photos: Jeisson Martin
I still remember the streets of Istanbul. More so, the scent of them. When I think of the city, I think of the dust, flying around, mixing with the different smells of food from the streets. Carrying the life of the people through the alleys, being baked in the sun and cooled down at night. I remember the flavor of apple tea floating through the city, I remember the sea. When I think of Berlin I smell an evening, a sundown, some concrete. I think of the possibilities that dance through the streets, the lights and the music. A smell can predict danger, a scent can mean home, a fragrance can make a promise.
The scent of a city is sort of its emotional fingerprint. The identity and announcement of events. How warm the smells surround you, how cold the night could be. How harsh a certain district smells and how soft the sea. Kreuzberg smells different than Zehlendorf, Mitte has a different perfume than Neukölln. Not to get all Grenouille, but scents to me are the texture that memories are made of.
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by Yasmin | Stories
Presenting art in abandoned Buildings ist not that new of a concept in Berlin. I remember the first art exhibitions I went to were actually happening all over some really cool artist houses and ateliers in Mitte like Tacheles. Last Sunday I visited the exhibition The Vacancy where 33 rooms of an old hotel were creatively filled with art objects of 33 different artists. Now that the district turned into the Upper East Side of Berlin it actually felt a bit wrong to go inside a house that was totally dismantled to experience some art exhibition. At home I thought about the experience and concluded that instead of constantly complaining we should reconsider the idea of art spaces as “Zwischennutzung” (inbetween use) as a valuable concept of urban development. Because if we let artists become the explorer and venturer of new or abandoned places, maybe the commercial use that will follow and which is unfortunately not stoppable might be less horrible. I know that a lot of people would love the city to stay forever at it is. But this kind of hippie-conservatism is not something that will contribute new ideas for Berlin. Still I hope the whole Vacancy exhibition is not something to make the real estate more valuable. But I am curious to hear your thoughts in the comments. After the jump you find the adresss, opening times and most importantly a wonderful selection of pictures from the exhibition taken by our photographer Anna Agliardi.
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by Claudio | Art, Mitte
This quirky little home-made video popped up these days that shows a part of Berlin Mitte in the post-wall time of 1991. It shows some areas around Linienstraße, Tacheles, Museum Island and Oranienstraße, and more interestingly a few flats from the inside. When you look at the interior design and at some of the fashions you will realize that this could be also today… Enjoy the video by Jörg Langkau after the jump.
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by Frank | Videos
photo: AANDO FINE ART, Osang Gwon
Ever since I can remember I have been intrigued with contemporary photography and fascinated by the possibility of stories being captured in a single image. That explains not only why the European Month of Photography, happening right now in Berlin, is my favorite time of the year but also why I’m so excited to share with you an upcoming exhibition entitled Well-Constructed. Embracing the current burst of South Korean culture and photography, the gallery space AANDO FINE ART in Mitte is bringing 5 internationally renowned Korean photographers to Berlin.
The group show investigates ideas of construction and perception manipulation whereby artists stage scenes of reality to create a conceptual narrative on their own. Expanding the possibilities of photography, artists Hongchun Park, KDK, Osang Gwon, Hyungmin Moon and Seungwoo Back are all on board, seeking to describe human experience and question primary visual perception. Among my favorites is Osang Gwon, who composes three-dimensional sculptures out of multiple two-dimensional images. Stunning, aren’t they? Take a minute to look through their works after the jump, before saving the vernissage date (November 07, 2014) in your calendar. Read on…
by Devid | Art
photo: Michael Lange
A bit more than 10 years ago film makers Igor Paasch and Frank Künster premiered their documentation Let It Rock! about Berlin’s most controversial district Mitte at the Berlinale 2003 and showed their film at several festivals over the course of the following 7 years. Now, 11 years later they finally released the film online for everyone to see.
Several Berlin personalities who the younger ones of us might not even know anymore but who were somehow famous and involved in the Berlin scene at the time are talking about Mitte and its nightlife, some praise it, some complain about it, but everyone has their own unique perspective on it. We recognize a few people that are still quite involved today, such as Johann from Circle Culture Gallery, Cookie, Sasha from Jahcoozi, Mieze from Mia., Miss Kittin and Ellen Alien.
