NADAN is an independent cultural platform based in Berlin. We promote contemporary emerging art, design, creativity and ideas. We believe in dialogue. Our generation is being called upon to rethink the old, uncover the past in a new way, and inspire the world with the courage to think differently through beauty and honour.
Address: Meraner Str. 7/ 3OG, 10825 Berlin
Open: Tuesday–Saturday, 13:00–18:00
Contact: nadan@nadan.org
Artists
Lucas Foletto Celinski
Cai Dongdong 蔡东东
Vanessa Enríquez
Grapebattleships
Current
Natalia LL. Only love will survive.
Curator: Prof. Dr. Marta Smolińska
April 26th. 2023 – May. 30th. 2024
Natalia LL is one of the first artists in Poland to create feminist works. Since the 1960s, she has been fighting in her works for the emancipation of women, erotic freedom, and the liberation of the female body from the role of a passive, male gaze object. Her artistic creation was a courageous attempt to denounce traditional values. Because even though the equality of women was promoted in socialist countries, the reality was different. Nakedness was considered in socialist countries as both an authority and system critical gesture and as resistance against the prevailing social norms and conservative Catholicism. Against this background, one of her works is currently on display at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin as part of the exhibition “Test of Strength: Art between Politics and Society. Collection of the National Gallery 1945–2000” in the chapter “Liberation of the Body,” among other feminist artists from the West (including Martha Rosler, Rebecca Horn, Valie EXPORT, Hannah Wilke), Japan (Yoko Ono), or the so-called former Eastern Bloc (including Cornelia Schleime, Ewa Partum, Marina Abramović).
The exhibition at NADAN, which features works from the artist’s three series (“Consumer Art,” “The Word,” and “Animalistic Art”), takes its title “Only love will survive” from Natalia LL’s text “Magical Intimacy” from 2013. In this text, the artist emphasizes that the most important things for her are everyday life, intimacy, and love.
Text: Prof. Dr. Marta Smolińska
Word 1971, 12 photos, 51,5 x 46 cm/each, Ed. 1/2
Upcoming
Past
3%
Gonzalo Reyes Araos, Leon Emanuel Blanck, Cai Dongdong, Vanessa Enríquez, Grapebattelships, Michal Martychowiec, Shinoh Nam, Viktor Petrov,
Domenico Romeo, Antoni Starczewski, Ana Talens,
Linhan Yu, Ana Zibelnik
March 3rd – April 12th, 2024 *(by appointment)
Three years ago, we opened our first exhibition on “Nothing” by Michal Martychowiec. It played in a special way with the expectations of the visitors and their visual impressions, yet instead of art objects and works only emptiness and space, the exhibition offered them “nothing”.
However, it is precisely this “nothing” of the exhibition that hides the depth and meaning that we want to convey. We believe that aesthetics and originality in the visual arts are vital, but more importantly, they are meant to evoke emotional resonance and the exchange of ideas. We respect both the profound thoughts of established artists and the bold ventures of young talents.
Over the past three years, we have had the honor of collaborating with many outstanding artists. We now want to present you with a selection of new and older works by these artists in our upcoming exhibition. This presentation from three years of Nadan aims to highlight in a special way the diversity of these talents and their contributions to contemporary art. Among the exhibited works, you will find various formats and media, including installations, photographs, paintings, and sculptures.
Ab Bild
Lucas Foletto Celinski, Cai Dongdong, Jakob Ganslmeier, Michal Martychowiec, Loreal Prystaj, Ana Zibelnik
Nov. 24th. 2023 – Jan. 27th. 2024
In this exhibition, the artists use visual elements in various ways, borrowing or incorporating them, to explore a wide range of subjects and individual practices, including the body, environment and ideology. Through their unique observational approaches, they unveil the complexity of a world that is often imperceptible to the naked eye, conveying deeper messages that go beyond the actual image subjects. They encourage viewers to start from the images, delve deep into them, and ultimately break free from the confines of the image to explore profound intellectual and emotional resonances.
Sept. 13th. 2023 – Oct. 28th. 2023
In the ceaseless passage of time, we find ourselves a century later, in the contemplative presence of Marcel Duchamp’s audacious Fountain. A porcelain urinal appropriated as art, this iconic creation not only challenges conventional artistic definitions but also poses profound questions concerning the identity of art. But 100 years later, as we stand before this emblem, we are compelled to ponder, just as our predecessors did, the seeming timeless riddles it evokes.
