Last Wednesday, we had a grand old time with you over at Hallesches Haus! With a generous supply of ice-cold beer sponsored by Pilsner Urquell, we’ve celebrated both the new look of our website and the launch of our very first sassy little book. It was an unforgettable night for so many reasons – even nature acknowledged it by sprinkling this winter’s first snow down on us. But don’t despair in case you couldn’t make it – now you can check out our impressions from the party!
photos: Markus Abele
I totally get that Yoga is not for everybody. Sometimes when I am sitting there, in one of those hardcore Jivamukti classes where they sing all together and talk about important life lessons I try to imagine the face of my grandmother when the yoga teacher says: “You are a beautiful flower. And now please spread your legs and hips wide to let the deep emotions in. Like the sunshine is entering with its beams into your inner flower”.
My secret method to enjoy these kinds of situations is taking it with a sense of humor. It’s like a free live episode of one of your favorite comedy shows and you build muscles and flexibility while watching it. I call it a win-win! But that does not mean that I don’t take yoga seriously. Actually, it’s one of the few things in my weekly routine that helped me in many situations of life for the past 8 years.
illustrations: Robert Nippoldt
Berlin in the time of the Weimar Republic is one of the city’s most thrilling periods and no wonder many have tried to revive this time – for instance with this Second Life animation. There’s a new illustration book coming out now that will take you on a joyride through that enchanted section of the city’s past – we tell you what you can expect inside.
The German illustrator Robert Nippoldt has been following a brilliant concept while creating his subsequent books. ”Night falls on the Berlin of the Roaring 20s” is already his third work, after ”Hollywood in the 30s” and ”Jazz. New York in the Roaring 20s” that takes the readers on a time travel. Nippoldt’s illustrations are accompanied by stories and anecdotes gradually unraveling the secrets of a particular era.
photos: Maxime Ballesteros
Ever since the French photographer Maxime Ballesteros got his first camera when he was a teenager, he hasn’t stopped taking pictures. Carrying a camera always with him, in order to be ready for when he sees something interesting to him, rather than documenting everything, Ballesteros uses photography as a tool to visualize his own subjective view of the world. His first monograph, Les Absents was released this month by Hantje Cantz Publishing, and produced in cooperation with the visionary culture and fashion network Sang Bleu in London, including various texts and poems by the artist himself. It takes us on a strong, emphatically physical, and a bit surreal journey into the artist’s world.
His photographs show a section of the world where day and night, dream and nightmare, the subjective and the objective are of equal importance. He compares his conception of his photography to the way our brain keeps both reality as well as dreams and nightmares in the same space; the same way, the artist’s imagination takes shape and comes into existence through the camera, making it real. He shoots in the moment, following his protagonists to wild parties, private apartments, and the beach at dawn—shimmering and excessive, sharp and always in style. read more…
photo: Philipp von Recklinghausen / bobsairport
The true difference a book can make, in a time when it’s pretty much all said and done, is have a clear, authentic voice, and this is exactly what ‘Berlin Heartbeats’ has. ‘Berlin Heartbeats’ is a collection of intense photo stories and essays, of people who experienced the 90’s in Berlin and the time right after the wall fell until the early 2000s, and a new reality revealed itself to them; “old structures dissolved giving space for improvisation and experiment”. Frank, genuine perspectives and testimonies, not of a romanticized Berlin, but of a city as experienced by them, giving raw, simple, but magical accounts. You see the abandoned and run-down areas of the once divided city, you see revolts in the streets, the crazy underground art and music scene, alternative living projects, street parades and so much more.
Have you ever been in the situation where somebody told you they really liked your nose, or your neck or your hair and you thought: “WHAT? It’s the part I actually dislike most about my body.”
We have a certain perception of ourselves and our appearance. Influenced by our biography, our family and friends and also by the city we lived in. For example, I did not like my skin color until the day I moved to Berlin. While growing up in a city in the east of Germany, my skin tone was always standing out in a crowd. And most of the time not in a positive way. In Berlin on the other hand, strangers, friends, and lovers did not seem to mind my color. Not at all.
This perception of ourselves influences of course also the choice we make in the photography that should represent us. Especially in online dating, pics are the crucial part of storytelling. And even if you don’t want to upload pictures of yourself that look completely fake, you also want to show the best part(s) of you. Making the choice of the perfect picture always a bit tricky.
Friend and Berlin-based Turkish photographer Eylül Aslan was fascinated by how our picture selection for our online profiles is influenced by our self-image. For her book Trompe L’oeil she met over 40 men through Tinder and asked them what part of their body they liked and what they disliked most. After that, they had to ask her the same questions regarding her own body. The result of this social experiment is a book colored in all kinds of flesh and skin and full of physical intimacy between strangers. read more…
photo: Marlen Müller
Lina Jachmann’s new book Einfach Leben, the title meaning live simply, is a lifestyle guide that escapes the usual traps of this kind of literature: it’s neither about fast trends nor is it pretentious or preachy. On the other hand, it provides you with a lot of practical insights into the minimalist lifestyle based on portraits of (extra)ordinary people who have found ways to incorporate this philosophy into their everyday lives to make them more sustainable. Since quite a few of them are somehow linked to Berlin, we’re introducing them and their alternative habits we could all learn from below!
photo: Make Your Own Sign
Spring is the time to expand your boundaries, expose yourself to new experiences and maybe take up a new hobby. In Berlin, we’re blessed to enjoy a wide range of all kinds of workshops that will enable you to do all these things and also to meet new inspiring people. Check out our suggestions and hurry if you want to register – some of the workshops are starting this weekend!
There are some art concepts that could only be transformed into reality in Berlin. The people that really make this city are indeed characterized by a certain tolerance to all things wild and free, regardless of how weird or inappropriate they may be at the same time.
On his arrival in Berlin, the Czech artist Martin Gabriel Pavel set out to explore the city and its colorful people. But although this still sounds pretty usual, I’d venture to say he made a little more of an impact in this field than you or me. The photography project he started out could only succeed under some very particular circumstance, the most vital one of them being that people would allow others to take picture of them naked, which will result in hundreds of such portrayals getting back to Pavel.
photos: The Gentle Temper
So much is happening during the summer in Berlin that it’s become some kind of a parallel universe everyone is longing for. And no wonder – nothing can compare with the time where you get to enjoy Mauerpark to the fullest, wear your least demure clubbing outfit with no annoying jacket over it, and drink as many Späti beers around the Kanal as you may wish. Another amazing feature of Berlin’s summer is our lakes. Find out more about the beautiful publication that will help you discover them after the jump.