OCA Galerie | Modern Art on Potsdamer Straße

Potsdamer Straße has steadily been developing as a breeding ground for the artistic avantgarde in Berlin that's grown tired of the established gallery scene in Mitte. The strip of galleries reaches from the corner of Potsdamer Straße / Pohlstraße almost up to Potsdamer Platz, which is where the Octophon Contemporary Art (OCA) gallery has recently settled, diagonally across from the Neue Nationalgallerie. The owner, Reinhard Franz, had a wall drawn in and the floors mended, and his efforts definitely paid off. Sunlight shoots into the space through gigantic windows, a metal sliding door in the middle of the room radiates industrial charm.

The gallery's main focus has been placed on Thuringian art. Hold up, Thuringia? Sure we've heard of Neo Rauch and Leipziger Schule. But what do we know about the art scenes in Weimar, Erfurt, Aschersleben? Reinhard Franz teaches experimental media art at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, which is where he met the artist Marc Illing, whose paintings will be exhibited at OCA in Tiergarten until mid July. The paintings have been taken from Illing's “First Aid” series and are mostly acrylic paint on chipboard and reference first-aid instruction brochures from the 60's. On a further level, Illing negotiates the relationship of the characters to each other and the individual and his fellow humans. The “First Aid” series is interrupted by individual pieces like “Bordsteinschwalben” that shows two street walkers waiting for clients infront of an abstract image of the Spinnerei compound in Leipzig.

The opening last Thursday drew artists from Weimar, Leipzig and the surrounding areas, as well as a few gallerists from the neighborhood. OCA-Galerist Veit Riebel recalls that “we weren't sure how many people would show up because there is always so much going on in Berlin and the weather was nice. But we ran out of drinks after an hour and realized that it was going very well.”

The “First Aid” exhibition will run until mid July. It will be followed by group exhibitions by artists from mid-Eastern Germany with photo, film, installations and performance art.

(gl)