The Building Comes Down

Berlin's The Building in the isolated residential Platz der Vereinten has housed lectures, film screenings, performance projects and ruckus art parties since unitednationsplaza, a yearlong 'exhibition as school' was organized by Anton Vidokle in 2006 and turned the random clinical space into a lively artistic space. But at the two-night closing party, leading local artist, critic and curator Andreas Schlaegel said he had  "no idea" what would come next: "Maybe the space will cease to exist at all."

If so, the last two nights of its life as a hub for Berlin's artistic and academic community guaranteed that The Building was burning out, not fading away. The closing program featured a lecture by Branka Cvjeticanin on post-war architecture, a documentary filmed about Buckminster Fuller at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, a sparkling conversation between Hans Ulrich Obrist and Elena Filipovic about curator Walter Hopps, and a performance, "Pedagogy as Potentiality in Reverse: 12 gestures and a short study" by critic Alix Rule. Rule lured in guests with her scholarly title and then taught a traditional figure drawing class with video art Cecile Evans as the model. "I assume that very nearly everyone attending - artists working in various media, and equally critics and curators - took a life class at some point," Rule explained. "Revisiting the experience stands to confront us with the conception of the artist we each held at that point in our lives. Most of us all know each other socially or professionally. Probably both.  But drawing together will be a new and fun social experience." By helping all of us to say a new hello to our original artist selves, Rule created a festive and enduring goodbye to the beloved Building. For the full report check The Scene (LEFT: HANS ULRICH OBRIST. PHOTOS BY OLIVER FRANK)