'World on Wire': Julia Stoschek presents her video art collection in Berlin

If you hadn’t already realised it, video art has changed dramatically in the past ten years. A talented young generation of artists has arrived and with them a sophisticated new language for exploring the mish-mash of images, intrigues, desires, fears and ironies that the online world has exposed them to. They take to an editing suite as if it were an extension of their own bodies. And the most brilliant of them, artists like Ed Atkins and Rachel Rose, and socially-minded groups like K-Hole, have come up with some darkly reflective, funny, uncompromising work.
There are many problems with showing this kind of work still. It is difficult and expensive – all video artists require different kinds of screens and environments, good sound, brilliant curators and technicians. What’s more, it needs savvy young like-minded collectors and galleries willing to be generous to their audiences, to select the gems from the mass of pretentious rubbish, and to give this challenging work space, so that people devote the time (sometimes hours) needed to watch it and understand it.
Enter then Julia Stoschek, daughter of the car manufacturing billionaire Michael Stoschek. Aged just 41, she’s been collecting video and performance art since she was in her twenties. Her space in Dusseldorf, which has offered regular exhibitions free to the public since 2007 – including solo shows for artists like Elizabeth Price, Sturtevant and Wu Tsang – has been well received in Dusseldorf and the art world.
This week she brings a similar gift to Berlin, an absolutely of-the-moment exhibition presenting 38 art works by 20 artists who she perceives as stars at the forefront of the digital video age movement. It’s all housed in the 1960s former Czech cultural centre, transformed into a sort of futuristic lab-cum-theatre, decked with white curtains throughout. The best room is the wood-panelled 1960s movie theatre featuring a vast widescreen projection of Ian Cheng’s 'live simulation', a frightening computer-game style action sequence unfolding randomly according to the artist-designed algorithm.
Down the corridor from Cheng’s 2015 work, Cao Fei’s 2007 RNB City feels wonderfully dated and naive, and makes a fascinating point of comparison – an island collaboratively grown with the inhabitants of Second Life, a gentle, curious, optimistic exploration of the many-hands-one-mind creativity of the open-platform universe.
Julia Stoschek has rented this Berlin space for six months, but she says she wants to create a permanent residence there. The collection surely deserves to stay. Devote time to this exhibition and you will leave with a disturbing yet profound sense that our perception of time, our way of being, is changing.
Video art has changed dramatically in the past ten years. A talented young generation of artists has arrived and brought with them a sophisticated new language. Pictured: Even Pricks, by Ed Atkins, 2013.
The collection's Berlin presentation is housed in the 1960s former Czech cultural centre, transformed into a sort of futuristic lab-cum-theatre, decked with white curtains throughout. Pictured: Even Pricks (still), by Ed Atkins, 2013.
The most brilliant contemporary artists, like Ed Atkins and Rachel Rose, and socially-minded groups like K-Hole, have come up with some darkly reflective, funny, uncompromising work. Pictured: Selection Display: Ancestral Prayer (display banners), by Timur Si-Qin, 2011.
Julia Stoschek has rented this Berlin space for six months, but she says she wants to create a permanent residence there. Pictured: Emissary Forks at Perfection, by Ian Cheng, 2015.
Contemporary video art needs savvy young like-minded collectors and galleries willing to be generous to their audiences, to select the gems from the mass of pretentious rubbish, and to give this challenging work space. Pictured: Bodybuilding, by Hannah Black, 2015. Commissioned by Yarat Contemporary Art Centre, Baku.
Devote time to this exhibition and you will leave with a disturbing yet profound sense that our perception of time, our way of being, is changing. Pictured: Erysichthon, by Jon Rafman, 2015.
INFORMATION
‘Welt am Draht’ (’World on Wire’) is on view until 18 September. For more information, visit the the Julia Stoschek Collection’s website
ADDRESS
The Julia Stoschek Collection
Leipziger Strassse 60
10117 Berlin
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
A new hilltop California home is rooted in the landscape and celebrates views of nature
WOJR's California home House of Horns is a meticulously planned modern villa that seeps into its surrounding landscape through a series of sculptural courtyards
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Is a tiny tattoo the best holiday souvenir? Kimpton Hotels think so
In partnership with Tiny Zaps, Kimpton Hotels is bringing city-inspired tattoo pop-ups to five U.S. locations
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
‘I love the elevation of everyday objects' – Scott's Shop is a curated luxury store, prioritising beauty in the mundane
Scott's Shop's unique selections of rugs and objects are carefully crafted from around the world
By Tianna Williams Published
-
MK&G’s ‘Glitter’ exhibition: a brilliant world-first tribute to sparkle and spectacle
MK&G’s latest exhibition is a vibrant flurry of sparkles and glitter with a rippling Y2K undercurrent, proving that 'Glitter is so much more than you think it is'
By Hiba Alobaydi Published
-
Louise Bonnet’s falling figures depict an emotional narrative to be felt rather than told
Louise Bonnet’s solo exhibition 'Reversal of Fortune' at Galerie Max Hetzler in Berlin, nods to historical art references and the fragility of the human condition
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Inside E-WERK Luckenwalde’s ‘Tell Them I Said No’, an art festival at Berlin's former power station
E-WERK Luckenwalde’s two-day art festival was an eclectic mix of performance, workshops, and discussion. Will Jennings reports
By Will Jennings Published
-
Alexandra Pirici’s action performance in Berlin is playfully abstract with a desire to address urgent political questions
Artist and choreographer Alexandra Pirici transforms the historic hall of Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof into a live action performance and site-specific installation
By Alison Hugill Published
-
Berlinde De Bruyckere’s angels without faces touch down in Venice church
Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere’s recent archangel sculptures occupy the 16th-century white marble Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore for the Venice Biennale 2024
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published
-
Lawrence Lek’s depressed self-driving cars offer a glimpse of an AI future in Berlin
Lawrence Lek’s installation ‘NOX’, created with LAS Art Foundation, takes over Berlin’s abandoned Kranzler Eck shopping centre
By Emily Steer Published
-
Ryoji Ikeda and Grönlund-Nisunen saturate Berlin gallery in sound, vision and visceral sensation
At Esther Schipper gallery Berlin, artists Ryoji Ikeda and Grönlund-Nisunen draw on the elemental forces of sound and light in a meditative and disorienting joint exhibition
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
A’strict: the South Korean digital art collective bringing nature to urban life
As part of our Generation Generative series, we spotlight a’strict, the artistic unit of South Korean digital media design company d’strict, whose immersive art aims to bring viewers closer to nature
By SuhYoung Yun Published