The exhibition’s title refers more to the first of these two definitions, the important point here being that the works presented in the exhibition were created in Berlin and thus make it possible to experience Berlin as an extremely fertile, so to speak, primordial art soup. The second meaning might, tongue in cheek, mean less that the artists in the exhibition are eccentric, but rather that they are all remarkable artistic personalities.

True to the gallery programme, the ‘Berlin Originals’ on display are 20th century works by the three deceased artists Edwin Dickmann, Eberhard Franke and Klaus Jurgeit and contemporary works by the three artists Catherine Bourdon, Susanne Ring and Ina Sangenstedt. In an arrangement in the gallery space that promises unexpected insights, the paintings by the ‘old men’ hang on the walls while the sculptural works by the three younger artists are arranged in the room. The result is juxtapositions and contrasts, temporal, dimensional, spatial reference axes, colour contrasts, a plethora of different subjects and techniques. A somewhat speculative but very interesting question is whether a difference between the works could be due to the context in which they were created, on the one hand in West Berlin at the time of the Wall and on the other in today’s internationally orientated Berlin.

For two of the artists – Eberhard Franke and Klaus Jurgeit – Berlin was not only the place where they lived, but also their subject for many years, even decades.