Art Calendar – Current Exhibitions in Germany

After work, the escalator into the underground and waiting for the next train: in Berlin, those who are underway at the right station will find their wait sweetened by art.

Vorne Fahrn – Kunst im Untergrund (i.e., Straight Ahead – Art Underground) is the name of the project that was launched by the New Society for Visual Art (NGBK) with the support of the Berlin Senate Chancellery and the Berlin Transport Company in 2012. In 2013 it is now followed by After Work – Art Underground. The new edition has stocked ten underground stations with art, including the stations Tierpark, Siemensdamm and Tempelhof.

From nearly 400 entries by artists from Germany and abroad the jury selected thirteen designs. Seven of them will be on display beginning in June 2013, and the other six will follow in October. The jury made its selection on the basis of the realizability of the ideas at the spot and the artistic treatment of the medium of the poster.

Thus, for example, at the underground station Siemensdamm passengers can see pictures of the place they desire to be after work: the balcony. The artist Alexandra Spiegel created her Balkonportraits (i.e., Balcony Portraits) in Siemensstadt. This is a housing estate in the Berlin district of Spandau that was built in the 1920s and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. Balconies migrate under the earth, and the underground becomes an art gallery.