Between Potsdamerstrasse and Kurfürstenstrasse a new gallery quarter is emerging. Apart from the bigger commercial galleries, such as Galerie Klosterfelde or Galerie Giti Nourbakhsh, a host of smaller start-up galleries and project spaces are sprouting almost overnight like mushrooms. Run by a Belgian, The White Rabbit Berlin is a cross-discipline project space providing a platform for art, music and performances. The most recent project to be realised is the exhibition entitled ‘From The Safran House' with the Antwerp artists Lieven Segers and Bart Van Dijk.
Visible from the street by a lonely weather-beaten sign leaning against the wall, the space lies hidden in the backyard of an upper-middle class residential block. With its marble floors and staircase and ceiling-to-floor glass doors with polished brass knobs, the house reminds the visitor of the entrance of a wellness centre. At the end of a dark corridor, a gutted office space with visible cabling and makeshift lighting sports the exhibition as a mixture of print, sculpture and installation. The first image is an inverted pentacle, which dangling from the ceiling made with strips of newspaper and other non-precious materials is a clear satanic symbol. Through it we see the figure of a woman with amalgamated feet standing in a slight sway and stuck to the ground. She holds her face cupped in her hands as if blinded by the glare of the neon light that illuminates the corner. Behind her a large white canvas blocking the window reads "Fuck Forever". The walls are lined with wordplays and puns, exclamations and slogans.
In the centre of the room, a figure drilled with dozens of arrows stands like some wild hero atop the cut off roof of a wooden cabin. A small cellar space viewable from the main room shows a small sculpture and a door leads into another space. The door opens and we look down a long narrow carpeted corridor. Our eyes fall upon a white rabbit-like sculpture lying on the floor a few metres away. As we walk towards it, we notice a decisive incline and the ceiling also seems to lower. Without taking any pills, we seem to become larger as we chase a white rabbit down a narrowing corridor!
From The Safran House is an unexpected, albeit sometimes confusing exhibition. None of the works are titled nor signed. Both artists become one in a space that is in a state of becoming.

David ULRICHS

Lieven Segers & Bart Van Dijk, till January 3 2010 in The White Rabbit Berlin.
www.white-rabbit-berlin.com