Every Monday morning, artnet News brings you The Gray Market. The column decodes important stories from the previous week—and offers unparalleled insight into the inner workings of the art industry in the process.
This week, folding much of what I read, watched, and heard into a single serving…
On Tuesday, we learned that the city of Berlin struck a deal to sell the Uferhallen studio complex to an as-yet-to-be-identified group of private investors for €30 million, or just over $35 million. The sale casts the future into question for about 50 artists’ studios, including those of Monica Bonvicini, John Bock, and Katharina Grosse.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Realace, the developers selected to lead the Uferhallen into its next architectural life, publicly pledged (in Berliner Zeitung) that current tenants have nothing to fear. Or at least, that’s what my colleague Henri Neuendorf reports. Despite my last name, the only German I’m fluent in is extreme self-discipline.
Yet many, if not most, of the artists renting spaces in the complex remain skeptical that this alleged olive branch isn’t actually a twig of poison sumac—and with good reason. Simply put, we’ve seen this show before. Read more