By ALICE RYAN

Initiated by the sometimes mysterious Galerie im Regierungsviertel (their address is just a post office box) and run out of a closet-sized bar in Berlin-Kreuzberg, the Forgotten Bar Project could well have been one of the summer’s most ambitious: the improvised watering-hole/gallery’s programming rotated on a daily basis – giving organizers Maike Cruse, Tjorg Douglas Beer, Margherita Belaief, and John Kleckner scarcely a day off over the course of its two months in operation. The project apparently mirrored an early ’90s, post-wall Berlin of impromptu exhibits, screenings, and presentations, while the series of openings-cum-closings provided a nice, conveyor-belt take on the infamous and often disappointing territory of the “summer group show.” On busy nights few visitors were even able to see the contents of the show, the bar being just long and narrow enough to shimmy in for a cup of Prosecco or gazpacho, but not enough to spin around to look at what was on the walls without cricking your neck – a fact that may well have kept this project as attractive as it was. This, along with its roster of international and local artists as diverse as it was unpretentious, delivered the personal touch of an outdoor summer get-together where you just happen to bump into Jonathan Meese and Elizabeth Peyton waiting in the refreshments line.