![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Ansicht_Regale-im-AUTOCENTER_Foto-Maik-Schierloh-1024x653.jpg\" "\\"The")
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On March 15, Berlin\u2019s favourite independent exhibition space AUTOCENTER will present the first exhibition in its new location, a former library in Mitte. Entitled \u201cThe legend of the shelves\u201d, the show will present works by nearly every single artist who has ever shown at AUTOCENTER, so that the old bookshelves will effectively display a catalogue of almost a decade and a half of art making in Berlin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Think of this show as something between a \u201cwho\u2019s who\u201d of the Berlin art scene, a retrospective for 12 years of activity at AUTOCENTER, and a big party. Either way, it\u2019s worth going! Before the festivities begin, Sleek caught up with AUTOCENTER\u2019s founders Joep van Liefland and Maik Schierloh to talk about their vision for the new location:<\/p>\n
Congratulations on the new space!<\/strong> Thank you. We are very happy about it.<\/p>\n Is the change in location bringing a change in concept with it? Is the programme going to be extended beyond periodical exhibition?<\/strong> AUTOCENTER has always been a place of dynamic and artistic freedom, and so we will continue our program as a place for new emerging art, mid-career artists, curators and cutting edge projects. There won’t be any radical shift but we will definitely work with the opportunities that this new location has to offer.<\/p>\n With the upcoming AUTOCENTER Summer Academy (ACSA 2013) for example, we will be launching a new project in June. This includes four weeks of classes, lectures and art-tours with proper presentations at the end. We are also producing a new AUTOCENTER catalogue, which should be released by the end of 2013.<\/p>\n The opening show is a sort of \u201cretrospective\u201d of AUTOCENTER itself. By doing a retrospective for a space, you are expressing something about that space as a time capsule. Can you describe what\u2019s stored in that time capsule?<\/strong> We believe it’s interesting to create a long-term project in those fast-paced times and to adapt to this or evolve with it. We didn’t really think of the opening show as being a retrospective but more as a gesture to all artists that supported us during the years, to let them and the visitors, the art-scene of Berlin and the outside be part of our new project.<\/p>\n Now for the more pragmatic side \u2013 the new location is more central than the previous one. Do you think this will have an effect on the activity of AUTOCENTER?<\/strong> I think it will have an effect. A shift in location usually makes us rethink certain issues, ranging from \u201chow to work with its potential\u201d to \u201cquestions of financing\u201d etc. AUTOCENTER is a permanently developing project and under ongoing construction. Changing locations keeps our minds fresh.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/FN_Dead-can-Dance-2012-680x1024.jpg\" "\\"Frank")
Frank Nitsche, Dead can Dance, 2012. Mixed media. Ca 40 x 18 x 11cm. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Gebr. Lehmann Berlin\/ Dresden<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Maik-Schierloh-und-Joep-van-Liefland-in-neuen-AUTOCENTER_2013_Foto-Till-R-D-Cremer.jpg\" "\\"Maik")
Maik Schierloh and Joep van Liefland at the new AUTOCENTER. Photo \u00a9Till R D Cremer<\/p>\n