possible to cross physical boundaries and infer connections between conceptually related spaces. In doing so we encounter or re-encounter the various artists, whose works are adapted like an installation to the conditions of the site.
The accompanying programme – from the opening to participatory performances or a wide variety of events throughout the exhibition – is full of opportunities to come together. The temporal impermanence of the events gives rise to shared experiences that outlast the presentation’s duration and extend the boundaries of exhibition, artwork, social context and site-specificity.
Biographies
b. 1982 in Warburg, Germany, lives and works in New York
Lena Henke studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. Her work has been exhibited at the Kunsthalle Zürich, Museum Ludwig (Cologne), Kunsthalle Schirn (Frankfurt am Main), Palais Populaire (Berlin), Marta Herford, Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, Galerie Layr (Vienna), SculptureCenter New York, Bortolami Gallery (New York), Galerie Thomas Schulte (Berlin) and elsewhere.
b. 1986 in Casablanca, Morocco, lives and works in Paris and Roubaix, France
Hicham Berrada’s work has been exhibited at the Louvre-Lens (Lens), Hayward Gallery (London), Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art (Kennesaw), Pinault Collection at the Punta della Dogana (Venice), Gropius Bau (Berlin), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), ZKM Karlsruhe, MoMA PS1 (New York), Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Banco de la República (Bogotá) and other institutions.
b. 1979 in Rome, Italy, currently lives in Cologne, Germany
Johanna von Monkiewitsch studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig. Her works has been showcased at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Museum Morsbroich (Leverkusen), Kölnischer Kunstverein (Cologne), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Rijeka), Leopold-Hoesch-Museum Düren, Museo Ca’Rezzonico (Venice), Fondation CAB (Brussels), Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Kunstverein Mönchengladbach, Rubens Castle / Het Steen (Zemst), Berthold Pott Gallery (Cologne), Gallery Sofie Van de Velde (Antwerp) and elsewhere.
b. 1991 in Morocco, lives and works in Marseille and Paris, France
Mounir Ayache graduated from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. He was a resident at the Villa Medici (Rome) and has participated in the adidas Creators Source programme. His work has been shown at the Villa Medici (Rome), Manifesta 13 (Marseille), Institut du monde arabe (Paris), macLYON museum of contemporary art (Lyon), Silsila: Center for Material Histories (New York), Jeu de Paume Festival (Paris), Biennale de Paname (Paris) and other venues.
b. 1980 in Berlin, Germany, lives and works in New York, USA
Florian Meisenberg studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. His work has been showcased at the Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt), Kunstmuseum Bonn, Deichtorhallen (Hamburg), Kölnischer Kunstverein (Cologne), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, ICA (Philadelphia), Anton Kern Gallery (New York), Kate MacGarry Gallery (London), Henie Onstad Artsenter (Oslo), Boros Collection (Berlin), Berthold Pott Gallery (Cologne) and elsewhere.
b. 1975 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, lives and works in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Azza Al Qubaisi studied applied arts at London Guildhall University and has served as a jury member for the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award at New York University Abu Dhabi since 2012. Her work has been showcased at the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, me Collectors Room / Stiftung Olbricht (Berlin), Sotheby’s (London), Tanweer Festival (Sharjah), Leila Heller Gallery (Dubai), Bassam Freiha Art Foundation (Abu Dhabi) and elsewhere.
b. 1980 in Jerusalem, Israel, lives and works in Berlin, Germany, and New York, USA
Ariel Schlesinger studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and at the School of Visual Arts in New York. His work has been exhibited at the Yvon Lambert Gallery (New York), Künstler:innenhaus Bremen (Bremen), Galerija Gregor Podnar (Berlin), Kunstverein Braunschweig, Dvir Gallery (Paris, Tel Aviv), Galleria Massimo Minini (Brescia), Château de Montbéliard and other venues.
b. 1988 in Langenhagen, Germany, lives and works in Hanover, Germany
Sven-Julien Kanclerski studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig and fine arts at Chelsea College of Arts (London). He was awarded the Sprengelpreis 2025 in Hanover. His work has been exhibited at the Art Encounters Foundation (Timişora), Kunstverein Hannover (Hanover), Stella Ring-Center Gallery (Berlin), G+G Gallery (Karlsruhe), Hermannshof e.V. (Voelksen), Kunstverein Wolfsburg and elsewhere.
b. 1976 in Kyiv, Ukraine, lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel and New York, USA
Zoya Cherkassky studied at HaMidrasha Faculty of Arts (Beit Berl College) and the School of Visual Theater in Jerusalem. She has received the Ingeborg Bachmann Scholarship, established by Anselm Kiefer, and the Young Artist Award of the Israel Ministry of Education and Culture. Her work has been shown at the Israel Museum, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Gropius Bau (Berlin), MARS Center for Contemporary Arts (Moscow), Jewish Museum (Berlin) and other institutions.
b. 1985 in Mölln, Germany, lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Sascha Missfeldt studied communication design in Lübeck. He began his artistic career as a street artist and now concentrates on painting. His work has been exhibited at the neurotitan gallery (Berlin), HVW8 Berlin, Gallery Kanya&Kage (Berlin), Sugarlift (New York), aaaa nordhavn (Copenhagen) and other spaces.
