David Maroto, another artist finishing up his residency period at the centre, agrees. He’s a Spanish video artist based in Rotterdam, over in Berlin for the three-month residency program.

“I found the art scene in Spain pretty restrictive, and I didn’t feel the sort of work I was creating had much interest there, because it’s video art and animation and not entirely accessible. I base myself between Rotterdam and in Berlin, which for me is combining the best of two cities, with each serving a different purpose.”

Open Studios April 2007, view from the work of Standard Euro. Photo: Katerina Valdivia Bruch

Berlin offers creative minds the chance to practice their art in an unrestricted way, and GlogauAIR’s aim is to add to this by establishing international links so that artists can enjoy mobility and collaborate on projects with artists of different nationalities. GlogauAIR includes international collaborations, and one such project is ‘TRANS+’ with Berlin based Japanese video artist and performer Erika Matsunami and Greek composer and musician Antonis Anissegos, who are inviting Japanese visual artist Kyota Takahashi for a project which will take place in May 2008 in Berlin. The last month of their creation process will be spent at GlogauAIR, with Mr. Takahashi as a guest artist living and working in the house.

So what’s next for GlogauAir? Exciting news is that a new gallery space is being planned, located right next to the residency space, to give artists connected with the centre a more established location to show their work. And Artistic Director Katerina Valdivia Bruch is busy establishing more useful international links for the centre, which could lead to exchange programs between a number of European cities.

Arts and Conversation: The Uncanny, Stargate. © Simonetta Fadda

GlogauAIR is on a path to establishing itself as an important centre for cultural exchange and expression, and as a relatively new space, it’s already proved its worth in Berlin’s artistic scene. It’s refreshing to see a residency program and art space so open to such a diverse range of art forms, allowing cultural practitoners to get on with the job of making their art, and giving local Berliners a constantly evolving program of art to digest.

GlogauAIR
Address: 16 Glogauerstrasse, 10999 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)30 612 2275
https://www.glogauer.net