Gallery Portrait
carlier | gebauer

Christian Ganzenberg, 2021

Up the steps! Sometimes anniversaries bring not only congratulations but also new challenges. Carlier | gebauer marked its thirtieth anniversary with a series of exhibitions conceived by curators and artists as gifts to the gallery. Dieter Schwarz started things off with an “improvisation without a fixed theme,” which brought together the works of eight artists from the gallery’s program and history. Even more representative of the work at carlier | gebauer was, however, the show The Youngest Day, conceived by Los Angeles-based artist Mathew Hale. With it, he turned his attention to his adopted home of Los Angeles. No effort, expense, or extra round was spared to realize this unusual group exhibition during the summer of the pandemic. This vividly illustrates the gallery’s ethos, which is without equal even outside of Berlin. carlier | gebauer understands itself as more than a purely commercial undertaking; since Gebauer founded the gallery in 1991 on the floor above a Turkish mosque in Kreuzberg, it has developed an experimental, institutional disposition in which the idea is paramount. In order to enable artists to realize complex and extensive projects, ways and means are sought, spaces are adjusted accordingly and occasionally the impossible is made possible. As was the case in Berlin in 1993 when Gebauer exhibited Armenier Sarkis, who was living in exile. The artist’s expansive installations were highly ambitious for a young gallery, so the necessary building materials had to be obtained through not entirely legal avenues. The opening of Leidschaft coinciding with a religious service at the mosque in the middle of a stormy Berlin autumn will remain a vivid memory for everyone in attendance.

Time and again, Carlier and Gebauer facilitate exhibitions that consciously seek to destabilize their own spaces and given capacities. The gallery’s premises have never had the neutral character of a white cube. On the contrary, the two gallerists placed greater emphasis on the distinctive character of the spaces—and their artists gladly accepted the challenge. In 2002 Santiago Sierra transformed the newly renovated gallery on Holzmarktstraße into a minimalist sculpture extending into the outdoor space with twelve tar-coated beams. This attracted the attention not only of the water police but also courageous collectors. The fact that the gallery employees had to work in hats and gloves for the exhibition’s duration illustrates the gallery’s uncompromising approach. Similarly spectacular was Nida Sinnokrot’s first solo exhibition, in which he cut a shipping container into eleven slices by hand. The container had previously served as a caravan for Israeli settlers and then as a Palestinian construction site office. After discovering Jonah’s Whale at the Sharjah Biennial, this striking installation was brought to Germany and presented in several exhibitions.

Alongside such extraordinary projects, carlier | gebauer has accompanied artists over many years, supporting key stages in the development of their careers. This is exemplified in their longstanding collaborations with Michel François, Julie Mehretu and Thomas Schütte. Fearlessness, poise, perseverance and a willingness to embrace challenges are qualities also evident in the gallery’s choice of a second venue: In 2019, carlier | gebauer opened a second location on Calle de José Marañón in Madrid. Kaspar König invited the gallery to ARCO for the first time in 1994. Since then, it has developed a special connection to the city, its institutions and collections. It is perhaps indicative that almost all carlier | gebauer gallery spaces are only accessible via a more or less prominent set of stairs. This detail can be taken figuratively to stand for the aspiration and challenges of carlier | gebauer: to the artists, to the visitors, to the collectors and, above all, to themselves. Take the seven steps that lead into the Berlin exhibition spaces, and you will experience for yourself what this means.