Andersen's Wohnung Revisited 1996 - 1999 (020)

Participating artist: 
Thomas Bayrle, Jesper Dalgaard, FOS, Fanny Geisler, Jeppe Hein, Thilo Heinzmann, Andreas Hofer, John Körner, Jakob Kolding, Bernd Krauss, Lars Bent Petersen, Anselm Reyle, Pia Rönicke, Kirstine Roepsdorff, Felix Weber, Katja Strunz, Tal R, Manfred Peckl, Evren Tekinoktay, Phillip Zaiser and Thomas Zipp.

"Andersens Wohnung Revisited 1996-1999", the quasiretrospective of three years of running an alternative art space in Linienstr. 54 in Berlin. Claus Andersen was an artist living in Berlin from 1995-2000, running Andersen’s Wohnung together with Thilo Heinzmann and Anselm Reyle from 1996 on. It opened with a group show exhibiting Thilo Heinzmann, Bernd Krauss, Katja Strunz und Thomas Zipp followed by a solo show of Anselm Reyle. Berlin in the 90s didn’t only attract contemporary artists formerly based in other regions of Germany, but many international artists as well. Positive factors for moving to Berlin were the cheap rents and a relaxed attitude to daily life that other parts of the world didn’t have to offer. The city itself played an integral role in each artist’s style, distinguishing Berlin’s resident artist culture from those of other Western European cities. Claus Andersen is part of a Danish generation of artists that all are connected to Berlin growing up in an international circle of artists, curators and critics that has become successful in many areas. The non-institutional structures which emerged contributed considerably to the multiplication and acceleration of art production. In this dynamic environment, the artist’s connected to Andersen’s Wohnung all made their way quite successfully into the emerging and nowadays established gallery system. Some of them are well represented in private collections like the recently opened Boros collection in Berlin. Back in Denmark, Claus Andersen opened up the Gallery Andersen’s Contemporary in 2004 in Copenhagen. This gallery is based on his German connections starting out with artists he worked with in Berlin, like Henrik Olesen, Anselm Reyle, Olafur Eliasson or Tomas Saraceno. And now, in 2008, "Andersens Wohnung” is back in Berlin as the inaugural show for Andersen’s Contemporary. Most of the artists from the old Berlin days will show together for the first time after the closure of Andersen’s Wohnung in 1999, whether they are presently connected to the gallery or not. With old and new works, the artists all show certain aspects of a context that has its very foundation in the Berlin of the 90s.