PICTURE BERLIN, founded in 2009, is a hybrid residency/art academy. The program is designed for emerging artists working and using the medium of photography. This past summer marked our first Summer Session, which was extremely successful – with artists representing 8 countries, putting together 2 exhibitions and creating new bodies of work that far exceeded each artist’s expectations. Ultimately PICTURE BERLIN did what any residency should do – it pulled out the best in each artist.

This unique artist-initiated program continues to encourage the participating artists in active discourse in issues surrounding contemporary photography. This perspective is unusual within a European residency context as the program facilitates each individual approach to the photographic medium by offering close mentoring from internationally practicing artists based in Berlin.

The dynamic programming involving lectures, workshops, studio visits, and film screenings, uses Berlin as a springboard to examine the concentrated art scene in the city. A rigorous studio practice forms the heart of the program. Over the course of the Summer Session, artists attend discussions led by PICTURE BERLIN faculty, working artists in Berlin and each week ends with the ‘Saturday Crits’, a group critique with an invited selection of artists and art professionals. Summer Session 2011 begins with an exhibition and will also culminate in a curated exhibition of work produced over the month. Summer Session 2011 is dedicated to the theme of Subculture.

PICTURE BERLIN brings each participant directly into contact with the vibrant cultural scene in Berlin, offering the Summer Session and the new Spring Session which gives an insight into the international art world. These programs lead the participating artists into the art scene through the backdoor, offering them access, information, and possibilities other institutionally based programs are unable to offer.

April Gertler

Director, February 2011

Summer Session Overview” width=”570″ height=”30″ />
SUMMER SESSION (June 30 – July 31, 2011)
StudiosA rigorous studio practice forms the heart of PICTURE BERLIN. Because the program is mobile and uses the city as a backdrop, the studio spaces available to participants also change yearly. A large studio space at Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien was available in July 2010 for the participants during the program. Each participant had space that included a desk, wall space and floor space where they could work. The studio space also functioned as a meeting room for the critiques which happened at the end of each week, in addition to presentations by artists and film screenings. Check back for the studio space for 2011, which is not yet fixed.
Exhibition
The participants show their work twice during the program. Once in the beginning and once in the end – giving the participants a chance to experience two very different types of exhibition spaces. The program starts off with an exhibition in a project space. They exhibit work that they have brought with them based on a pre-arrival assignment about their expectations of Berlin. The end of the program culminates in a 3 day exhibition in a formal white cube space. Each participant is responsible for making work that is presentable and fit for the final exhibition. Please go here for more information on our workshops.
Workshops
Each week is choreographed around the theme of SUBCULTURE in Berlin by the invited faculty and includes a varying combination of lectures, film screenings, and guided tours through the city. A critique of work by invited artists and art professionals end each week. The theme gives the program an access point into the city.
FoodPICTURE BERLIN is as much about finding a way in a city that might be foreign to most as it is also about understanding the international art community. It is clear that connections are most easily made around a table with good food. Hence, preparing and eating food has an important role in PICTURE BERLIN. The participants are encouraged to meet for meals throughout the program.Galleries and Project Spaces
Berlin’s dynamic gallery scene, always on the move, has shifting clusters of activity. In the 80’s it was Charlottenburg, in the 90’s it was Mitte and today the center of the scene is going through another metamorphosis. A big concentration of galleries are in Kreuzberg bordering with Mitte in addition to Schoeneberg. There are over 750 galleries in Berlin and for a good overview see the free gallery guide Index.

Established galleries:

• Galerie Guido W. Baudach
• Galerie Berinson
• Galerie Mehdi Chouakri
• Galerie Max Hetzler
• Kicken Gallerie
• Klosterfelde
• Johann König Galerie
• Sprüth Magers
• Galerie Neu
• Neugerriemschneider
• Galerie Barbara Thumm
• Galerie Barbara Weiss
• Barbara Wien

Project spaces:

• After the Butcher
• Forgotten Bar
• General Public
• Invaliden1

Museums:

• Boros Bunker
• C/O
• Checkpoint Charlie Museum
• Gemaldegalerie
• Martin-Gropius-Bau
• Deutsche Guggenheim
• Hamburger Bahnhof
• Holocaust Memorial
• Jewish Museum
• Kunst-Werke
• Neue Nationalgalerie
• Helmut Newton Foundation
• Sammlung Hoffmann
• Stasi Museum
• Wall Museum/Documentation Center

Faculty” width=”570″ height=”30″ />
Projects are presented by artists in a concentrated week-long workshop format ending in a critique by invited artists, free-lance curators and artist professionals.

Joachim Schmid (DE). Joachim Schmid began his career in the early 1980s as a freelance critic and the publisher of Fotokritik, a German photography resource. In 1987 Schmid focused on his own art making, based primarily on found photography and public image sources. In recent years, his work has taken him to the Internet to create provocative works that reflect the future of photography in a networked, global culture. His work is included in major museum collections and he is a recipient of the prestigious Mondriaan Prize of Holland, and was awarded a Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung grant by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in 2004. Schmid lives and works in Berlin.
> Schmid’s Website
> About Schmid on Lensculture

Ivan Seal (GB) Ivan Seal works with installation using a diverse range of constructed and found materials. These have in the past included, drawings, a club full of empty beer bottles, low end base sine waves, dirt, chewing gum, crucifixes, mdf massaged with lead powder, oil paintings, quadraphonic sound systems, home made bongs, stochastic processed noise, a wasps nest and cigarette butts. Born in 1973 in Manchester, England, Ivan is currently preparing exhibitions for Berkeley Art Museum, Centre Europeen d’Actions Artistiques Contemporaines, Strasbourg and is represented by Novembro Arte Contempoanea Sau Paulo.
> website

