Claudio | iHeartBerlin.de

Hybrid Art in Berlin – When Fashion meets Contemporary Dance

Dance is an expression of the body, while fashion design gives the body new form and function. Can both become one in an only and unique genre? Last Saturday the new Hybrid-Art Space TRAUMABARUNDKINO presented its first in-house production combining contemporary dance choreographies with the presentation of four young fashion talents.

We had the opportunity to experience the performance NOW YOU MAY TELL THAT I’VE BEEN SEEN BY YOU and were incredibly stooked by so much creativity from different angles coming together.

A Night of Italian Food Culture with Bertolli in Berlin

by Claudio | Food, Stories

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While the grey November is already in full swing, we had the chance to escape the cold and darkness of Berlin Winter for one night. We recently had the chance to travel with our eyes and our taste buds to one of our favorite countries to visit for holidays: Italy.

The Italian olive oil brand Bertolli invited us to take part in a workshop about Italian food culture. Together with 10 other media colleagues, we spend an evening with Aperol Spritz, little Italian delicacies and lots and lots and lots of different oil blends to taste.

Berliners Love Italian Food – The True Italian Food Festival

by Claudio | Events, Food

photos: Jule Müller

Some love art and some love pasta. We love both. So switching between fancy art events and delicious Italian cuisine might be a challenge in the next few days of Art Week for us.

The reason: the True Italian Food Festival is in town and is bringing lots of amazing restaurants together in one big food event. The idea is to offer a special regional dish with a drink for only 7 EUR. Very convenient for shy foodies who usually might not try the craziest thing on the menu.

Today the festival hits off and goes on until Sunday. Check here for the list of participating restaurants and go on a food adventure with your friends and lovers.

These Berlin Girls are Redefining Waste-Free Design

by Claudio | Fashion, Products

photo: Andrej Russkovskij

The fashion industry is believed to be one of the most toxic businesses for our environment. Billions of clothes are produced every year and in the process, lots of chemicals and dirt gets thrown into our rivers and oceans. But the saddest part is: most of it will maybe only last one or two seasons before it gets thrown into the garbage bin, and a large portion of the produced clothes that was never sold will get destroyed without having ever been worn. This is the shocking truth that everybody knows but everybody also wants to ignore when it comes to their personal needs.

This is not the case for Hanna and Julia. The two Berlin-based designers and Yoga lovers saw an important opportunity in clothes waste to make a difference with an amazing idea: Why not use the strong fabric of old jeans to create new bags for your yoga mat?

With this concept, they created the brand Dzaino which is nowadays making more products beyond their signature yoga bags. For their crowdfunding campaign, they asked me and other Berlin-based people why sustainable local design is so important and why it’s worth supporting. I think the most important part of this projects is to show that in cities like Berlin alternative concepts of multinational brands are tested and can become a reality. A reality that we really need to save our planet. Check out their video and pics of the campaign below and support them here.

A Tupperware Full of Bollywood – Chatsworth by Constanza Macras

by Claudio | Theater

Can you imagine a neighborhood in Berlin with only one ethnic background? This is the case of Chatsworth, a part of Durban in South Africa. During Apartheid all the inhabitants with Indian roots had to move to one common neighborhood. There they got only small houses to live in. Through this measures, the government hoped that the community of Indians would not grow larger.

Enfant terrible of the dance theater scene – Constanza Macras – choose Chatsworth as the title and frame of her newest piece. Her particular style of documentary dance theater takes the audience through fragments of unique stories, local music, romantic songs and her signature group dance scenes.

This Gay Rugby Team from Berlin Knows How to Defeat Stereotypes

by Claudio | Stories

photo: Slawomir Urban – URBANKAMERA

Straight men like football, basketball, and rugby. Gay men like gymnastics, ice-skating and yoga. These stereotypes can be right 60ish% of the time (this number is made up). But in some cases, they are so, so wrong and harmful. Stereotypes are a tricky thing. Of course, they help our silly human brains process information quicker and make faster decisions (though not necessarily better decisions). But when it comes to human interactions, your easy stereotypes can feel like a cage to the person you apply it too.

With the mission to show the world that stereotypes should be second-guessed in the case of sports and sexual preferences, the Berlin Bruisers take a strong stand on the field. The gay rugby team’s recent campaign – with the slogan “Fight For Being You” – was published on Facebook, Instagram and in print. When it came out, it caused quite some controversy (especially with straight men), which made me notice it.

Who was this Christopher Street Guy? – My Sister’s First Pride Parade

by Claudio | Events, Photos, Videos

Berlin is a crazy bubble in terms of diversity. Nowhere else in Germany are there so many different spaces, places and outlets for the members of the LGBTQI Community. Of course Berlin is not perfect in terms of safety for the said community. We still have harassments of transsexuals on a monthly basis, and I would not always dare to kiss a man at Kotti at night because you never know how the surroundings might react. Despite that, I am more than happy to call Berlin my home, since I feel that no other place in Germany has the same amount of freedom, tollerance and possibilities for people of different sexual orientations or gender identities.

The biggest celebration of this diversity is definitely the annual Christopher Street Pride Parade. Since I came to Berlin at the age of 18, I have been visiting the parade regularly. Some years I remember as stressful because of the heat and too many drinks. Or I felt that the event had turned too commercial, so I decided I’d rather visit an alternative demonstration instead. Other years the weather was a bit tricky. But nonetheless every parade has had its highlights and stolen kisses to tell of afterwards.

My personal highlight of this year was to bring along my little sister to Pride. It was her first big Pride parade and as I wanted to make the experience as memorable as possible, I showed her all the typical Pride rituals.