Interview: Galleries at Art Forum Berlin

Leo König Inc. - Kai Heinze

Leo Köng Inc. is a New York Gallery and has existed since 1999. Kai Heinze is one of two directors at the Gallery.

Which artists did you chose to exhibit at the fair and why?

This year as our main work we picked a piece by Brandon Lattu called Riverside Windows. It’s a very special approach first of all because we’re a gallery that takes a rather conservative approach - for a contemporary gallery at least - meaning that we focus mainly on painting and sculpture. We only show one photographer and that’s Brandon Lattu. It was very well received from collectors and also from the everyday visitor. It’s an addition by six and at the fair we sold two at the price of 40.000 dollars each.

We also decided to sort of pep it up with two secondary market-works that we brought with us to Berlin. One’s a very nice painting from 1981 by Jörg Immendorf, which immediately sold at the opening night – we’re very happy about that – for the price of 150.000 dollars. The other work that we brought was a work by Martin Kippenberger. Its rubber on canvas and quite special when it comes to the medium. It was also sold at the opening night for 32.000 dollars.

All in all you can say that 2/3 of the art works that we brought are sold so the fair was very successful for us. We’re especially happy about that in the light that we did the fair three times from 1999 to 2001 and then we took a break for four years. Now we’re back and we’re very happy to see that next to us is Goff+Rosenthal, another New York Gallery, and also Robert Miller is here from New York. We hope to see maybe one or two more New York galleries next year.

I think the fair has successfully made a rebound and it’s very exiting, very interesting, the exhibition halls are beautiful – it’s great that the fair is located in these halls now. Also the number of galleries seems to be right at this point. 120 I think is ideal. Walking through the fair – I just did it this morning for the first time – was very, very pleasant.

Brandon Lattu: Riverside Windows, 2004-2005. Inkjet print,		Erik Parker: Gods Money (left), Nasty Boots (right), 2006. Mixed media on paper.

So the rebound, as you see it, is explained by better quality and better galleries?

Yes, absolutely.

Compared to the American market…? Is it different works that you sell here?

Well, yeah you could say so. I mean it’s still in the way that Berlin has a large market for really young and emerging artists. There’s this experimental feel in this city when it comes to contemporary art – and that’s totally Berlin. That’s what it used to be in 1999, when we were here for the first time, and it’s still that way right now and that makes it very exiting.

Will you come back next year?

Yes, we will definitely be back next year •

Ronmandos – Ron Mandos

Ronmandos is one of the freestyle stands at Art Forum Berlin. The idea of the freestyles is to exhibit only a few artists in order to make room for contemplation in the busy halls at the fair. Ron Mandos, owner of the Amsterdam-based gallery, won an award in the category "Best freestyle" this year.

You won the award for the best freestyle booth a couple of days ago. Do you have a short comment to that?

I show two artists in the stand – both of them made larger projects. One is Hans op de Beeck, an artist from Belgium, the other is Ina Lamers. Hans op de Beeck made a project especially for this fair. He made three new pieces, three new sculptures, made of plaster and polyester. It’s small tables with different objects on them and then food made of polyester. The title of the project is Bachelor still life. As you can see – you see the ashtray on the table, the cigarettes, beer, red bull, and some “bachelor food”. The works are quite fragile and refers to the still life painters of the 17th century - like Vermeer.

Ine Lamers is from Rotterdam and she visited a Russian city, Tolyatti, where she made her project. In the 60’ties Krustjev decided to let the city flood over in order to build a water plant. The old city is under the lake and a lot of people come there at night to remember past times.

So that’s the reason why I chose only two artists, two projects. I show a small repertoire because I want to make a kind of an exhibition instead of showing more artists.

Hans op de Beeck: Bachelor still life, 2006. Polyester and plaster.		Hans op de Beeck: Bachelor still life, 2006. Polyester and plaster.

What do you think of the fair this year?

It’s the third time I come here and I think it’s one of the best fairs in the world. The organization is very good, the structure of the booths is good, and Berlin is my favourite city in Europe. So I’m quite happy to be here.

Do you have any personal favourites?

Well, let me think…. you’re always quite busy at a fair, but there’s a painter Andrei Roiter, represented by one of my colleagues from Amsterdam. His drawings are wonderful so I actually bought one of them •

The Breeder – George Vamvakidis

The Breeder is an Athenian Gallery showing young, contemporary art, mainly by Greek artists.

Is this your first time at Art Forum Berlin

Yes, it is. It’s been really good for us. I mean – we made great business but also made very good contacts with collectors and curators. What we show here is a selection of our programme and mostly the younger generation of Athen-based artists. There’s a lot of really interesting artist at the moment like Vangelis.

I think you’re one of the only Greek galleries here and I must also admit that I don’t know much about Greek art these days. Do you think there’s an opening of the market towards alternative art scenes?

I think there is. It’s a good time for Athen at the moment. There are a lot of things going on and the market is starting to discover that.

We do a lot of fairs – we do art fairs in Miami, the Armory, Frieze Art Fair – so it’s not new for us.

Is the audience different here?

Although there's a lot of people here that we already knew, there was also many new people. Also it’s a nice fair because you have the time and it’s not so frantic. People don’t just walk by - you know, you sell and they go - you have the time to talk about the works and explain them and to go into dialogues with collectors and curators •

Marc Bijl: Untitled. Marc Bijl Untitled.