Ard Bia, the gallery that evolved from a Galway cafe, is opening a new space in Berlin. Its owner and curator tell Christine Maddentheir plans

Autumn 2007, and Berlin seems to be bathed in gold. The slanting light illuminates the tree-lined streets bordered with layers of yellow leaves, a few still dangling from the otherwise bare branches.

But it's not only the glowing autumnal light which contributes to this sense of rich promise. For the Irish art world, a new opportunity for international exposure will open up with the launch of Aoibheann McNamara's new venture, Ard Bia Berlin.

The German capital has just won the Academy of Urbanism's European City of the Year award for, in the words of chairman John Thompson, "rediscovering and reinventing its unique sense of place and identity" - goals perfectly in harmony with those of the fine arts. This could be why Berlin has, in the past few years, seen young artists flocking to the German capital and making their names there.

Apart from its profusion of international residency opportunities, with institutions such as Künstlerhaus Bethanien offering 25 studio spaces to young artists from all over the world, "Berlin currently has the highest population density of young artists in Europe, perhaps in the world", according to Berlin-based fine arts journalist Henrike Thomsen.

"Since the wall came down, Berlin has been an intellectually interesting standpoint, where the west ended and the east began, where people could redefine themselves."

Add to this the fact that Berlin is a relatively inexpensive city - you can rent a studio for €300 and a flat for the same, a total of €600, which wouldn't even get you a studio in London, New York or indeed Dublin - and younger artists can well afford to live there.

Berlin is "poor but sexy", as its mayor, Klaus Wowereit, famously pronounced.

Because of this, Berlin has been able to give a start to international shooting stars such as Olafur Eliasson, Thomas Demand and Jonathan Meese. It's a good showcase for collectors, with curators such as Christoph Tannert at Künstlerhaus Bethanien and Harry Lybke at Galerie Eigen+Art putting together important exhibitions.

"Any gallery, anybody, would want to have an outpost in Berlin," says Aoibheann McNamara.

She has come to the city for the weekend to check on development and discuss plans with her Ard Bia Berlin curator Rosie Lynch. Sitting in a cafe in Prenzlauer Berg, a trendy and rapidly developing area of the city, she alternates between cradling her caffe latte and gesturing broadly in excitement.

"A lot of artists in Ireland would give their left feet to have Berlin on their CV," she says enthusiastically.

IN A WAY, her new Berlin offshoot seems a natural evolution. McNamara first came across Lynch in 2005, when the latter curated a show called 28 Hands- a collaborative exhibition of 14 artists, one of whom was Lynch - for McNamara's Ard Bia cafe in Galway.

"We were sitting in the snug," recalls Lynch, "and Aoibheann said I might be interested in her new venture", which was destined to become the Ard Bia gallery.

After that, "Rosie hounded me - 'When is it opening?'," says McNamara. That summer, Lynch graduated from NCAD and, by August, she had moved to Galway to work with and help set up the gallery with McNamara.

The gallery began to develop strong ties with Icelandic art, in which McNamara has a strong interest (and which perhaps explains her edgy, Björk-like appearance). But when Lynch expressed a desire to live in Berlin "because of its endless multicultural possibilities", the idea of starting a gallery there, with Lynch as manager and co-curator, started to take shape.

Apart from Lynch's ties with Germany, through her Rudolf Steiner education in Camphill community, Berlin's exciting yet chilled ambience made it a magnetic draw for her. The possibility of buying property there without financial meltdown also helped, and Lynch began to research the market. The result was that McNamara signed for a four-room, 110 sq m ground-floor flat on Chodowieckistrasse 39, located in a still slightly gritty part of the very hip Prenzlauer Berg.

"The street felt right," says Lynch. "It's an in-between zone, between the posh, established part of Prenzlauer Berg and a more working-class district. You can access arts centres quickly, get on a tram and be where the galleries are in 10 minutes."

Together with her partner, musician Chris Nelson, Lynch has moved into and begun renovations on the new gallery space in the 19th-century building. Its ground-floor, north-facing location means the light can be controlled - a useful element in a gallery. The often unusually shaped rooms, as well as their pre-modern charm, mean the spaces have an artistic life of their own to contribute to the overall impact and ambience of the gallery and studios.

"We want to create space that allows exchange and interaction," says Lynch. She uses as an example the communication that takes place over cups of tea at breakfast - central to McNamara's vision are occasions such as these when people come together informally to nurture a creatively fruitful environment.

"Stuff can happen then. I love that, when stuff happens," McNamara says. "What's exciting is what happens in the tea room."

Although the plan is to launch the gallery officially in February or March of next year, the first resident artist, Roisin Coyle, has already taken up her space there for a five-week period.

"I'm very excited," Coyle says. "I was there a few years ago and was blown away by the energy, the graffiti . . . Berlin has a huge, raw energy that I love."

Coyle expects to spend the first week or two "just exploring the arts scene non-stop".

The advantage for Irish artists also lies in the familiarity of a homely haven in the middle of a strange city.

"So many artists say: 'Oh, I'd love to go and live in Berlin.' But they don't go over, it's just too overwhelming," says Coyle.

Now, with a dedicated and nurturing space to assist them, Irish artists can spend their time seeing and being seen in a lively arts environment.

ALAN PHELAN, WHO will shortly have his work shown as part of a group exhibition at a new space in Berlin, Galerie Feinkost, thinks the "jump to Berlin is interesting, quite amazing". Apart from the many big galleries that have opened up over the past few years, "it's cheap to live there, and it's a collecting culture. They're very supportive of art there".

There aren't many galleries in Dublin, he adds, that have taken part in the frequent international arts fairs in Berlin, with the result that Irish art can seem like an "exotic" addition.

To start with, McNamara hopes above all to provide nurturing support to artists.

"I'm not interested in being another of the 250 galleries in Berlin," she says. "If we wanted to be a big gallery in the Auguststrasse, that would leave us open to failure. This is small, and each day is new - it's a process, and that's the appeal. We're looking for exchange, experiences."

That aim could provide adrenaline for Irish artists seeking new impetus and new horizons.

"It's great just to be there, have a space and information available," says Coyle, "and Irish contacts to support you. It's amazing that it hasn't been done before."