Remember the amusing scene in “Slumdog Millionaire” where the protagonist, Jamal, nervously assumes the role of a customer service agent? In order to appease the impatient customer on the other end of the line, he charmingly fakes an English accent. For many, this is a familiar portrait of the trials and complications that have arrived from outsourcing the most basic forms of employment to low-cost nations like India. With the influx of expatriates arriving here to work in the arts sector, one could say that there is a new form of art outsourcing taking place in Berlin.

Indeed, at L’atlier Kunst(Speil)Raum an exhibition is showing that by its name alone, “we’ve outsourced everything and now we’re bored,” discusses this form of artistic outsourcing. The strength of the show was clearly the curatoral component––providing more than an aesthetically cohesive show, the exhibition amasses works chiefly based on their conceptual link to the show’s theme of outsourcing. Luckily, the show kept political rallies at bay.

Outsourcing Our Kunst

L’atlier Kunst(spiel)raum has one of the most interesting spaces in Berlin. Housed deep in Kreuzberg in the back of a Hinterhof, L’atlier boasts two levels dedicated to rising artists from around the world. Founded by French curator Stefania Angelini in 2011, the gallery has stood true to its ideal as a platform for experimentation by opening its doors to projects by artists, curators and creatives. The exhibition currently filling its interior is a project by Clémence de La Tour du Pin and John Henry Newton, who co-curated it along wtith Judith Lavagna. For this exhibition it seems appropriate that the gallery is finally bringing the word “outsourced” into the construct of a global exhibition. 

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Painting by Catrin Walz Stein

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