Sofia Hulten (SWE) Sofia Hulten’s sculptural practice enquires into the nature of found objects, featuring them in the round or as the protagonists of photographs and videos, yet always in four dimensions, vibrating with their past and potential. She submits ordinary objects to strange activities, observing how they behave unmoored from their contexts. Her recent solo exhibitions include ‘Past Particles’ Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin (2010), ‘Pressure Drop’ RaebervonStenglin, Zuerich, ‘Ninety-Nine Problems’ Meessen De Clercq, Brussels (2010), ‘Back to Back’, Konrad Fischer Oben, Berlin (2009); ‘Drawn Onward’, IKON Gallery Offsite, Perrot’s Folly, Birmingham, UK (2009); ‘Mutual Annihilation’, Kuenstlerhaus Bremen, (2008); ‘Familiars’, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2007); and ‘You Do Voodoo You Do’, Kunstverein Nuernberg (2007).
> website

Alumni” width=”570″ height=”30″ />

Robbie ACKLEN [US]
Robbie Acklen was born in 1989 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Currently he is studying Studio Art and Media Studies at Pitzer College in Southern California. His work has been exhibited in Seattle, Portland, London, and Berlin.

Paul CORCORAN [Ireland] www.paulcorcoran.info
Paul Corcoran is an Irish photographer currently based in Berlin. He is a recent graduate of the Documentary Photography program at the University of Wales, Newport. His work has been exhibited in numerous group shows across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Paul has a passion for photo books and mostly works with the book in mind as a final destination for his work. Self published titles to date include 22 and Empty Promise.

Celine Mikahala GROUARD [France / US] www.celinegrouard.com
Celine Mikahala Grouard is a French-American photographer currently based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. Grouard will receive a BFA in Photography from the California College of the Arts in December 2010. Her current work focuses on ideas of absence, especially in portaiture.

Olivia HALL [US] www.oliviahallphotography.net
Olivia Hall is a photographer, sculptor and video artist from New York City. She now lives in Tivoli New York where she is studying photography at Bard College. She is interested in the organization of things.

HAN Sungpil [Korea] www.hansungpil.com
Han Sungpil lives and works in Korea. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in Germany, the US, Slovakia, UK, Indoneisa and Korea and his works are internationally collected in the museums and pubic spaces. Photography is his way of seeing & thinking. He enjoys understanding diverse cultures which are concepts in his work.

Amanda Coimbra McCASKEY [Brazil] www.amandacoimbramccaskey.com
Amanda Coimbra McCaskey was born in 1989 in Brasilia, Brazil lives and works in Chicago. Brasilia’s embodiment of both the utopian and the dystopian has resulted in her exploration of sociological themes through photography. She will receive her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. Her work has been exhibited in Germany, Ireland and the US.

Caroline MONNET [Canada / France]
Caroline Monnet, born in Ottawa, Canada, is a self-taught award winning filmmaker and artist. She completed a B.A in Communication and Sociology at the University of Ottawa and Granada, Spain. She uses video, photography, and installation to explore the dualities of her social, political, and spiritual identity, developing a critical framework influenced by history, community, and unconventional memory. Monnet’s work has been exhibited across Europe, Canada and the US. She is currently based in Winnipeg where she is an active member of ITWÉ, a trans-disciplinary collective dedicated to research, creation, production and education in the field of Aboriginal digital culture.

Ana Catarina PINHO [Portugal]
Ana Catarina Pinho was born in 1983 in Porto, Portugal. She received a Fine Arts degree in Painting from the Escola Superior Artística do Porto. In 2010, she completed her Masters in Documentary Photography and Cinema at the Instituto Politécnico do Porto. Ana Catarina continues to work on documentary photography.

Aine SAUNDERS [Ireland]
Aine Saunders was born in 1988 in Ireland. She is currently an undergraduate Fine Art student, at the Crawford College of Art and Design (Cork, Ireland) where she is currently studying for her BFA in Fine Art. A main theme in Aine’s work is the study of transgender topics within secularised society. There is a continuous suggestion of narrative throughout her work whether depicting the figure or landscape. Moments of calmness and privacy are subtly captured in Aine’s work to reflect the balance of control and freedom in an urban environment.

Mary Grace TATE [US] www.marygracetate.com
Mary Grace Tate was born in 1988 in Chicago, Illinois. She was raised in Lexington, KY and received her BFA in Studio Art at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Mary Grace is interested in found objects, cultural histories, and new memories. She explores these ideas in photography and sculptural installations.

Cemile Seren TURAM [Turkey]
Seren Turam was born in 1991 in Istanbul, Turkey. She is currently a student at Bilgi University in Istanbul concentrating on Film and Television and also comparative literature. Seren has been working with analogue photography for the last 2 years.

Deadline: 8 April 2011
The Summer Session dates: 30 June – 31 July 2011
The program fee is 3,650 Euros

PICTURE BERLIN
April Gertler
Kopenhagenerstrasse 4
10437 Berlin, Germany
+49 177 617 1652
pictureberlin@gmail.comPhotography Credit :
Charlie Jouvet : About, Support
Christian Schlicht : Overview, Faculty, Workshops, Program Information, FAQ’s, Contact
April Gertler: Summer 2010, Application, Financial AssistanceLogo : Dani Gal
Website : Charlie Jouvet