photos: Roger Sabaté.
This year’s 75th anniversary of the liberation from the Nazi regime and the end of WWII was supposed to be a big thing with lots of live events and exhibitions and whatnot. Due to the pandemic, most of their program had to be changed and brought into the digital space. It’s great that this was even possible and that the culture workers were able to adapt so quickly. But of course, it feels quite anti-climactic for the culmination of the whole festivities not to be able to happen IRL.
One thing that did happen in the real world came as a bit of a surprise late last night at the pretty empty Pariser Platz. A space that is usually filled with people, even at night, became the sight for only a few eyes of a projection onto the Brandenburger Gate with a simple message: a thank you in the 4 languages of the allies that freed the world from the Nazis.
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by Claudio | Stories
photo: Michael Beaton / CC
Berlin’s image keeps on inspiring photographers. Apart from showcasing many awesome Instagram accounts presenting the capital in all of its current diversity, we love finding projects that visually combine the city’s past and present, just like the fantastic series refilm.io, initially inspired by the movie ”Wings of Desire”. Today, we want to present a collection that includes fewer photographs but is nevertheless a meticulous visual homage to the city we love. Read on to see more works from Michael Beaton’s ”The Berlin Experiment”!
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by Michalina | Photos
The Festival of Lights amazes me once more with how it manages to mobilize such a huge amount of Berliners to come out of the house at night to explore the city. If you walk along any of the trails of the festival you will encounter so many other people walking around discovering the many light art projections all over the city it feels like the night becomes day – and a busy one at that.
Until October 20th, 2019, every night from 19-23h you will be able to discover countless projections – many also animated with elaborate mappings that embrace the architecture and details – at various buildings in the city such as the TV tower, the Humboldt Forum, the Berliner Dom, several buildings around Bebelplatz, the Brandenburger Gate, the high rises at Potsdamer Platz, etc.
This year’s highlight was for sure the show at Brandenburger Gate about the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall. Also, the newly opened James-Simon-Gallery at Museumsisland has a particularly stunning projection that beautifully reflects in the water. Now enjoy some impressions of this year’s Festival of Lights.
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by Frank | Events
After having left a mark in 2013 with his eye-catching street art pastings “Wrinkles of the City” all over Berlin, the world-wide famous French artist JR has reappeared in Berlin, with a new inspiring installation.
In order to celebrate Germany’s Reunification Day on the 3rd of October, JR recreated a representative scene to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the celebration of freedom. The installation is a photo collage set on the west side of the Brandenburg Gate, whose visual impact is remarkable, given its more than 25 meters high. The strength of the work of art is given by its composition: a picture from the Reunification Day representing people standing together on the top of the Wall has been built in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
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by Giulio | Art
A couple of days ago a quite unusual sight came into being at Brandenburger Tor. Three disused busses where erected like poles right by the backside of the gate. What is the meaning of that you might wonder? The installation was made by the artist Manaf Halbouni and it was already on display in Dresden earlier this year. It caused a bit of protests from the right wing, but generally people were quite stunned by it.
But what is the meaning of these mysterious busses? The installation is a reference to a photo that was taken in 2015 in war-ridden Aleppo. It showed busses that were put up just like that as shields against the gunfire. Titled “Monument” the piece is calling for awareness of this horrible war that is still going on today.
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by Frank | Art
photo: Camilla Bundgaard.
Perhaps one of the main thoughts when thinking about Berlin, at least for young people that is, are its popular nightclubs, music venues, events, clubs and techno parties. In fact, Berlin has been gaining a reputation of this wild and sleepless city where the party never ends. However, Berlin is much more than just an endless rave – not to mention that it was the capital of Nazi Germany and it was also infamously divided during the Cold War – and its historical landmarks are a crucial part of what makes Berlin such an interesting city. So, although we usually try not to write about mainstream tourist sights, through the big urban icons listed in this piece you will get to understand a little bit of the history behind them.
