European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 06, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse -. A a -. A a Wornor Sollien several works of Art share the Central courtyard of the Quot Metropolis Quot exhibit Hall including Quot Ballerina Clown Quot by Jonathan Borofsky at right the hanging Quot film sphere with pipe clamps Quot by Mike and Doug Starn and Quot Cythera Quot an installation by Ian Hamilton Finlay Down the Middle. By Roberta Smith the new York times the most interesting fact about Metropolis the International exhibition of contemporary Art recently inaugurated in Beilin is that anyone in this once divided City who wants to see it can. It is exciting to think of the show As symbolic of unregulated artistic Exchange Between East and West or of a rejuvenated culturally prominent Berlin implied by the exhibition s title. most interesting fact is that Metropolis a takes place in the Martin a carefully restored wonder of 1880s modernity around which. Berlin s past and future swirl with unusual vigor. From the building Are visible the former Headquarters of the Gestapo a Section of the Berlin Wall and streets in the process of being reconnected for the first time in 30 years. But the deepest impression is made by the levelled City Block beside the where the. Nerve Center of the Schut Stattel or is once stood. The locations ground plans and odious purposes of these buildings caring the nazi Era Are documented by. Markers and maps and by a display titled Topography of. Terror housed Small White Structure a few Yards from the . The incredible lightness of new Freedom and the dead weight of history imbue Metropolis with an undeniable Aura of importance and possibility but not enough to bring much lit e or sense to the proceedings. T the exhibit is the work of Norman Rosenthal exhibitions Secretary of the Royal Academy in London and , a Berlin Art critic. Promoted As a Quot Panorama of Art at the beginning of the 1990s&Quot. It contains works by 72 artists from More than 20 countries and covers a lot of ground. But it has a capricious ill informed almost irresponsible lumpiness. Over nearly 40 spacious galleries the show veers unpredictably from painting and sculpture to photography and installations several of which invoke video displays. It ranges from ubiquitous Art circuit heavyweights like Georg Kaselitz Jannis Kounellis and Gerhard Richter to emerging Quot hot Quot artists like Cady Noland who made a splash at last summer s Venice Berlin exhibit is haphazard look at Art in the 90s a a a a. A a a a a a a. ,. Bien Nale but seems to have abandoned at midpoint her Large installation Here. A there Are also virtually unknown Young artists a especially memorable among them Rachel Whit read an English sculptor and Maria Eichhorn a Berlin installation artist the few artists from Eastern Europe and the soviet Union Are Tor the most part not yet ready for prime time exposure. The enormous As it is cannot Cope / with 72 artists. And permeating All Levels is a sense of the haphazard and last minute. The show is less a Panorama than a mass of contradictory intentions agendas and standards an exhibition with a multiple personality disorder. It should hasten the death of the big International exhibition at the very least it outlines what such endeavours will be up against in the 1990s a Foremost among them an unprecedented pluralism. Rosenthal and Joachimides Are no strangers to the monster International show having organized zeitgeist at the in 1982. The year before with Nicholas Serota now the director of the Tate gallery in l Ondon they orchestrated a new spirit in painting Tor the Royal Academy. A both exhibitions took Strong polemical positions or at least displayed such blatant biases that they had Clear Cut if one sided profiles. New spirit was All painting zeitgeist largely a Celebration of Neo expressionism was mostly painting and also Hall German. Now alter a nine year hiatus Rosenthal and Joachimides area templing to t it h up with an Art world in which paintings Are no longer quite so dominant. In ins introductory essay him ides proclaims that the torn h has passed irom he Asso the Man of who hour influence Wiso in 1981 a to Bui Hump. But the actual exhibition oilers nothing so focused As an examination of the ready made object or image in Lulo-20th- Elury Ait an Issue of some importance. Missing Are the eminently due Siumui Rolke Martin Kip it Enberger and David Salle not to mention Janjic r Johns. And where arc Stull Uithof 1970s Phil ogre hic work like John Baldessari and Bernd and Hill Hie last europeans Luck numbers and a heavyweight of their own like the russian concept list Ilya Nabokov to make1 much of an impression a the show s hit or miss schizophrenic Ciarac Ter is signalled from the first encounter. In the Gropius buil big s grand atrium unrelated works by tour artist Are crammed together to horrendous effect Jonathan Borofsky s 30-foot c Lown headed Ballerina Jan Fibre s Ink covered houses a hanging photographic sculpture by Doug ailed Mike i arid the Center ail installation by the British sculptor Ian Hamilton Finlay that resembles nothing so Mue h As thu Entrance to some trendy los Angeles eatery. V at the same time the photographic works lining the atrium Walls constitute a rare moment of coherence. Especially noteworthy Are Jeff Wall s indictment of a normality a big Domestic so one tided the ventriloquist at a birthday party in october i m7, and Gunther Forg s Moody c coastline images shot from the window s of a Villa in Capri. Much of the skittish Ness of Metropolis seems to Stem from the Lac t that its organi ers Are neither particularly familiar nor at ease with the Brave new world of Art beyond painting. Quot their exhibition it Oul d have one of Many provocative foe uses life ready made the meeting of last and we St the Roll of history As an artistic subject the state of installation Art it tries to be eve Rythe re at v Nio Wylli c i is too my h like being in i where at All. The exhibit it july 2 1. Admission is 8 Marks about i>4.70. A 3b8-j age Catalon with in Tures and essays is available list a 4-9 . June 6, 799/ stripes Magazine 3
