Erster Mai
Depending on your approach, May 1 in Berlin is either an opportunity to take to the streets and protest in solidarity with workers and other worthy causes, or a reason to party. Oftentimes, these approaches are combined. I started my May 1 by making my way to Görlitzer Park to join the protest against the proposed building of a fence to encircle the park so it can be closed at night. There is understandable outrage in the neighbourhood about the fence – it doesn’t offer any solutions to the real social problems that are present in the area. At this protest, there were some speeches and discussions around the issue interspersed with live performances and DJ sets, and by the late afternoon, the event had morphed into full-on party mode.
Over the years, the tone of May 1 in Görlitzer Park and the surrounding area has been through different phases, from a permissive free-for-all festival atmosphere with sound systems dotted everywhere to a restrictive ban on any open-air music and the blocking of local businesses from playing from their own speakers. This year fell somewhere in between. I did see a few people get their music shut down by the Polizei, but there were also plenty of systems booming.
After hanging out in the neighbourhood, I made it to Club OST for the Sound Metaphors party. I was mainly there to see two of my favourite DJs play back-to-back: Curses and Cormac. They have really complimentary styles; Curses flirting with the darker edges while Cormac brings the shiny disco bangers. I ended my night here, and when I left the queue was still snaking far around the block. People in Berlin definitely love to party, but perhaps we could all do with a little more protesting.
Gallery Weekend
When you live in Berlin, going to Gallery Weekend can be a bit weird. You can visit these galleries pretty much any time, so why pick the moment that there will be gargantuan queues? Well, part of the fun comes from being in the throng. It’s also an unmissable people-watching opportunity – everyone comes out for it, everyone gets dressed up, and there is a buzz everywhere. I queued up for the longest time to get into Sprüth Magers for the opening of Cyprien Gaillard’s Retinal Rivalry. The main draw was the stereoscopic film being shown in the downstairs part of the gallery. It was a 3D experience where you donned the complimentary glasses as part of the viewing experience.
The work plays with perspectives and perceptions – at times the camera is placed in a glass recycling bin as it is opened and emptied, at others it zooms above the German landscape, or offers close-ups of ornaments and objects. The perspective shifts and heightened detail were fascinating to explore. I learned from our art editor that it reportedly cost €1 million to make, and I admire that such a budget was given to a piece of time-based art. Upstairs there was more from Gaillard, including one wall of acoustic sound boards, which upon closer inspection featured skeletons inspired by Danse Macabre etched on their sides. It felt so playful and extravagant to depict them in this way. The exhibition is running until July 26, and it’s worth your time.
Kerb Food Hall opening
I’m going to be honest, I was pretty sceptical about Kerb Food Hall moving into the former IMAX at Potsdamer Platz, and on the opening night I was a hair’s breadth away from not even going in. It turns out my misgivings were totally misguided. It is a food court, but the style is different. There are a ton of really good food options (Fräulein Kimchi, El Amigo Taqueria, Round & Edgy), the bars are great, the decor and layout is really well thought through, and the atmosphere was super nice.
The highlight for me was Pick & Cheese, which has the same conveyor belt system that you get in sushi bars, except in place of sushi plates it is plates of cheese. This ingenious concept is the brainchild of Matthew Carver, who opened the first one in London. There are close to 30 different plates of cheese to choose from, all sourced in Germany. Each cheese comes paired with different chutneys, jams, pickles, crackers and occasionally meat. I spent an inordinate amount of time working through a frankly obscene number of cheese plates, and it was very fun and fulfilling. Is this finally a reason to go to Potsdamer Platz?
TOILETPAPER – ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska at Fotografiska
The big exhibition openings at Fotografiska are always huge affairs and the opening party for ‘ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska’ was no exception. I guess this is what happens when you put Miss Keta and ToyTonics on your lineup? To be fair, the party didn’t overshadow the new exhibition, and it did feel like everyone was there to see the new work first and foremost. I have to say, since it opened, Fotografiska has continually pushed the envelope with each new major exhibition and it doesn’t seem afraid to try new things and adopt fresh approaches.
The ‘ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska’ exhibition put together by TOILETPAPER Magazine is an immersive and intense show – the colours are popping, the concepts are in your face, and it happily blurs the lines between art and editorial. At the end of the exhibition there is a pit filled with plastic bananas. You could read this cynically as a way to get people to create shareable content, or you could see it as a playful bit of fun that people clearly enjoy interacting with. Whatever your take, it’s good to see Fotografiska do things in a way that is approachable while still retaining an edge.
Cosmopolitics at Kunstbrücke am Wildenbruch
I’ve walked past the Kunstbrücke am Wildenbruch gallery literally hundreds of times over the years, but I never even knew it was there until last month. From the outside, the entrance looks like one of the hop-on/hop-off points for boat tours, but it’s actually a former toilet facility that was used by canal boats that has been converted to an exhibition space. Inside there are four rooms, with the conversion happily leaving everything rough around the edges – exposed walls, knocked through doorways and a glass skylight. When I serendipitously stopped by, the exhibition on display was Cosmopolitics, which was centred around themes of space and how politics can impinge on this in a more ephemeral way.
I’ve recently been revisiting Jeff Wayne’s classic The War of the Worlds, the prog rock musical about an invasion of Martians, so I was primed to love the ‘Planetary Personhood’ part of the exhibition by Nonhuman Nonsense. This work advocates for granting Mars legal personhood in order to protect it from exploitation. It’s a far-out idea, but the execution of it through the work somehow made it simultaneously humorous and poignant. While this exhibition is now over, it’s worth visiting this gallery any time just to appreciate the uniqueness of the repurposed space.