Human existence is a fleeting tapestry of traces and ephemeral whispers woven into the chronicle of time. We formulate ideologies, etch our beliefs into history’s ledger, and yearn for our contributions to endure. Yet, we must ask, do these ideologies, so meticulously crafted, possess the resilience to withstand time’s relentless march?
Michal Martychowie’s work serves as a poignant reflection on the bourgeois concept of art’s enduring significance. With Duchamp- the person and symbol in one -as his discussant, he tries to tilt the very foundation of the reading of art and asks: What lasting impact can art truly claim in a world characterized by its impermanence and destruction?
June 8th. 2023 – July 21st. 2023
Weaving Memories is an art exhibition that showcases the works of four artists: Gonzalo Reyes Araos(CL), Vanessa Enriquez(MX), Grapebattleships(CHN), and Dr. Anna Talens(ES). The exhibition aims to explore the complexity and diversity of memory and provoke deep reflection on individual memories. Through interactive displays of paintings, textiles, installations, and other works, the artists delve into the subjective and authentic nature of memory and its influence on our individual and social identities.
The exhibition also delves into the preservation and alteration of memory. The artists utilize digital, technological, and media tools to demonstrate the malleability and fragility of memory. They challenge the stability of memory, encouraging viewers to contemplate the authenticity and misleading nature of personal and collective memories. The artworks explore how memory is shaped by external factors and social influences and how it is preserved, transmitted, and transformed.
Im Dialog
Nov.11th. 2022 – Feb. 11th. 2023
Nadan is very pleased to present the solo exhibition of the Polish artist Antoni Starczewski (1924-2000) in Germany. The aim of the exhibition is to remember and honour the Polish avant-garde artist Antoni Starczewski and to revive the value of the work of an artist who played a major role in the history of Polish and international modern art.
Antoni Starczewski is one of the most fascinating artists of the post-war period, a man who created compelling and original art and was more than once a pioneer of global trends and artistic practices. He worked in a variety of media: ceramics, prints, textiles, as well as in situ projects. He explored the fields of visual art, music and language. One of the fundamental mandates of Antoni Starczewski’s work was his refusal to separate the visual arts from the decorative arts. He deliberately sought to express his ideas in a variety of materials and techniques, seeing art as a realm in which related statements interact in many forms.
The exhibition includes 30 works by the Polish post-war artist Antoni Starczewski from the 1960s to the 1980s. Each of these systematically illustrates the artist’s personal line of development alongside the traces of his time.
He received the Grand Prix at the 8th International Biennial of Prints in Tokyo in 1979, the gold medal at the 3rd International Florence Biennial, the gold medal in Faenza, and the Targa d’Oro gold medal at the International Ceramics Competition in Perugia. His work can be seen at the National Museums in Warsaw, Krakow, and Wrocław, the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, the Municipal Art Gallery in Łódź, the Polish Sculpture Center in Orońsko, as well as museums and galleries around the world: Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Genève, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Tate Modern, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Das Tiefste am Menschen ist seine Haut
Leon Emanuel Blanck
Sept.16th.- Oct. 28th. 2022
We are delighted to host artist Leon Emanuel Blanck’s first solo show at Nadan during Art Week Berlin 2022. In this exhibition, Blanck will present his first interactive and new practices. Surface and space, the body and its shadows, the visible and the invisible form a dazzling liaison in Leon Emanuel Blanck’s objects.
The material of his art are X-ray films, which he cuts, collages, folds into bodies, sews together, accumulates and assembles into substantial sculptures. These structures can be arranged in very different ways in the space, they can be hung, laid, put on the plinth or attached to the wall. They always connect with the space, correspond and communicate with each other, and initiate changes of view between difference and repetition. In each case, they are a physical counterpart that holds form and freedom, similarity and strangeness in suspension.
ANM_PEX_002_BER_22
Domenico Romeo
May 27th.- July 29th. 2022
Domenico Romeo was born in Palmi in 1988 and currently lives in Milan, Italy.
Having dropped out of law school to pursue his passion for design and art, Romeo is a multidisciplinary creator, combining the roles of artist, graphic designer and art director.
His street art has been seen in Monza, Rome, Favara and many other cities. His design path has also taken him to fashion brands such as NikeLab, Hood By Hair. Since 2013 Romeo has been the lead graphic designer for the brand Off-White, alongside Virgil Abloh.