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by Guest Author | Mitte, Museums, Stories
You know the drill: Someone is coming to Berlin for the first time, and you, with them, have to visit the same typical, commonplace “Berlin musts” for the thousandth time, along with flocks of tourists who push you in order to make their 13th shot of the same angle of the Berliner Dome. To save us all the distress of touring around what everyone is expected to see in the city, we gathered their alternatives one can visit instead, through which the real Berlin is revealed. (disclaimer: maybe your mom will not enjoy it).
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by Stella | Stories
photos: Florian Lonicer
You’re no strangers to iHeartBerlin’s crush for unique, cool art; let alone when there’s an innovative new project, inspired by the beauty of this city– we have to share! Florian Lonicer‘s love for urban photography and pursuit for perspective, combined with Berlin’s most significant touristic attractions brought to us the project Blickwinkel. At first sight, one might think this is a series of impressionist paintings, which would be cool enough, but finding out that these are actual photographs blew our mind!
This amazing result comes from 25 snapshots mashed together in postproduction: Each landmark is being photographed 25 times, all from different perspectives and locations. In this way, we perceive the essence of the landmark, while its frame becomes less concrete. For Florian, the different shots symbolize the different perspectives, as well as the different personal experiences each of us has, that connects us to each landmark: therefore each work of art is the sum of different perspectives, where rigid frames are shattered and colours prevail.
The photos are now available as a calendar for 2018 here.
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by Stella | Art
Usually some time in October the Festival of Lights is taking place in Berlin transforming some of Berlin’s most iconic buildings with the magic of illumination and projections. The festival has come a long way over the years including more and more buildings and bringing more international visual artists to town. Even though the light spectacle is a little bit outside the array of things that we would feature here on the blog normally I can’t help but be impressed as well by some of the projections that you get to see (and not so much by others). To see one giant panda spaceman projected onto the Berliner Dom is simply powerful and fun to watch. It reminds me of all the huge murals that are popping up over the city. I like to see this kind of larger-than-life artworks and I wish there was more of it. After the jump some of my favorite light works from the festival.
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by Frank | Photos
photo: Andi Weiland:
It was one of the quietest Saturday nights of my past 12 years in Berlin. Without any particular expectations a friend and I drove with the bikes from Kreuzberg to Brandenburger Tor while the sun light slowly started to decrease as the evening went on. As soon as we were there I felt my heart change in speed. The whole place was packed with men, women and kids. Some faces seemed familiar from late nights, parties and bars spend in the queer scene. Others I recognized from my everyday life in offices, cafes, bakeries or pharmacies. Does it matter who the people are who mourn for the victims in Orlando? Does is matter if they are young, old, gay, straight, black, white, trans or cis? For me it didn’t. I saw a place filled with heartfelt sorrow. With tears and cries and shattered minds, not able to understand and not able to forget the latest attack.
Nightclubs are a special place in the LGBTI world. On the first look they just seem to be a place for easy flirts, pumped bodies and shallow excitement. An arena of hedonism and a vanity fair. Where broken hearts and sucked dicks exchange numbers just to never actually call each other. But beyond the surface you might find out that nightclubs are a unique place for self exploration. Where first kisses are exchanged and drag stars are born. They offer safety and comfort under the shine of the disco lights to the ones who get discriminated and mistreated in their daily life just for not fitting in.
The shooting in Orlando hit the LGBT communities all around the world by attacking this safe haven. As Berliners we know the power and magic of nightclubs and could feel the horror on our skins, while reading the news about the deaths of the Orlando victims who just wanted to spend a night out with their friends or lovers.
On Saturday night the Brandenburger Tor for the first time in history was illuminated in the colors of the rainbow. But what matters where the radiant hearts of the Berliners that came. Under the collective mourn I felt a community that was not necessarily connected by the same experiences of discrimination or shared sex preferences. Berlin showed the world that its inhabitants are out and proud. Not afraid of hate and not afraid to love.
As the gathering slowly dissolved I felt so happy to be part of this community and at the same time so sad that it took such horrible event to bring us all together. Our impressions of the memorial after the jump.
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by Claudio | Photos, Stories
