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Kir Royal was this trendy TV series set in Munich featuring Franz Xaver Kroetz, who as Baby Schimmerlos wrote gossip columns on the local in-crowd, at once fascinated and filled with subliminal contempt. Because as an observer he was right in the middle of things, while at the same time lacking complete knowledge of how the deals were cut. Kir Royal was the title of Olivia Berckemeyer’s latest Schickeria (www.schickeria-berlin.de) that took place in late September 2005 at Carlos Depot in Berlin.

Berckemeyer has been running the Schickeria since October 2003. At irregular intervals she organises a salon for two or three days during which she compiles works of about 50 artist friends, each represented by one piece, to one large picture on a wall of her studio or another exhibition or project space. She always sets a different theme and selects the works accordingly in the artists’ studios.

A publication of the same name appeared on the occasion of the Kir Royal edition of Schickeria, making this evening a very special one. There was an air of glamour at Carlos Depot in view of the many important guests. This Schickeria GALA is now documented on Halle für Kunst’s Website. Even though a few scenes were obviously manipulated here, the question of true and false fame that imposes itself indeed fits to the Scickeria – just as it plagues the entire art scene.

Today’s most important contemporary art fairs, in Basel, Miami and London, reveal that the exclusive social trappings, the parties, concerts and shows, emit a shine that becomes a magnet; it is celebrated and, in the end, turns out to be what it’s all about. This is where the action is, and to take part is a must. However, so many V.I.P. tickets are handed out that anyone who is a bit clever can attend the events - which are then of course no longer exclusive. We all know that fame quickly fades if everybody is suddenly a little bit famous. A new power to define and new exclusions then become necessary.

Olivia Berckemeyer deals with these mechanisms in an ironic way. She sets her own standards and creates her own definition of inclusion. She decides which works of which artists are included and how they are hung. But she is not a curator. She creates a collage out of the individual artistic positions, a new whole, a work of her own. She unites things that actually don’t fit together, thus denying the artists their claim to individuality. But that is excusable, because no one is at the fore; because works of a large circle of friends are hung together here; and because in the Schickeria it doesn’t matter who is more or less successful, more or less important. Participating is everything; important is who is included.

Cheers!

Bärbel Hartje