Schinkel Pavillon — Attraction in Berlin

I went specifically to see the Sigmar Polke exhibition (2024). The venue is a former DDR era restaurant for dignitaries, located in a characteristic pavilion. During this exhibition, access to the first floor windows is blocked, though, but in a way it emphasizes the sort of grunge character of the communist era spaces. Plus videos are screened in the former basement-kitchen area, accessed through two heavy, PVC curtains bookending an empty hallway - lined with tiles the whole basement makes you think of a slaughterhouse - there is no trace of any kitchen installations. Polke’s work is right at home there: both in the once festive dining area, with its octagonal “chandelier” (one can just picture a sort of round table set up for some communist big wigs with waiters tiptoeing around them) and at the lower levels. You feel like, art has the last word. The Schinkel door (not the present entrance) is quite stunning. Definitely worth a detour if you’re...

On the Schinkel Pavillon website, you see a notice: "The artists Kateryna Lysovenko and Dana Kavelina have withdrawn their works from the exhibition due to differences of opinion with the curator." What did the artists disagree with? It turns out the Russian curator "stole" poems by a Ukrainian poet who was killed by a Russian missile, simply taking them from the internet! The poet's family and agent were not asked, as it is done in a civilized society. Moreover, she excluded lines about volunteering in Kharkiv, which means censorship. The Ukrainian artists "did not agree" with such behavior, and Schinkel Pavillon, ...

Unfortunately Schinkel is an example of a place, where management believes to be above the art, artists and visitors. Upon facing more than reasonable criticism regarding their last exhibition (uncopyrighted use of work for promotion, choice of unqualified curator for politically sensitive topic, etc) Schinkel proceeded with the exhibition without addressing the problem. This is an example of unethical behavior, where somebody effectively dependent on government funding ignores the...