Van Haver’s site-specific installation snakes over the walls and around the edges of the gallery tucked in a corner of the grid-brick Wedding Rathaus. Drawn with black and white chalk, like on a school blackboard, the smudgy mural depicts the unsung heroes of Berlin’s historically poor Bezirk – those essential characters who preserve the soul of a place. Coffee gatherings around tables (reminiscent of a Max Beckmann scene), people zipping by on electric scooters and the S-Bahn rolling overhead are all captured in her loose sketches.
They could be children’s book illustrations until you see the needle deposit bins. Van Haver is known for her grossly overworked impasto paintings, making these spontaneous sketches quite a departure. And there’s undoubtedly a vitality to them, but it’s hard to decipher and a bit unrewarding. Who is it really trying to appeal to? As a form of community programming, it’s difficult to view it with anything other than mild suspicion.
In an additional room, surrounded by paintings in Chie Marquart-Tabel’s pleasantly low-grade installation, kids are invited to hit the punch bags wearing boxing gloves, and play Street Fighter 2. Well, they could, had “youths” not recently made off with the Playstation – it’s one way to draw in a new audience. ★★★☆☆
- Round Hall, Galerie Wedding, Müllerstr. 146/147, Wedding, details.
