After our escape to cooler climes in the alps, we are tempted to adopt a recumbent beach-side position. Instead, we are choosing to have a staycation in our hometown Berlin with a more manageable inbox, a shorter wait at the bar, and a month-long festival that shines a light on the city’s up-and-coming art spots.

Project Space Festival Berlin is an annual opportunity to step out of the white cube routine and experience the exciting fringes of the local scene. The strength of Project Space Festival is twofold, in its diversity and ephemerality. We’ve gone through it with a fine-comb to call out five of the finest.

Wednesday, 3 August – Soon Enough, insitu

Taking place across two venues on Kurfürstenstrasse, a group exhibition gets things underway at insitu before guided meditation and an ancestral sound performance in a nearby courtyard attempt to further evolve your inner being. Artwork from James Hoff – an emerging artist worth keeping an eye on – forms part of the group show.

insitu, Kurfürstenstrasse 21-22; atthebar, Kurfürstenstrasse 13-14, Tiergarten

Thursday, 4 August – Layout, Bruch & Dallas

One of four non-Berlin spaces invited to participate, Bruch & Dallas is transferring the distinctive plan of their home project space on a 1:1 scale to the Hauptstadt for this site-specific work. Interestingly, the geometry also reflects the street plan of Ebertplatz where they are based in Cologne. Bonus points for the most unusual site address as well: “Wasteland behind the kiosk and next to the Neue Nationalgalerie.”

Corner Potsdamer Straße & Sigismundstrasse, Tiergarten

Sunday, 14 August – The Many Headed Hydra, District

Hosted by District and taking place in and around at a former GDR-Border tower, The Many Headed Hydra is a performance by Ato Malinda. Simultaneously grounded in modern history and ancient mythology, through the arrival of a sea serpent out of the Spree, the piece elucidates the many discourses that have traversed the Atlantic Ocean throughout time.

GDR-Border tower, Schlesischer Busch, Alt-Treptow

Sunday, 28 August – Park View, Frankfurt am Main

If forced to choose just one exhibition, we would pick Park View at Frankfurt am Main which is an artist-run space founded by Emiliano Pistacchi and Anthony Salvador. They present a group 'poster' show in a public park on the edge of Leipziger Strasse. Unlike their regular program which takes place inside the small space, this event for the festival will take place outside as a 'publication' in space. It looks set to be an experiential treatise on failed utopias, public and private boundaries as well as heterotopias.

Leipziger Str. 40, Mitte

Tuesday, 30 August – Conglomerate, Kinderhook & Caracas

Conglomerate is a new Gesamtkunstwerk from Kinderhook & Caracas. Taking the form of a surreal television network, the second 30-minute installment of programming premieres at this event in Moviemento. The core team of five filmmakers includes rising-star Sol Calero as well as a guest contribution from Stephen G. Rhodes.

Moviemento, Kottbusser Damm 22, Kreuzberg

The Project Space Festival is another reason to celebrate experimental art practices, and we are very happy to be an official partner of the Festival. You can find all of the events listed in our brand new app Exhibitionary, which is available at the Apple App Store. Make sure to download it to stay up-to-date on the latest exhibitions information, images, and press releases at your finger-tips. The best part is a map that leads you to the projects conveniently.

Download it now. It's free.

Enjoy the art of viewing exhibitions... and the summer.

– Justin Polera