Art | iHeartBerlin.de

Fantastic Playground Berlin Opening Recap

As some of you already know we are right in the middle of our new group exhibition Fantastic Playground Berlin that you can still visit until Saturday at the Marcell von Berlin Flagship Store on Friedrichstraße 172. We have been planning this show for a long time now and we still can’t believe that it finally materialized, and it looks so much more amazing than we ever could have wished for.

This exhibition is really special to us because for the first time we had a theme that allowed us to create something like a retrospective of our work for iHeartBerlin for the past 15 years. Berlin is a playground of ideas – this has always been an important theme for us as we featured all these wonderful and inspiring projects from different creative scenes that make up Berlin. It’s so diverse and fun and colorful. To us, it’s the essence of Berlin and why this city is so special. It feels like everyone can find their space on this wild playground.

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Fantastic Playground Berlin – iHeartBerlin’s New Exhibition

by Frank | Art

illustration: Laura Breiling.

Today, we are proud to announce our next big group exhibition “Fantastic Playground Berlin” which will celebrate the unique diversity of Berlin’s creative scene. It’s been a couple of years now since our last big exhibition Uncensored Berlin so we thought it was about time to do a new one. The last two years during the pandemic with its various lockdowns and restrictions have not been easy for the art and culture scene – nor have they been easy for us. This new show is our effort to reclaim spaces and draw the attention back to the creative people that we care about so much.

For decades Berlin has been the secret creative hub of Europe. From music to art. From theater to architecture. From techno to science. Berlin became the place where cultures clash – but in a good way.

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The Pyramid Party is the new Crazy Drag Ritual Berlin Needs Right Now

by Claudio | Art, Party

Could you imagine going sober-raving with a bunch of alien-like drag queens in Oberschöneweide? Neither did I until I went to the Pyramid Party.

I have had my fair share of strange things in Berlin in the last couple of years. Approximately 16 years ago I came to this city as a young and curious psychology student and did not imagine what a rollercoaster ride was expecting me and my body. Yet last February one particular event became one of the top special experiences: the Pyramid Party. Before this particular event repeats itself this weekend I would like to share with you my experience of the last time I went there.

Escaping Narrow-Mindedness: A Tribute to Art

by Guest Author | Art

Labyrinth of Lies, artwork: Sven Sauer.

A small mind always remains trapped in its subjective views. Trapped in a world that it believes to be reality. It relies on its own personal experiences and opinions. But paradoxically, one’s own opinion is often merely an eager repetition of seemingly good opinions of seemingly good people. The fewest of them actually defend their own viewpoint. Not to mention that they rarely critically assess said viewpoint or perhaps admit an error in reasoning.

“The thinking man changes his opinion,” Friedrich Nietzsche said.

But this occurs extremely rarely, in fact. Instead, someone’s own thinking is continuously confirmed and reinforced by others with similar thoughts.

Berlin From Unseen Perspectives

by Frank | Art, Photos

photos: SpreeGrafie.com.

In our 15 years of iHeartBerlin, we have seen quite a bit in terms of Berlin photos and of course taken a lot ourselves. Especially the great Instagram photography era has given us many wonderful impressions of our city, which has shown us many unknown and surprising sides of Berlin. So understandably, it’s a bit difficult to impress us with Berlin photos nowadays. Or so we thought.

A few weeks ago we received an email from Mark Rautenberg, who drew our attention to his Berlin photographs. We get such submissions every now and then and are of course always grateful and happy when we can share the work of creative Berliners on our blog, especially because it allows us to give new or lesser-known creatives a platform.

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An Exploration of Twins: An Exhibition by Chris Phillips

by Guest Author | Art

photos: Chris Phillips.

Some might know Chris Phillips as the co-founder of the art collective Pornceptual and co-founder of the queer festival WHOLE. But in addition to leading these groundbreaking projects, this Brazilian ex-pat is a prolific artist himself. Starting on February 22nd, you can see his newest photography work at The Ballery.

The exhibition, simply entitled “Twins”, is curated by Chris together with his twin brother Eric. The collected artwork aims to answer the question: How do twins view twinship?

Sky Under Berlin – An Exhibition in one of the Darkest Places of Berlin

by Frank | Art

Imagine you are sitting in a secret bar in Berlin, between hundreds of candles and listening to atmospheric sounds. A person dressed all in black accompanies you to an old closet. Inside is a hidden door that leads you into an ancient cellar of the building. At the end of this corridor, you find yourself in another world – deep inside the heads of 10 artists who lead you through a dark labyrinth of their imagination… The path through the darkness leads you back to the red bar, while the experiences in the darkness fade into a dream.

Following the huge success of the group exhibitions “The Darkrooms” and “Lost Art Festival” the makers of these shows are bringing you a brand new underground art experience from March 23 – April 3, 2022: “Himmel unter Berlin” (Sky Under Berlin) takes you on a journey into the underground of Berlin, to a secret place that will vanish forever once the show is over.

Exciting Art in Berlin: 5 Exhibition Highlights in December

by Frank | Art

Refik Anadol, König Galerie.

With venues currently reducing their events and clubs canceling their parties due to the current rise of infections, the fear is pretty big that we’re heading into another long and boring Winter of nothing much to do. But before you book your flight out of the impending doom, hear me out: Berlin still has a lot going on. There are still a lot of theater shows and exhibitions going on this December that you definitely shouldn’t miss out on.

With our latest guide, we want to shine a light on some current highlights from the world of contemporary art that can be enjoyed here in Berlin. We took a look around to some of our favorite museums and galleries and found a plethora of amazing exhibitions that we want to share with you here. The iconic St. Agnes a.k.a. König Galerie is of course part of it – as per usual since this is our favorite gallery – but also the nearby Berlinische Galerie, Neukölln’s KINDL brewery as well as the beautiful Schinkelpavillon in Mitte. Expect some bizarre Alien sculptures, digital art from the world of NFTs, some latex rubber suits à la American Horror Story and a portrait show questioning masculinity.

Welcome to the ‘C/O Berlin Open House – hosted by Airbnb’

by Frank | Art, Charlottenburg, Events, Museums

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I’m sure that for many of us, Airbnb has completely changed the way we travel and experience cities and places over the past few years. Airbnb has opened doors to private homes, people’s lives and otherwise hard to reach places, giving us a more immersive travel experience than we could have ever imagined.

For some time now, Hosts can not only offer their homes on Airbnb, but also experiences. Just like the many unique stays on Airbnb, these experiences are offered by Hosts around the world who offer their guests authentic adventures for every conceivable interest.

Corona Culture: 120 Artists in an Underground Labyrinth

by Frank | Art

Berlin is really overperforming on the immersive group exhibition front these days, and we’re totally here for it. There was and is so much going on this fall, such as the i8i show Infinite Scroll, the Metabolic Rift show at Kraftwerk or the Sun Machine is Going Down art festival at ICC, to name only a few.

With the Corona Culture exhibition at Alte Münze another big one just opened last week and this might actually be the biggest one featuring over 120 artists and creatives involved. And it was a long way coming for this one. The initial exhibition concept was already conceived during the first lockdown in 2020 and there were several openings planned since then with several delays due to new lockdowns happening. But over time the exhibition just kept growing, until it finally was able to open last week. And I would say the wait and extra time that went into it was worth it.