The Berlin art legend who found his calling in sneaking into other artists’ shows

As the assemblage extracurricular a assemblage successful cardinal Berlin filters indoors to get retired of the rain, a antheral successful a agleam reddish T-shirt wearing cartoonishly ample metal-framed glasses heads successful the other direction.

With a retro futuristic yellowish motorcycle helmet nether his limb and an orangish backpack stuffed afloat of rainfall cogwheel slung implicit his shoulder, Patrick Jambon, a 58-year-old Frenchman, leaves Galerie Neu and makes for his bike. The rainfall is not stopping him from making the astir of Berlin’s assemblage weekend, erstwhile galore of Berlin’s 400-plus galleries grounds caller shows implicit 3 days.

Because Jambon, who goes by the nomes de plume “Mr Jambon” oregon “Turbojambon”, is not visiting galleries arsenic an mean civilization vulture, but arsenic portion of a non-stop show creation piece, present entering its 25th year.

Every time Jambon spends a fewer hours compiling a database of assemblage openings from websites specified arsenic Index Berlin and societal media accounts, jotting each opening connected a scrap of paper. Then helium begins hitting the galleries connected his list, going from 1 to the adjacent portion decked retired successful his vibrant outfit and bug-eye glasses. He calls it his “gallery project”.

‘You aren’t a existent Berlin creator if you don’t cognize him’ … Mr Jambon with his scrap of insubstantial listing openings. Photograph: Kiyohide Hayashi

“You aren’t a existent Berlin creator if you don’t cognize him,” says the Korean-American ocular creator Ae Hee Lee. Always the astir colourfully dressed successful the room, helium sticks retired astatine immoderate opening helium attends, and helium attends many. In the 25 years that Jambon has lived successful Berlin, helium estimates that helium has been to much than 6,000.

When Berlin assemblage play comes around, Jambon’s task goes into overdrive. Several years ago, helium went to 25 galleries successful a azygous day. This year, Jambon went to conscionable implicit a dozen, but his task was contiguous successful much ways than one. Ducking into Berlin-Weekly, an creation task abstraction successful Mitte, Mr Jambon pointed to a framed portion of insubstantial with tiny handwriting successful neat vertical columns. It was 1 of his assemblage opening lists. Berlin-Weekly’s featured creator and curator, Sebastian Klug, had asked Mr Jambon if helium could see 1 of his lists successful the show. “It’s portion of the arts scene,” Klug says.

Originally from Lyon, France, Mr Jambon moved to occidental Germany erstwhile helium was 21 to survey animation and video creation astatine the Academy of Art successful Düsseldorf and the Academy of Media Arts successful Cologne.

In his aboriginal 30s, helium had grown bushed of sitting successful beforehand of a machine to enactment connected his animations, truthful successful 2000 helium decided to determination to Berlin and prosecute show art. “Relatively aboriginal connected I realised that I missed interacting with an audience,” Jambon said astatine a assemblage opening successful Berlin successful precocious November.

In the German capital, helium started to be nationalist events dressed arsenic portable structures made from ready-made objects: a ladder connected his caput that grows taller arsenic radical adhd much rungs, a show strapped to his backmost connected which strangers tin play video games, a karaoke machine hanging connected his chest. His extremity is to interact with his assemblage and get them moving. “People deliberation that performers person to bash something, to beryllium active, and that the onlookers indispensable beryllium passive,” Jambon said. “I privation to reverse this.”

Over time, helium simplified and intensified his practice. The portable structures mostly stayed astatine home, but Jambon continued to spell out. Before moving to Berlin, Jambon wasn’t overmuch of a assemblage fiend, but “when I came to Berlin, I didn’t cognize that galore radical truthful I started going to galore galleries and exhibits,” helium said. “It became a habit.”

What started arsenic a wont developed into an mundane performance. “I don’t bash much, but I interact with the public,” helium says.

Throughout his assemblage crawl past Friday night, radical wave, grin and shingle his hand. One young antheral lasting extracurricular assemblage HVW8 Berlin successful Mitte shouts “Hi” arsenic Jambon bikes by. Another idiosyncratic stops him extracurricular assemblage BQ successful Prenzlauer Berg to inquire if he’s seen thing bully today. A 3rd approaches him extracurricular Dittrich & Schlechtriem assemblage adjacent Rosa Luxemburg Platz to inquire which galleries are inactive open.

“Many radical accidental hullo to me, but I don’t cognize who they are, oregon sometimes I lone retrieve who they are later,” Jambon says.

But arsenic the nighttime goes connected and the crowds bladed out, artists and curators sip vino extracurricular closing galleries, and Jambon’s interactions go much drawn out. Outside Galeria Plan B, Jambon strikes up a speech with idiosyncratic helium hasn’t seen successful a while.

“Are you inactive making your lists?” the antheral asks Jambon.

“It’s the longest database I’ve ever made,” Jambon replies, holding it successful beforehand of him arsenic the feline snaps a photo.

Live enactment … Mr Jambon performing Packman successful 2022. Photograph: Patrick Jambon

Jambon utilized to beryllium portion of an full country of Berlin show artists who embraced a akin practice. There were EVA & ADELE, an androgynous Austro-German creator duo who pretended to person visited Berlin from the future and announced: “Wherever we are is museum”. There was Konstantin Schneider, who called himself Kunstkontakter and visited galleries with a camera attached to his hard hat.

But erstwhile Jambon bumped into Schneider astatine a assemblage earlier this year, his erstwhile comrade-in-art was successful “incognito mode”: his health, helium said, had forced him to formal up little and be less galleries. Since the pandemic, Jambon says, helium has seen a driblet among gallery-goers. While galore arts spaces successful Berlin were capable to past lockdown owed to Berlin’s generous authorities backing for the arts – subsidies that person precocious been drastically reduced – helium estimates that radical simply mislaid their wont of attending assemblage opening. “There are immoderate radical I ne'er saw astatine exhibitions again,” helium says.

Still, Mr Jambon plods on with his project. “Some radical permission oregon spell elsewhere,” helium says, “but determination is nary existent alternative. There is nary metropolis similar Berlin anyplace else.”