Mitte is in the middle

When the wall came down in 1989, East and West Berlin began to reform themselves. Artists were interested in East Berlin because of the low rents, empty industrial premises and other spaces suitable for the making and presentation of art. After artists had settled down, the area began attracting trendy boutiques, cafes and clubs. ”Everything that’s new and interesting comes to the East, especially to Mitte. The districts in former West Berlin have withered culturally,” says Bischoff.

EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE

Ola Kolehmainen moved to Berlin about four years ago, when the bargain sale of properties in the East had already passed. ”In former East Berlin you could have a studio when you put a lock on the door. In the past four or five years the situation has changed so that it’s now cheaper to get a flat on the west side. East has become so hip that it’s difficult to get a decent apartment even with money. The average rent is higher than in the west, so are the prices of owned flats. Studio rents have increased the same everywhere.” Kolehmainen lives with his wife in Schönberg. His studio
is in former East Berlin.

Kolehmainen had been thinking about moving abroad for a number of years. A trip to Berlin in spring 2004 made an impression on him. The move to Berlin was made possible in the autumn of the same year by the success of his exhib-ition in Bielefeld Kunsverein and alternation leave from his permanent job as a picture editor in television. ”For my wife and I, the threshold of leaving Finland was reduced by the fact that my wife’s work situation became easier, and we have no children. Our original idea was to stay in Berlin for just one year.”

There are many good reasons for choosing Berlin as a place to live and work. For some ten years already Kolehmainen has been using a photographic laboratory in Düsseldorf for printing his photographic works. “I visit Düsseldorf about once a month and stay there from a few days to a week. Before I used to fly to Finland to have my works printed. Now I can also drive to the places I photograph. These days I first go to take preliminary photos and return for the final ones on a different trip. I travel more than 150 days each year.”

Apart from practical reasons, Kolehmainen is also attracted to the city by its open and tolerant atmosphere. In Berlin people understand the artistic profession. “When people in Finland ask me what do I do and I tell them that I’m an artist, the next question is usually ‘But what do you do for a living?’ Here the question is ’What kind of art do you make?’”

“Since the 19th century Berlin has been an established art city, and especially a centre for theatre, music and literature. People don’t ask too many questions or stare at you. Sexual minorities are free to flourish here. Some of the restaurants never close.” So it’s all bohemian life and romantic decadence? “Well. I don’t know about that. There’s a lot of clubbing for adults too, like theatre and music.”

Ola Kolehmainen’s first gallerist proved to be incompetent about the intellectual content of art – and even worse a former Stasi informer. It opened Kolehmainen’s eyes. “Gallerists are businessmen, not philanthropists. There are very few things indeed that are written down in laws about the art business. There are only practices and moral codes as well as mutual, usually oral, agreements.” Currently Kolehmainen does not have a gallerist in Berlin.

SIX HUNDRED GALLERIES

Helga Bischoff has been following art life in Berlin as a gallerist for 12 years. She is currently the executive curator and partner in KFA Gallery. The gallery is located in the borough of Mitte in former East Berlin. It is estimated that there are 600 art galleries in Berlin. “When I was starting my career as a gallerist in Berlin, there were only about a dozen other galleries that were on the same level as me. New galleries sprung up especially around Kunst-Werke, in Auguststrasse and nearby streets.”

KFA Gallery is situated in Bergstrasse in Berlin-Mitte. The gallery specialises in figurative and neo-expressionist art. Among the 16 young artists featured there, two come from Finland, the artist photographer Jyrki Parantainen and the painter Jukka Korkeila.

Bischoff does not have any particular interest in Finnish art. “It’s always about individual artists and their work. Their country of origin does not matter. Finnish art is not particularly well represented in Berlin, although there’s every reason why it should be.“ Bischoff has her own contacts for finding new Finnish talent. “The Internet helps a lot, too. It’s not necessary to travel so much. Sad to say, but I’ve never been to Finland.”

If Berlin doesn’t come to the periphery, the periphery at least has access to Berlin. In addition to Kolehmainen, there are some 20 Finnish artists currently resident in Berlin.

HIGH SOCIETY OF ART

Near to KFA is Gallery TaiK which promotes Finnish photography in Berlin. Gallery TaiK exhibits work by photographic artists of the Helsinki School, graduates from the University of Art and Design Helsinki as well as artists who have taught there. The curator of the gallery is Timothy Persons. “In Berlin it’s easy to establish long-term contacts, meet colleagues and art writers and exchange information. If someone doesn’t get attention here, it’s because he or she is lazy,” summarises Persons, who lives alternately in Berlin and Paris.

“Many important private collectors have at least a second apartment in Berlin. They come and go, visiting the art events in the city. Gallery Weekend at the start of May is one such event, attracting gallerists, artists and curators from all over the world. “

In the last few years, many foreign galleries have also opened branches in Berlin. Bischoff doesn’t think these affiliates of Swiss and American galleries are lucrative businesses. “A second gallery in Berlin is an inexpensive marketing ploy. It’s more about having a display window than about selling.

The annual rent of a big gallery in Berlin can be about the same as a week in the Art Basel fair.”

AFTER THE PARTY

The Berlin art market has also been hit by the economic crisis. It’s even driven a few big names in the gallery business back to the other side of the Atlantic. “The stock market crash last autumn was felt immediately in the overheated art market. At the moment nobody has it easy,” says Bischoff.

The recession puts a damper on trade, yet galleries continue to have visitors. Now tourists have discovered the gallery streets of Mitte. Helga Bischoff is not particularly happy about the growing number of art tourists, however. “Tourists, backpackers in particular, never step into a gallery for the purpose of buying art.”

The flourishing art market has also led to a rather surprising side effect. Criminals have wised up to the gallerists’ penchant for Mac computers. Galleries are frequently burglarised because of the computers in the backroom. “I’m certain the next trend is to have galleries above street level.”

Currently residing in Berlin, Ola Kolehmainen (born 1964 in Helsinki) is one of the most international of Finnish artist photographers. He studied journalism initially, but switched to photography, graduating from the Uni-versity of Art and Design Helsinki in 1999.

His work is in several international collections, and he has exhibited extensively, both solo shows and group exhibitions, including touring exhibitions of the Helsinki School. Kolehmainen is known for his large-format photographs where architecture is transformed into an exploration of the potential of visionand the structural elements of pictorial representation.

Kolehmainen’s exhibition A Building Is Not a Building opens in Kiasma in February. The exhibition will include a gigantic, nearly 20 metres wide photograph entitled Composition With David and Goliath. The work was made possible by a grant from the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation.

“Berlin is different these days. There is still a huge supply here, there’s high culture and many subcultures. But the general mood is no longer as intellectual or politicised as it was in West Berlin in the 1980s. Since the wall came down, there’s no longer anything to fight against,” deduces Bischoff.

Kaija Suni