Former Neighbors Reunite for Berlin Museum's Birthday

Berlin after the Wall came down was the place to be. Five of the many artists who moved to the city and found affordable studio space are reuniting for a show with the apt title Next Door.

The exhibition opens on October 9 at Hamburger Bahnhof, marking its 30th anniversary. The former railway station became a contemporary art museum close to where the Wall once stood, seven years after its fall.

British artist Tacita Dean, the Danish/Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, Henrik Håkansson from Sweden, Tomás Saraceno from Argentina, and Thomas Demand, who grew up in West Berlin, will take part, each contributing large-scale works.

Dean has collaborated with Bruce Nauman on a film that references the US artist’s permanent installation in the museum. Demand will float pavilions across the museum space, featuring some of his large-scale photographs. Eliasson will create a light work that fades in and out in reaction to an audio composition. Håkansson presents a video installation inspired by the flap of a butterfly’s wing, while Saraceno presents his installation 14 Billions (Working Title), along with ongoing research into spiders and their webs.

As well as going on to international success, they all had studio spaces when young artists in former warehouses that now form part of the museum complex.