Yes, it is official: Berlin Art Week is over – but there is nothing to fret about as the art life goes on and will go on as usual in Berlin. At Saturday night’s launch of the art space, the WYE, the resounding message voiced by the organizers, artists, and attendees of Berlin’s newest cultural hub was “Art isn’t dead. Art is in the house.” In a city teeming with starving artists, the hub was impressively funded without a penny of public funding. That’s good news for us, because the residents of the WYE have been granted full artistic license to do as they please.

Of course, the WYE didn’t wait a moment to shock and repulse its audience: used as paint on canvas and pouring from the wounds of lifelike mannequins, blood was the defining ingredient of the evening. As he went to examine one of the mannequins up close, one viewer visibly stopped breathing. “I was deeply uncomfortable. I didn’t know if at any moment she was going to wake up and attack me,” he reported.

Now, we know you are thinking: Does Berlin really need another one of these Kreuzbergian art houses? We retort: Absolutely. Let us refresh your memory about the recent closing of numerous Berlin legendary art hubs. Although the WYE is undoubtedly not yet a Kunsthaus Tacheles replacement (may she rest in peace), it does promise to enrich the already thriving local art scene with studios for “creatives”, live residencies, a gallery, lounge, library and canteen inside 20,000 sq. ft of the historic Skalitzer Post building.

If the life of the WYE continues in the same vein as the launch, we can assure you that you soon find yourself a regular of this space.

• the WYE – Check for events here. Stay tuned to berlin-artparasites for information on the next happenings at the WYE.

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Painting by Catrin Walz Stein

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