He did it again! There is this pile of garbage and you walk by one day. And you walk by the other day and there it is: the mysterious “6″ or “6de” or “1kg.de” or “4rtist.com”, painted right on the waste - on an old mattress, a pile of bulk rubbish, building material along road works or even a tire of the big Volksbühne truck trailer parked in Linienstrasse. Have a look at the artist’s website www.6de.de and find a lot more lovely and funny street art paintings. Whenever you walk around in Mitte / Prenzlauer Berg, keep your eyes open and you definitely will find a piece of work!

Fantasies are dreams that are awake – this is the motto of an artistic project in the Torstrasse 166. A deserted building in Berlin Mitte was transformed by 12 artists to a space, which touches all our senses…
Unusual, surprising and thrilling, the installation tangles our perception.  Don´t miss it! This art event lasts til 12 October 2008.
http://www.torstrasse166.de/

twin Gabriel

If you’re seeking for special movies, classics or art-house films, take a look at the Filmgalerie 451 in Berlin Mitte. A big archive and database, available in the Internet, help facilitate your search.

Filmgalerie 451 Berlin
Torstr. 231
10115 Berlin / Mitte
www.filmgalerie-berlin.de

After the reunification, many new buildings were constructed in Berlin and quite a lot of them provoke a controversial discussion whether modern architecture enriches or rather destroys our cityscape. In particular the shopping mall „Alexa“ close to the Alexanderplatz, which was constructed in 2007, is not well received by everyone. The architects and owners of the complex claim that it follows the classical Art Deco Style and is constructed with much care and attention to beautiful details. The critics can’t follow this rationale and call the Alexa a nightmare in pig pink („Alptraum in Schweinchenrosa“) or a subterranean bunker, which was pressed by a tectonic plate movement to earth’s surface and painted in pink.

However several modern buildings have been constructed in Berlin, which don’t polarize options as much – at least concerning their appearance. At the best they give Berlin its identity and the Berliners are proud and happy to see them. Spontaneously I can think of three buildings in the center of the town: There is the GSW Headquarter close to Checkpoint Charlie in Kreuzberg. A convex high-riser with 22 stores, called the round “pillbox”, was constructed in 1999 to complete an older administration building. According to the plans of the architects Sauerbruch and Hutton, the high-riser is covered with glass lamellae in warm colors. These lamellae are the trademark of the building and depending on the light reflection change in gradation and luminance. The building develops a life of its own and isn’t just a cool, clean and repellent surface.

GSW Headquarter

Another high-riser, which is pleasant to the eye, is the so-called Kollhoff-Tower on the Potsdamer Platz. It was built in 1999 in the retro style of New York’s brick buildings. The tower of 103 meters is supposed to have the fastest elevator in Europe. The roof terrace provides a fantastic view over the recently constructed area of the Potsdamer Platz and the adjacent Tiergarten park. Unfortunately only ten years after construction the building must be already renovated, but it’s still beautiful with its distinctive and pointed shape!

A successful example of modern architecture in Berlin is also the new exhibition hall, which belongs to the museum of German history in Mitte, Hinter dem Gießhaus 3. It was designed by the Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei, who has the reputation being the „master of light“ and the „magician of space“. Curved walls and light-flooded, spacious rooms lend the building its special and inimitable character. The visitors feel immediately embraced by the generous entrance area.

exhibition hall DHM (source: morgenpost.de)

Last but not least there is the philological library of the University of Dahlem designed by the British architect Norman Foster. This amazing building with an interior shaped as a book gives us hope that also in the future more modern and beautiful buildings in Berlin will be constructed.

Philological library FU Berlin (source: fu-berlin.de)

Southwest of Berlin’s city boarders, close to the town Groß Glienicke exists a place called „Waldsiedlung“. Despite the peaceful name and the romantic landscape, the 700.000 sqm area was once a military barrack in the Weimar Republic. During the Third Reich the barrack was expanded, and after 1945 was occupied by the soviet army. Even until 1989 it was used as a frontier-defence of the GDR. After the reunification the area was sold to a private property company and most of the buildings were demolished. Fortunately the so called Panzerhalle remained, and has been used for 10 years as an atelier and an exhibition place. The hall is huge, cold and drafty, but has a very special atmosphere especially in combination with the environmental forest, which is just beautiful; a stimulating contrast was created.
I visited the Panzerhalle for the first time in 2003 to see the exhibition „Blue Hall – market place Europe“. Artists from different european countries were invited to realise their idea of Europe, each one using a box of bananas. It was an amazing exhibition with funny as also sometimes provocative ideas. The Panzerhalle offered the ideal surroundings.

exhibit from „Blue Hall – Marktplatz Europa“

Last year the Panzerhalle was destroyed, but the people and the spirit, which created the Atelierhaus Panzerhalle still exist. The artists moved to another building belonging to the barrack Waldsiedlung, called now „Neues Atelierhaus Panzerhalle“. The artistic production continues and projects such as a sculpture garden are in preparation. It is a great advantage for Berlin and Brandenburg to have this place for cultural purposes, as so many different historical changes have taken place.

