Here, the international top collector Julia Stoschek shares with us her top 5 shows from recent years. During 2020’s late iteration of Gallery Weekend Berlin, the JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION will show Jeremy Shaw’s Quantification Trilogy and Meriem Bennani’s Party on the CAPS at JSC Berlin. 

AA Bronson
Garten der Lüste (2018)
KW Institute for Contemporary Art

This was not a gallery show, but on view during Gallery Weekend: legendary AA Bronson, sole surviving member of the art collective General Idea, invited guests into a red tent in KW’s beautifully arranged main hall. If you were chosen for a one-on-one session on the subject of healing, you had to bring him a gift, something that was hard for you to give away. What an extraordinary performance art setup!

 

Installation view
AA Bronson
Garten der Lüste, 2018
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Photo © Frank Sperling

Ryan Gander
Some Other Life (2019)
Esther Schipper

Last year Esther Schipper showed the incredible artist Ryan Gander, who I’m happy to have in my collection. His mesmerizing exhibition in different shades of grey articulated the notion of illumination and enlightenment. In one corner he presented a new iteration of his animatronic mice. I… I… I… (2019) used the voice of his then 9-year-old daughter, trying to deliver a speech, but struggling and stuttering with her words, not knowing where to begin. This exhibition touched upon something essential that can’t be put in words, and has stuck in my mind to this day.

 

Ryan Gander
I… I… I…, 2019
Animatronic mouse, hole in a wall
19,4 x 24 x 28,2 cm (installation)
Duration (animatronics): 7 min approx.
Exhibition view: Some Other Life, Esther
Schipper, Berlin, 2019
Courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2020
Photo © Andrea Rossetti

Andro Wekua
Andro Wekua (2018)
Sprüth Magers

At the center of Andro Wekua’s 2018 exhibition at Sprüth Magers was a beautiful androgynous life-size sculpture made of nickel silver (Dolphin in the Fountain, 2017/18). The mysterious figure reminded me of his earlier mannequin works with their prepubescent, almost childlike look. One of them is in my collection (Should be titled, 2010/11). The closer you get to the strange form, the more fragile it gets. For me, Wekua is a master of illusion and one of the most important artists of his generation.

 

Installation view
Andro Wekua, 2018
Courtesy Sprüth Magers, Berlin
Photo © Timo Ohler Berlin

Jana Euler
Great White Fear (2019)
Galerie Neu

One of my favorite German painters, Jana Euler, showed eight white sharks at Galerie Neu last year. Some looked realistic, some comical. The exhibition was accompanied by only a few lines of exhibition text, written by the artist herself: “Who is afraid of what, what is afraid of whom. I think there is nothing in these paintings you would not see or miss, if left undescribed. Besides maybe that it is like with the Mona Lisa, they look at you wherever you are in the room.“ „Great White Fear“ mixed humor with politics, something I don’t find very often these days.

 

Jana Euler
GWF 1, 2019
Oil on canvas, 300 x 200 cm
Courtesy the artist, Galerie Neu, Berlin, and Private Collection, New York
Photo © Diana Pfammatter

Alice Aycock, Fiona Banner, Sol Calero, Jana Euler, Asta Gröting, Stefanie Heinze, Camille Henrot,  Elizabeth Jaeger, Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven, Beth Letain, Henrike Naumann, Anne Neukamp, Signe Pierce, Andrea Robbins, Raphaela Vogel, Jorinde Voigt

The names of the only 17 women in last year’s iteration of Gallery Weekend Berlin should remind us that there still is a great gender disparity in the art world. This year’s ratio gives cause for optimism, but focus must be long term. It’s time we all work on this together!

Photo © Peter Rigaud

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