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Last dance

Place: KINDL - Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin

Date: -

Artists: Taslima Ahmed, Tamina Amadyar, Alisa Berger, Niklas Binzberger, Franz Burkardt, Hadassa Emmerich, Antje Engelmann, Isabelle Fein, Flame, Ossian Fraser, Isabella Fürnkäs, Paris Giachoustidis, Manor Grunewald, Tilman Hornig, Sofia Hulten, David Jablonowski, Maria Kremeti, Felix Kultau, Paul Laffoley, Simon Laureyns, Jeewi Lee, Robert Lucander, Florian Meisenberg, Mohamed Namou, Marie Reinert, Marie Rief, Maik Schierloh, Frederic Spreckelmeyer, Stephanie Stein, Hiroki Tsukuda, Sandra Vaka, Eva Vuillemin, Shira Wachsmann, Michael White

Curated by: Joep van Liefland & Maik Schierloh

Works: Insomnia Drawings

When artists Joep van Liefland and Maik Schierloh founded Autocenter in June 2001, they launched one of Berlin’s most exciting artist-run spaces. In addition to a club on Simplonstraße, they held exhibitions that lasted just a single weekend. This conceptual decision had simple, pragmatic reasons: no budget meant no invigilators, no money for commissioned work, no assistants, and no PR representatives.

In 2007, Autocenter moved to the upper floor of a discount supermarket in Friedrichshain, and in 2013, it relocated to Leipziger Straße. Autocenter quietly closed in 2015. Over its fourteen-year run, with almost no institutional support, Autocenter produced no fewer than 200 exhibitions featuring 800 artists, a summer academy, a series of talks and performances, an Oktoberfest, several concerts, two auctions, a substantial hardcover book (350 pages documenting the space’s history), and an iconic tote bag.

Following the exact principles laid out at the beginning of the Autocenter concept, the final exhibition will take place at the KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art over just a single weekend—starting with an opening on Friday evening. The two organizers could have chosen to present the history of their space as a kind of “best-of” compilation, like those released by Madonna or U2 before Christmas. But true to their original philosophy, van Liefland and Schierloh instead decided to exhibit around thirty artists who have never shown at Autocenter before. Because Berlin’s art scene has changed, because younger artists are struggling for affordable studios and exhibition spaces, and because Berlin’s true treasure is the creative minds who live and make art in the city.

- Text by Joep van Liefland and Maik Schierloh

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