Drum n Bass on the Bike, all over Berlin
I knew that Dom Whiting was bringing his famous Drum n Bass on the Bike craziness to Berlin for another roll through the city, but I didn’t actually plan to take part. The starting point was at Brandenburger Tor, and I didn’t have time to make it over that afternoon as I was planning to meet some friends at Tempelhofer Feld. By a complete fluke, as I was cycling up Flughafenstraße on my way to Tempelhof, the ride was making its way up Hermannstraße.
Finding myself in the middle of 5,000 cyclists was a wonderful coincidence. If you’re new to the concept, Drum n Bass on the Bike involves Dom Whiting riding his bike with a full DJ set-up while he live-streams it to his thousands of followers. All along the ride there are supporting cyclists with additional speakers that blast Dom’s tunes. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get close to the action, so I raced to the front and cycled alongside him to film. The ride was an absolute vibe, and there was a lot of bike-based dancing going on. Fun fact, if you go to 1:13 of his livestream on YouTube, you can see me filming in the background.
XJAXX at Emmauskirche and Festsaal Kreuzberg
Every year I make a point to go to at least one XJAXX festival event, and this year I was fortunate enough to make it to two. The first was a special performance by avant-garde indie pop artist Bonaparte. He eschewed his normal set-up for a special ‘quiet’ performance, and it was beautiful. The material transferred marvellously, the surroundings of the Emmauskirche added a certain reverence to proceedings, and at times Bonaparte had the air of a preacher leading his congregation. He walked into the crowd, encouraging people to join in with the chorus. Hearing the whole room whisper, “Good things will find you in the end” was almost magical. The crowd were enraptured and respectful, refraining from chatter and giving the performance the space it deserved.
For the second XJAZZ event, I made it to the Berlin showcase event at Festsaal Kreuzberg. The standout act for me was Brown Penny, who was so high energy that they electrified the room. The fact that Festsaal Kreuzberg was sold out for a line-up of acts that are all Berlin-based is a real testament to how strong the local jazz world is right now, and I exited the show with a new mission to make jazz events part of my regular culture diet from here on.
NO. The exhibition at Kunstraum Kreuzberg
‘NO. The exhibition’ at Kunstraum Kreuzberg is curated by Meduza, a team of independent journalists who were forced to leave Russia to escape political pressure and censorship. It takes a look at the myriad problems the world is experiencing right now, reflecting on them from perspectives that embody resilience and resistance. My litmus test for how much I enjoy an exhibition is simple – either it can appeal to me on a purely aesthetic level, or it can make me think differently about a theme or topic, and on the best occasions it can do both. Kunstraum Kreuzberg has a knack for facilitating exhibitions that push both of these buttons, and ‘NO.’ continues that trend. It can be easy to take our freedoms for granted, and I appreciated being given space to reflect on how for many people around the world, expressing defiance is a dangerous and courageous act.
The Dark Rooms Hotel
I’ve been to almost every edition of The Dark Rooms and the related Himmel unter Berlin immersive art experiences, and the latest iteration took over a former hotel on Ku’damm for six weeks. It followed the same format that the curatorial team have established: a range of artists create site-specific installations in different rooms and areas of the building, and guests explore and traverse their way through them. The works are always a combination of sound, light and kinetics, often with futuristic overtones and a dash of dystopia. Making your way through a temporarily repurposed space is a large part of the appeal of these happenings, and the hotel proved an ideal setting, with the rooms, corridors and basement areas all being used to good effect.
Sometimes, the most simplistic concepts are the most enjoyable, and Marco Barotti’s Clams fit this bill for me. Barotti created artificial clams that clattered and chattered on top of a bed of grey stones, and it was quite fascinating to see this melding of artificial and natural phenomena. This otherworldly and alien feel was also present in Tentacles by Ausgang Studio and Liminal Ring by Jin Lee. As part of Berlin Art Week in September, the curatorial team will be producing another edition of the Lost Art Festival and utilising 19,000sqm of space. I’m already looking forward to how the approach they used with Dark Rooms will play out over this size of an area.
10 Years Mansions and Millions at Lark & Fitzroy
Mansions and Millions is arguably Berlin’s finest indie label. Over their 10-year history, they have released records by the best indie artists of the city, and their roster reads like a who’s who of the scene: John Moods, Sean Nicholas Savage, Andreya Casablanca, Discovery Zone. To celebrate a decade of operation, they took over the adjoining venues of Lark and Fitzroy and assembled a stacked lineup for a festival-style experience – when one set ended in one venue, you made your way next door for the next set. The format worked really well, and I managed to catch a storming set from Andreya Casablanca in Lark, followed by a dreamy set from Martha Rose in Fitzroy. I bumped into so many friends that I’ve gotten to know through the indie scene over the years, and the whole night had a celebratory and familial vibe. It’s good to know that the indie scene is alive, well and thriving.
30 Years Editions Mego at silent green
From one label event to another, this time the 30-year anniversary of experimental Austrian imprint Editions Mego. The label has been at the forefront of boundary-pushing and experimental electronic music since its inception, and it celebrated this fact with a two-day showcase event Volksbühne and silent green. I didn’t make it to the Volksbühne, but I was lucky enough to be at silent green. This was the perfect location for the event, which featured a number of video installations along with live performances.
In the live area, the stage was set up in the middle of the room with the crowd able to gather around it and this helped to create an environment that melted away the barrier between the audience and performers and created a kind of intimacy and closeness. The performances traversed from the more soft and ethereal tones of Tujiko Noriko to the abrasive and frenetic glitchcore of Nik Colk Void & Norbert Möslang. I find it heartening that in Berlin we still have venues that are willing to give space to this kind of challenging and provocative music, and that there is also such a large audience. To me, it proves that whatever cultural niche you want to promote or take part in, this city holds a space for you.