Lothar Seruset, Die Turnstunde

Berlin is actually one of the cheapest capitals in Europe. Without being rich or having a stable income you still have the possibility to find a nice flat in the center of the town and participate in the cultural life. There are a lot of places and events, where no entrance fee is demanded. Many buildings and monuments can be entered for free, for example the Friedrichwerdersche Kirche , the Reichstag , on mondays the museum Deutsche Guggenheim or the Holocaust-Monument close to the Avenue „Unter den Linden“ and the Brandenburg Gate .
In the evenings you can walk around and find spontaneous concerts on the sidewalks or in the Berlins huge public parks. Especially on friday evenings many gallery openings in Berlin Mitte take place, these are accessible to everyone . Residents and tourists are guided on special days through government departments, memorials, historical monuments, universities and other buildings, which are normally not opened to the public: Tag des offenen Denkmals, Einladung zum Staatsbesuch, Festival of Lights, Tag der offenen Tür…
Mainly during the summertime innumerable festivals and parties on the street are organised.

This unpretentious and easygoing lifestyle is also one of the reasons that many artists are attracted to Berlin, see Reuters-article „Artists flock to cheap Berlin from around the world“.

Queen Luise from Prussia and Princess Friederike in the Friedrichwerdersche Kirche, source: flickr

Datas and facts concerning „cheap Berlin“ as well as an interview with a scottish writer, living many years in Berlin, are coming soon.

in a recent article at de:bug magazine basso was described as the paper reincarnation of a  sultry sauna club. not bad, basso is a magazine, an art space, a gallery and above all it is an attitude towards life that seems to affect mostly bearded gay men above 30. tonight for example there will be a “screening of steven arnold’s LUMINOUS PROCURESS from 1972, when the boundaries between genders were passed with the pioneering lightness of the freshly awakened.” if you are bearded or not, you will like the attitude of that place. http://www.basso-berlin.de

there’s this thing about berlin nights.

they can become magic. like tonight. mies van der rohes neue nationalgalerie celebrates its 40th birthday with lectures and an open museum all week. tonight we went there at 11p.m. while outside one half of the crowd still gets drunk with red wine at a temporary bar, inside the museum is a lecture about minimal music (later on, after midnight, douglas gordon will come too). the bright light shines out of the building into the dark city; behind us the potsdamer platz panorama. we have a glass of wine and afterwards visit the current exhibition and i show my friend the one hiroshi sugimoto image that always makes me cry.

first bullet holes, now a bunker from WW2: it seems, i am becoming the history guy here… But this place IS special: its a private exhibition space for the contemporary art collection of the advertising creative and collector christian boros. the collection shows on more than 3000 square meter and 120 rooms (my architect friends went nuts) works from eliasson, reyle, meese, sierra and others. by appointment only.

Olafur Eliasson
Berlin Colour Sphere, 2006. Foto Noshe
Courtesy of Sammlung Boros, Berlin

Walking around in the center of Berlin without a goal or a special target makes you discover the most beautiful and interesting places. These places will never be found in any typical guide and will show you the real Berlin.
Impressive Buildings and sculptures from the 19th and early 20th centuries can be found around the area of the Charité (a famous and well-established hospital-complex between the main train station and the Friedrichstrasse): http://denkmaeler.charite.de/site/. On sundays the parks of the Charité are deserted and tranquil, so you can experience and enjoy a meditative silence, here you can recover from the sometimes exhausting activities in the capital.

Website representing the most important monuments of the Charité

A calm place is also the cemetery „Dorotheenstädtisch-Friedrichswerdersche Friedhof“ in Mitte, which is accessible from the Chausseestrasse 126: see article in http://de.wikipedia.org/.
The cemetery was built in 1763 and has become over time a place of great importance concerning Berlin’s tradition and history of art. Famous people have found here their last resting-place: between the artists Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Johann Gottfried Schadow are the writers and dramatists Bertolt Brecht and Anna Seghers, the philosopher Herber Marcuse, the members of the resistance Klaus Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnanyi, the politician Johannes Rau and lots more. Some of the tombstones are really extraordinary.

Grave of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, source: wikipedia

Not so silent but also quite interesting is the place in front of the ruin of the Palace of the Republic. Here the reconstructed palace will be built, this was damaged during second world war and finally destroyed in 1950. At the moment excavations are taking place on the former Palace Square (Schlossplatz): detailed article under http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/
The findings – foundations, walls and everyday items – are a significant source of the original construction of the palace and give an impression of the medieval settlement on this place during the 12th until the 14th centuries. There are plans to integrate parts of the excavation in the soon to be reconstructed buildings.

Preview of the excavation