STUDIO BERLIN, an exhibition produced by the Boros Foundation in cooperation with Berghain that opened in September 2020, presents the output of over 120 Berlin-based artists on all floors of the world-renowned techno club. The show features German and international artists working in photography, sculpture, painting, video, sound, performance, and installation art. Responding to the upheaval caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, STUDIO BERLIN is primarily designed to reflect current tendencies and changes in art and society and provide artists living in Berlin with a platform for their recent productions. With Yael Bartana, Monica Bonvicini, AA Bronson, Tacita Dean, Simon Denny, Simon Fujiwara, Cyprien Gaillard, Isa Genzken, Anne Imhof, Sven Marquardt, Adrian Piper, Anna Uddenberg, Wolfgang Tillmans, and many more. The accompanying documentation expands on the exhibition and presents installation shots of the works together with dedicated material produced by the contributing artists. In drawings, photographs, or sketches as well as statements, poems, and other fragmentary formats, they share their very personal perspectives on what it means to make art in this challenging time. With a preface by Klaus Lederer, Berlin Senator for Culture and Europe, and an introduction by Juliet Kothe and Karen and Christian Boros.

An alternative history of art in Berlin, detaching artistic innovation from art world narratives and connecting it instead to collective creativity and social solidarity. In pre- and post-reunification Berlin, socially engaged artists championed collective art making and creativity over individual advancement, transforming urban space and civic life in the process. During the Cold War, the city’s state of exception invited artists on both sides of the Wall to detour from artistic tradition; post-Wall, art became a tool of resistance against the orthodoxy of economic growth. In Free Berlin, Briana Smith explores the everyday peculiarities, collective joys, and grassroots provocations of experimental artists in late Cold War Berlin and their legacy in today’s city. These artists worked intentionally outside the art market, believing that art should be everywhere, freed from its confinement in museums and galleries. They used art as a way to imagine new forms of social and creative life. Smith introduces little-known artists including West Berlin feminist collective Black Chocolate, the artist duo paint the town red (p.t.t.r), and the Office for Unusual Events, creators of satirical urban political theater, as well as East Berlin action art and urban interventionists Erhard Monden, Kurt Buchwald, and others. Artists and artist-led urban coalitions in 1990s Berlin carried on the participatory spirit of the late Cold War, with more overt forms of protest and collaboration at the neighborhood level. The temperament lives on in twenty-first century Berlin, animating artists’ resolve to work outside the market and citizens’ spirited defenses of green spaces, affordable housing, and collectivist projects. With Free Berlin, Smith offers an alternative history of art in Berlin, detaching artistic innovation from art world narratives and connecting it instead to Berliners’ historic embrace of care, solidarity, and cooperation.

The Film Studio sheds new light on the evolution of global film production, highlighting the role of film studios worldwide. The authors explore the contemporary international production environment, identifying various types of film studios and investigating the consequences for Hollywood, international film production, and the studio locations. Visit our website for sample chapters!