ALLERY Twenty Four is Germany´s premier gallery for international autodidactic and undiscovered artists. The gallery is located in the middle of Berlin-Friedrichshain, a former East Berlin district which is home scores of alternative cafés and avant garde art projects. Berlin-Friedrichshain has become one of the city's trendiest destinations for the culturally interested. The gallery is situated just a few short steps from Simon-Dach-Strasse, which is not only a place to see in its own right, but a place to be seen in the ever-evolving "New Berlin" cultural scene. Located in a meticulously restored 19th century building, GALLERY Twenty-Four offers up to 408 square meters of exhibition space. They can offer space for six simultaneous solo exhibitions with adequate visibility through street-side show windows and abundant wall space with additional artificial lighting.

Art Interview: We are talking today with Pablo Reese von Lichtenberg, proprietor of Gallery Twenty-Four in Berlin-Friedrichshain. Pablo, thank you for meeting with us, can you tell us a bit about your gallery?

Reese von Lichtenberg: We opened in the year 2001 for the purpose of displaying works of self-taught and undiscovered artists. Since I myself am a self-taught artist I realized the challenge of getting exhibitions in commercial galleries and just how difficult it is when you are trying to break into the scene and get your work exhibited. I thought to myself I've been running around for eight years begging and pleading for every exhibition I've ever had and I just decided to open a gallery and make the space available to other artists in the same situation. So we opened in 2001, did our first exhibition in September of that year and have continued exhibiting ever since. We have had about 130 to 140 artists make solo exhibitions of their work, outside of group exhibitions such as the "International Assemblage Artists Exhibition", which we organize. We use the Internet extensively to recruit and find our artists, or at least to get the message out that we are here in Berlin and that we offer our space to artists anywhere in the world to come to Berlin and exhibit their work here.

Gallery twenty-four One of six exhibition spaces in the gallery.

Reese von Lichtenberg: Yes.

Art Interview: So you are the only one running the place. Do you do this full time or do you have a side job to support the gallery?

Reese von Lichtenberg: I have a side job that pays for my ordinary living costs, eating and rent. I teach English at the "Fachhochschule für Wirtschaft" here in Berlin two days a week to make ends meet on a personal level. But the gallery itself has reached the break-even point where it is self-sustaining. We opened in a much smaller facility on the Order Straße in Friedrichshain, Berlin in September 2001. It had 85 square meters and this year we realized that the demand was there and we were able to expand the gallery. The lease was ending at the smaller gallery and it was time to either expand or lose out on the demand that was there. So I made the decision to move here to this new space with a total of 408 square meters, where we can offer up to six simultaneous solo exhibitions with the layout that we have. We can also provide space for artists to use as studios. The studios are intended for international artists looking to come to Berlin for a short period of time - either three, six or twelve months - to do a specific series of work. They can work on a project here in the city.

Art Interview: Which artists have worked here? Are they primarily international artists?

Reese von Lichtenberg: Right now we have our very first artist working in our studio space because we only took over the lease in August of this year. Immediately after taking over the back space in August and finishing the renovations we had the "International Assemblage Artists Exhibition". There were some artists from the "International Assemblage Artists" that were working here in the back part preparing for the exhibition itself. Now Sandee Johnson from Brussels is here for a two-week residency working on new works while her exhibition is hanging here in the gallery. After she leaves on the twenty-sixth, we will have Pato Parga from Chile, who will be doing a three-month residency. After that a woman from San Jose will be coming over from California for three months and will be combining her stay with another artist from Los Angeles. They will be working together doing assemblage art in the backspace.

Want to read the whole interview? You have two options: Subscribe Now and receive the current issue of Art Interview Online Magazine and all of the back issues. Or Enter the Art Interview - International Online Artists’ Competition and receive the current issue of Art Interview Online Magazine and all of the back issues for FREE The competition is an international, juried, exhibition of paintings drawings and sculptures in any media, open to all living artists worldwide whom are over the age of 16. If you are already a subscriber please log in at the top right hand corner of any page.

This oral history transcript is the result of a tape-recorded interview with Pablo Reese von Lichtenberg on October, 05, 2004. The interview took place in Berlin, Germany, and was conducted by Brendan Davis for Art Interview Online Magazine.