Hallen 06

Alexander Levy, ChertLüdde, Esther Schipper, Galerie Gegen & Lücke, Galerie Georg Nothelfer, Gnyp, Haverkampf Leistenschneider, Klemm’s, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Lohaus Sominsky, Mehdi Chouakri, Galerie Michael Janssen, Mountains, Galerie Nagel Draxler, Office Impart, Persons Projects, Robert Grunenberg, Galerie Russi Klenner, Setareh, Schwarz Contemporary, Collections Art Collection Telekom, Mercedes-Benz Art Collection, Fluentum, HK-Art Curated Exhibitions, Johannes Geccelli Estate, Hyperborea Curated by Shelly Lea Reich, Crafting Community Curated by Anna Carnick and Bocci, Guest Performances Grzegorzki Records, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester, The Company by Jouana Samia, Institutions Berlinische Galerie, Kunsthalle Giessen, Kunsthalle Praha, Invited Artists Nasan Tur, Daniel Knorr, Gregor Hildebrandt, Magazine Kunstforum International

Tickets available at tinyurl.com/yudtbdwm

This year, the annual art festival Hallen celebrates its 6th edition in the heart of the borough of Reinickendorf in Berlin.

With 36 participants, Hallen 06 is the largest edition to date and firmly establishes itself as a must-see highlight of Berlin Art Week. It includes 20 commercial galleries, 4 private collections, 3 institutions, 3 guest performances, 3 invited artists and a participatory art magazine scrapbooking event. Expanding to include 16 non-gallery projects, this year's festival has attracted more curated proposals than ever, which will be partly shown alongside or mixed in with propositions made by commercial galleries.

First-time participant Mercedes-Benz Art Collection will present Betriebsbereit, a curated exhibition gathering around 20 works from their collection, including artists such as Iman Issa, Alicja Kwade, Michael Sailstorfer and Haim Steinbach. In a solo presentation, Kunsthalle Giessen will pay tribute to the artist Sibylle Ruppert, who had an exhibition in 2023 in Gießen, curated by Nadia Ismail, realized in cooperation with the artist’s estate, run by Paul J. Walter and Sigrid Seeger-Walter. The presentation of a curated video program consisting of works of four Czech artists by Kunsthalle Praha from Czech Republic marks the first international institution to participate at Hallen. Co-founders of Hallen, Bocci host an exhibition curated by Anna Carnick entitled Crafting Community, featuring an international roster of designers and artists, all of whom honor community through exceptional, hand-wrought objects. The exhibition is accompanied by thematic talks, tours and children’s workshops.

Other newcomers at Hallen include: the Johannes Geccelli Estate, which will present a comprehensive retrospective on the occasion of the artist’s 100th anniversary; a group exhibition entitled Hyperborea curated by Shelly Lea Reich, and invited artists Nasan Tur with a series of linguistically-inspired neon works alongside a large-scale work based on flags of countries that do not exist anymore, and Daniel Knorr with his Artist Book performance that was started in 2007 with a notable stop in Athens at documenta 14 in 2017.

Returning non-profit partners Berlinische Galerie will present the large-scale inflatable sculptural installation Bycatch by Abie Franklin and Daniel Hölz. Fluentum will present works from the collection by Moritz Hirsch and Erik Schmidt, as well as a recent Fluentum production by Julia Scher. Returning for the fourth time to Hallen, Art Collection Telekom presents an exhibition curated by Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacher with eight Eastern European artists including Berlin-based Flaka Haliti and Klára Hosnedlová. Third time participant HK-Art will present Stillpoint of the Turning World with Ani Ba, Sam Grigorian, Meri Karapetyan and Tsolak Topchyan – four artists of Armenian heritage.

Weekend activations include: concerts by Grzegorzki Records, a record label of Berlin-based artist Gregor Hildebrandt; a series of intimate classical music performances among the art works by Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester, who relocated their rehearsal spaces to Wilhelm Hallen earlier this year; dance performances throughout the exhibition spaces by The Company choreographed by Jouana Samia and a zine-workshop by one of Germany's most established art magazines, Kunstforum International.

Among 20 commercial galleries presenting large-scale works, there are 10 first-time participants, including young Munich-based gallery Lohaus Sominsky and Düsseldorf's established Setareh, who since 2021 also operate a gallery space in Berlin. ChertLüdde and alexander levy, both founding galleries of Hallen, are each presenting two artists at the festival. Returning galleries include Esther Schipper and Mehdi Chouakri, who both operate an active storage onsite at Wilhelm Hallen.

Gallery highlights include a presentation of work by David Medalla exhibited by Mountains incorporating one of his seminal bubble machine sculptures; a presentation by critically acclaimed Austrian artist Heimo Zobernig (Galerie Nagel Draxler); a series of large-scale light boxes by Finnish artist Jyrki Parantainen (Persons Projects) and a 25-meter-long installation of handwritten and typed letters by Berlin-based Alex Müller (Haverkampf Leistenschneider). Galerie Michael Janssen will show a large-scale outdoor work by Margret Eicher who reproduces an 18th century tapestry in weatherproof tarpaulin with modifications to include the figure of gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg. Gnyp will show a 7.5-metre long painting by Elsa Rouy and Nigerian artist Gerald Chukwuma has created a site-specific 3-panel curtain work detailing Uli and Nsibidi symbols of the Nsukka art tradition (Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery).

As in past editions, there will be a fair-style presentation by a selection of commercial gallery participants in the elongated Matchstick space.

Hallen is a project by Wilhelm Studios and Bocci. Hallen 06 is produced by Wilhelm Studios.

Hallen 06 is the sixth edition of the autumn art event hosted at Wilhelm Hallen in Reinickendorf since 2020. It originated when a small group of Berlin gallerists approached entrepreneur and art collector Philipp Solf and Omer Arbel (Bocci) in the summer of that same year to join forces and to host them for an exhibition at Wilhelm Hallen. Within a month they put together the first edition of what is now an annual art event. The first and second editions comprised of a group of commercial galleries showing large-scale art works in the mostly unrenovated spaces at Wilhelm Hallen. The third edition, subtitled Reinickendorf Rules, expanded and welcomed 15 galleries and other partners in a more festival-style setting celebrating contemporary art. Last year the festival hosted the critically acclaimed performance Spooner 2020 by Casey Spooner for Kestner Gesellschaft.

The former Winkelhof iron foundry, now Wilhelm Hallen, consists of a listed ensemble of various halls, loft spaces and offices in a beautiful red brick architecture with a total floor space of over 20,000 square meters. Designed between 1898 and 1918 by the Pankow mason Christian Friedrich Malingriaux and built 1902 by the architect Hermann Streubel, the factory halls actually underwent only a few changes - in the 1950s, a few fixtures were added as well as the addition of a gatehouse. Since the foundry's closure in 2014, the existing structure of the ensemble has remained untouched.