Romeo has been experimenting with various forms of sign painting and installations, which he has shown in exhibitions and performances across Europe since 2013.
In this exhibition, Romeo will present his latest installations for Berlin. By using his artistic approach to express his thoughts on language, communication and urban culture.
Zirkular II 22
GABRIEL, Marianische Antiphonen I – III
by Gabriel & Schindele
April. 9th – May. 7th.2022
Gabriel on his way from the Templar castle Convento de Cristo to the Marian pilgrimage site
Fátima in Portugal.
Photo: Stefan Hähnel (Marianische Antiphonen I – III
Gabriel & Schindele: Map 15.9.2015 – 7.8.2019
Im Mittelpunkt der Ausstellung Marianischen Antiphonen I – III steht ein Performancezyklus, der vom 5. August bis 7. August 2019 in und um den Marienwallfahrtsort Fátima in Portugal stattfand. Die dokumentarischen Fotographien der vollzogenen Handlung, die wie alle Performances Gabriels ohne Ankündigung im öffentlichen Raum stattfand, werden in der Ausstellung mit poetischen Texten, Fragmenten und konzeptuellen Arbeiten kombiniert und präsentiert.
Im zentralportugiesischen Fátima soll im Sommer 1917 an einer Steineiche die Muttergöttin Maria drei Hirtenkindern insgesamt sechsmal erschienen sein. Sie vertraute ihnen eine Prophezeiung an, die als die Drei Geheimnisse von Fátimain die Geschichte einging. Der Titel Marianische Antiphonen greift die an die Gottesmutter gerichteten Gesänge (Antiphonen = Wechselgesänge) in der christlichen Liturgie auf. Sie verweisen auf das Motiv der Schutzmantelmadonna, die sie seit Beginn der Entwicklung dieser Performancereihe inspirierte. Maria als liebende, wärmende, verständnisvolle und schützende Mutter.
I am looking and I see myself looking out – Shino Nam & Viktor Petrov
Feb. 25th – Mar. 25th. 2022
Shinoh Nam (born in 1993, South Korea) lives and works in Düsseldorf and Berlin. Nam is enrolled as a Fine Art student with Monica Bonvicini at UDK Berlin and Architecture with Donatella Fioretti at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He has previously worked in Photography and Visual Media in Seoul, where he also obtained a qualification in psychological counselling.
Viktor Petrov (born in 1991, Bulgarien) based in Berlin, he finished his Meisterschülerabschluss at UDK Berlin with Prof. Monica Bonvicini in 2021. Petrov’s oeuvre explores socio-political contexts embodied in architecture and everyday objects. In his sculptural and graphic practices, he transforms materials and symbols to highlight their ambivalent meaning.
Shinoh Nam and Viktor Petrov met at university and have been sharing a common workspace ever since. In their upcoming exhibition, they will explore the topics of architecture and spatial observation within a display space. Through their sculptural bodies, consisting of transparent surfaces or structural fragments such as steel beams or facade connectors, they reflect on how architecture affects society and our identity. While Nam’s work deals with psychological and philosophical notions of perception, Petrov’s main interests are focused on sociological and political dimensions.
Group Show: Skills & Talents
Jan. 15th – Feb. 12th 2022
The borders between art and design are becoming increasingly blurred. In this exhibition, artists and designers Leon Emanuel Blanck, Illya Goldman Gubin, Mathias Hornung, Ia Kutateladze and Jakub Kubica will offer us works that are not luxurious, not abstract nor purely functional; rather they offer a response to modern living that combine various points of view- intuition as well as logic; poetry as well as common sense.
Leon Emanuel Blanck & Jakub Kubica
Oct. 16th – Nov. 19th 2021
Leon Emanuel Blanck and Jakub Kubica are both multidisciplinary artists with extensive practices in the fields of art, design, fashion and sound art respectively. This time, they will show us their most representative Installations art practices, which reflect their interpretation and reconstruction of the present and the future.
Suffer nothing to remain outside- Michal Martychowiec
Aug. 27th – Sep. 25th. 2021
Download the exhibition text: Suffer nothing to remain outside
It is usual for a visitor of a gallery or a museum to come with an expectation to ‘see something’. And thus, a visit to the exhibition Suffer nothing to remain outside might offer a surprise, for the space of the gallery remains thoroughly filled with thick fog making it impossible to see anything but oneself. In this exhibition, Martychowiec utilises various media such as films, neon tubes and fog installations to allow us for a personalized touch at our past and present circumstance.
