BERLIN.- The 12th Art Forum Berlin – the international fair for contemporary art – will be held from September 29 to October 3, 2007 on Berlin’s Fairgrounds. The festive opening reception will be on September 28, 2007. March 16, 2007 marks the deadline for the applications for galleries to take part in the 12th Art Forum Berlin and its integrated Special Exhibition House Trip. Application forms can be downloaded from www.art-forum-berlin.com > Exhibitor Service.

In accordance with the ever-younger image of Art Forum Berlin, the Freestyle Stands will be subsumed in a platform of their own. These stands, conceived mostly as solo presentations or fascinating artistic dialogues, are the optimal prelude to the Special Exhibition in hall 11.2, directly adjacent to the regular alphabetical circuit of galleries. In April, an annually rotating jury composed of international gallerists and curators will select 120 international galleries from the received applications. The participating galleries will have the opportunity to present their artists’ latest production under ideal exhibit-ing conditions on the Berlin Fair grounds with their ideal ambiance for presenting art.

After record results with excellent sales and a fantastic attendance of more than 41,000 collectors, experts and art lovers as well as 1,700 media representatives from 39 countries, the International Fair for Contemporary Art proudly presents its entirely new design.

The international galleries’ advisory board initiated a change in the Corporate Identity to match the fair’s appearance and the younger image. The proposal by Gerwald Rockenschaub – an Austrian artist living in Berlin for many years – and his partner Alexander Rendi, a Vienna based designer were chosen from numerous applicants. The team developed a dynamic logo in annually changing colours accompanied by a slogan that will also change each year. As a “trademark”, the colour and slogan – this year “About Beauty” – refers to and questions art historical catch phrases of recent decades.

For the fourth time since 2004, Art Forum Berlin will feature a special exhibition on 2,000 m2, this year curated by Ami Barak, Artistic Director of the Art Department of the City of Paris and, until 2002 Director of the FRAC Languedoc-Roussillon in Montpellier. His exhibition House Trip, with up to 40 artists, focuses on the intimate relationship between art, architecture and design resulting from a growing artistic interest in modernism and investigates the blurring boundaries between private and public.

Art Forum Berlin is the climax of the art autumn in Berlin and has long been more than an art fair. With its Art Forum Berlin Talks, hosting international experts in contemporary art, numerous collaborations with public and private institutions and a highly demanded VIP program, the 12th Art Forum Berlin offers its visitors a concentrated glimpse of the development of art in our time.