b. 1984 in Bonn, Germany, lives and works in Kauffenheim, France
Friederike Reveman studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig and completed her MFA at the New York Academy of Art. She took part in the AIM Program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York and in the KKV Artists’ Collective Workshop Fellowship in Stockholm. Her works have been shown at the Circle Culture Gallery (Berlin), the Arts & Nature Social Club artist residency (Alsace), the Galerie Frank Pages (Geneva) and elsewhere.
b. 1993 in Eilat, Israel, lives and works in Providence, USA
Noa Ironic is currently completing her master’s degree at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. She has received the Emerging Artist Award of the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation in Tel Aviv. Her work has been showcased at the Rosenfeld Gallery (Tel Aviv), adhesivo contemporary (Mexico City), Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen), tchotchke gallery (New York), Weserhalle (Berlin), Mishkan Museum of Art (Ein Harod) and other venues.
b. 1986 in Tel Aviv, Israel, lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Mexico City, Mexico
Guy Aon studied design and photography at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. His works and performances have been exhibited and staged at the Rosenfeld Gallery (Tel Aviv), the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, the Jewish Museum (Berlin), the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan (New York City), the Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro and other institutions.
Performance
Katie Eva Gaj
Working note 1
03 April 2024
Central to my curatorial thinking about WeGetCloser is a question that implicitly accompanies many exhibition formats but is rarely articulated openly: how can an exhibition be organised in such a way that it enables closeness – as an aesthetic, social and spatial experience – without defining this closeness as normative, framing it didactically or appropriating it curatorially? In other words, how can a curatorial framework arise that doesn’t presuppose a coming together but makes space for it without functionalising it through thematic over-structuring or making it readable symbolically?
Working note 2
10 June 2024
I enter the site of the FAHRBEREITSCHAFT Lichtenberg – home of the haubrok foundation and location of several project spaces, studios and workshops – with the specific aim of developing an exhibition that isn’t conceived as a thematic statement but as a structured space of possibility in which closeness can come about in a wide variety of constellations. I am guided by an understanding of curation based on the concept of relational aesthetics – particularly the idea that artistic practice expresses its intrinsic vitality in its social dimension, in the construction of relationships and enabling of encounters. So closeness, as I understand it here, encompasses both the aesthetic experience in situ and the often invisible forms of coexistence and communication that it takes an exhibition to bring about in the first place.
Even during my first tour of the site it is clear to me that its spatial structure will respond to my curatorial approach. It has an openness that allows orientation without controlling movement. Three buildings, in which WeGetCloser will unfold, differ from one another functionally. Clearly contrasted in scale and character, but nevertheless linked by the extensive courtyard, they can form an open exhibition tour with transitions, vistas and distinct atmospheres. Against this background I make an early decision to forego classical communicative formats so as not to pre-structure the aesthetic autonomy of individual works of art through curatorial commentary, and to create conditions in which perception, analysis and also productive confusion remain possible.
Working note 3
23 August 2024
How much distance does closeness need?
Working note 4
13 November 2024
The invited artists Lena Henke, Hicham Berrada, Johanna von Monkiewitsch, Mounir Ayache, Florian Meisenberg, Azza Al Qubaisi, Ariel Schlesinger, Sven-Julien Kanclerski, Zoya Cherkassky, Sascha Missfeldt, Friederike Reveman, Noa Ironic and Guy Aon deal with the idea of closeness very differently. Some through materiality and physical presence, others in conceptual stringency or semantic ambiguity. Some works speak directly, through light, movement, surface impact. Others withdraw, are fragile, speak in ciphers or contextually. Their juxtaposition gives rise to an open space of relationships that constitutes the curatorial figure of thought of WeGetCloser.
In this constellation, closeness can emerge in an interplay of space, work of art and the visitors’ individual movements. The architecture of the site and the abandonment of a stringent curatorial dramaturgy ensure the possibility of approaching the artworks or of perceiving them from a distance, without suggesting closeness as the required or ‘correct’ experience.
Working note 5
20 November 2024
During the conception and realisation of WeGetCloser I am aware of my enhanced focus on the interpersonal processes that both accompany and co-constitute the project – a framework of communication, exchange, trust, vexation and collaboration. Since developing the curatorial narrative I have experienced the diversity of
such relationships – often invisible, yet substantially influencing the atmosphere and stance of the exhibition – more directly: conversations with artists and cooperating production partners, discussions about material and space, coordination with technicians and construction assistants, joint creative processes with design offices, collective thinking and reaction at interim stages in which planning and intuition intertwine, enduring
networks that become effective beyond my immediate range of perception. These processes aren’t simply logistical stages but jointly generated meanings that impact new contexts.
Publication
COMING SOON
Edition 1
Catalogue
We are pleased to announce the upcoming release of the exhibition catalogue WeGetCloser 1 – Fahrbereitschaft.
The publication features texts by various authors and offers extensive insights into the exhibition as well as the working processes of the participating artists.
Print version available soon, as part of the exhibition opening of WeGetCloser 2, 4 July 2025 at Stoff-Pavillon Köln.