BERLIN.- The 10th edition of the POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair was a great success! More than 28,000 visitors showed interest in the broad artistic spectrum that the 100 international galleries presented this year in the hangars of Tempelhof Airport.

The Directors of POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair Kristian Jarmuschek and Heinrich Carstens look back euphorically on the past few days: "Berlin is an art metropolis. We felt the energy of the fair from the first to the 28,000th visitor. More than in previous years, POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair was an integral part of the art scene and Berlin Art Week. Curiosity and joy could be felt among the international exhibitors and collectors, institutional visitors and all those interested in art. Joy in networking and curiosity to present and discover artworks."

With 100 galleries from 20 countries, this year's POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair presented itself as a prominent meeting point for the industry, both for the international art business and for the regionally based galleries. In addition to established participants such as Thole Rotermund Kunsthandel, Galerie Brusberg, Galerie Thomas Fuchs, Art Mūr, Galerie Judith Andreae and Galerie Brockstedt, young galleries and dealers such as HOTO Galerie, Weserhalle and AOA;87 also exhibited at the POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair. Young positions got a stage, which they used to react socially critical as well as humorous to the present time and to reflect life realities.

In addition, the tenth POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair celebrated not only its own anniversary, but also the anniversary of the 30-year city partnership with Mexico City. Five important Mexican galleries, Proyectos Monclova, Arróniz, Lagos, CAM Galeria and Galeria Enrique Guerrero showed their positions at our fair for this occasion. They shared insights into their art scene and their country - and the best Mezcal - with the very interested visitors of the Positions Berlin Art Fair.

Participation in fairs is an essential part of the art market and an important platform for galleries to present their works and make new contacts. That the charisma of the Capital Fair is steadily increasing is shown not only by the positive reactions of the public, but also by the feedback of the participating gallery owners.

Berlin's Brockstedt Gallery has been extremely positively surprised by its first participation in POSITIONS. As gallery owner Boris Brockstedt reveals in conversation, he was able to establish strong interest in their works on display by Tino Geiss, Horst Janssen, Gabriela Torres Ruiz, Alin A. Cowan and George Rickey and reported good sales. In addition, the gallery owner was delighted to make many new contacts.

Leopold Hornung, gallery owner of the young HOTO gallery also looks back on the past days with great satisfaction: "We felt very comfortable and were treated respectfully and well. Both from the neighboring galleries and from the Positions team. Our booth had a super location and everything worked out well in the set-up and take-down. We sold well for a first fair and there was a lot of interest expressed for our artists. We sent out or gave away a total of 20-30 portfolios. There was a lot of praise for the design and hanging of our booth." Special interest was noted in the artist Marco Reichert, he seems to be very well received in the Berlin art market and had good sales.

Also represented for the first time at a fair was Weserhalle from Berlin-Neukölln. Gallery owner Benjamin Hammond showed works by Emil Urbanek, Georg Haberler and Jung A Lee. The Berlin audience reacted extremely positively to the young positions. Weserhalle was even able to sell works from the studio, as the works they had brought with them were already sold out.

Business was also excellent at the Stuttgart gallery Thomas Fuchs, which was able to sell works from all the positions shown: "Positions Berlin was again very successful for us. Among other things, we sold two works by Rainer Fetting, all six of the new paintings by Logan T. Sibrel brought in from New York for Positions, and several works each by Jochen Hein, Ruprecht von Kaufmann, Yongchul Kim, Bertram Hasenauer, Stephen Bron, and Carlo Krone. We were able to deepen existing contacts and make new ones."

Even before the POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair officially opened at the exclusive Behind the Scenes tour, Galerie Judith Andreae from Bonn recorded the first sales. She showed works by Lunita-July Dorn, Sarah Neumann, Tobias Vetter and Timofej Kratz. Looking back, she expresses her enthusiasm about the Berlin art market: "We had great pleasure in presenting four young positions at the fair, which were able to present themselves successfully and met with a very positive response from the collectors."

For the second time, the exclusive BERLIN ART WEEK COLLECTORS DINNER took place on Saturday evening as part of the POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair - a very special evening: collectors, gallery owners and important personalities from business, culture and politics talked freely about art in Hangar 4 until late in the evening and took advantage of the invitation to network.

Award winners 2023

For the second time Idolon GaIlery from Taipei was present, which this year received the ZILKENS Best Booth Award due to innovative and trend-setting curation.
This year's Berlin Hyp Award was won by artist Anna Zachariades of the Weißensee School of Art, whose sculptural glass and alabaster works made up an outstanding position of the Academy POSITIONS. Next to her, Ludwig Kuffer from academy of arts Düsseldorf convinced the jury with his refreshing wall objects, his drawer collages. With this award, the two young artists will have the opportunity to present themselves in a solo exhibition at the POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair the following year.

The up-and-coming artists Fabian Widukind Penzkofer, Florian Donnerstag and Linou Meyer were delighted to receive the first HEUSSEN Perspectives award. Their works will be celebrated with a vernissage in the representative rooms of the law firms.