It’s quite interesting what parts of Mitte’s scene this documentary is showing. I was already living in Berlin and going out at the time, but somehow nothing seems familiar what I see in the film which proves once more how many microcosm coexist in Berlin next to each other. What’s interesting is that all this was filmed before places such as Bar 25, Berghain and Renate even openen. Tresor was still in its previous space at Leipziger Platz and Weekend, WMF and Watergate where the hip new clubs everyone in their 20s went to. For me personaly back than there was no district that was particularily cool or better than the other. The places you went to were all over the city, some even in the (geographical) West of Berlin.
Today everything is quite different in that respect. Depending on the person who is talking some districts have a bad reputation for the one or other reason. That’s a bit sad in a way because ultimately every district is going through the same kind of developement, just in a different time and speed. Ultimately they all make up the Berlin that we know and love and sometimes it’s also important to acknowledge the past of one area to understand and appreciate the present of another. Enjoy the film after the jump.
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by Frank | Mitte, Videos
I have a really distinct memory from my first night at Cookies. I was 19, fresh in Berlin and doing some crazy art projects for the gender class of my university. We were a small group of three people on the project. One of them was my best friend and the other one was my secret crush. We were working on the concept of our project until late in the night and got really drunk while doing so. It was a Tuesday night and we had nowhere to be on the next day, so we decided to go out. Venturing out for clubbing on a Tuesday night was something quite spectacular for me being a new Berlin citizen. So we went to the much talked about Cookies for the first time and I remember being really impressed by the dark chandeliers, the music, the people, the unisex toilets and everything going on in there. Unfortunately, my best friend and my crush were really drunk and out of control. At one point they even started kissing each other, which maybe is the reason why the night is still very present in my memories. Of course I was a good friend and stayed there and helped them to get into a cab (they were so drunk that they had trouble standing). Actually, I was a more sad that the night was ruined and abruptly ended by the alcohol than about the kissing itself (I really don`t know why I was so Zen that night, I was not even doing Yoga or anything).
Anyway, Cookies remained in my memories as great place to be. Now, nearly 10 years after this story, the Cookies club closes for good (while the restaurant Cookies Cream will remain open). Therefore we asked them to look into their archives to find pictures from the first parties happening there. After the jump, we would love to present to you a short retrospective from Cookies best places and nights of its 20 year old history.
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by Claudio | Party, Photos
The Hot Tub Cinema hasn’t made it from London to Berlin yet, but the times of watching movies in a theatre with red velvet seats or cuddled up in bed are over none the less. We want to get out, sit in a deckchair or a blanket underneath the stars while the films flicker on an outside screen. Summer has finally come and it’s time for some Open Air film fun! Recommendations after the jump.
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by Lia | Kreuzberg, Mitte, Movies
In their latest episode of the web-tv show Recreate Berlin the guys from Vice have finally arrived in my favorite dictrict of Berlin: Mitte. This time the task of the Galaxy Note Lab was to repaint Mitte. I really enjoyed how workshop leader Clé gives some insights about the development of district that are beyond the typical touristic and commercial hotspots while the participants get creative with the photos they have captured at places such as the Circle Culture Gallery at Gipsstraße. Have a look at the video after the jump.
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by Frank | Art, Mitte, Videos

It’s a bit like a wife swap what we have been doing, only that we are swapping our Kiezes. Last week Claudio showed you how he invited his Mitte girls over to his neighborhood in Friedrichshain. And this week I’ll show you the tour I did at the same day with my Friedrichshain friends over here in Mitte. On my tour through my district Mitte I have decided to go to the places that I personally frequent the most. This includes my favorite cafe for breakfast, the park that I hang out a lot in the summer, the restaurants I love to eat at and the contemporary art galleries that I like to visit.
It was a most pleasant experience to do all these things on one sunny day and share them with dear friends. It was interesting to see through their eyes what has become so familiar to me. At the end of the day we met up with Claudio and his friends to have dinner together and go for drinks to celebrate our little tours.
To make it possible for you to follow us on our tour through Mitte I recorded all of our steps with details, comments and photos on the Amble with Louis Vuitton iPhone App. Have a look at the photo gallery after the jump to be inspired. Download the Amble App to take our iHeartBerlin Mitte tour or record your own Amble.
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by Frank | Mitte

Last night the highly anticipated new club Flamingo opened underneath the S-Bahn tracks at Monbijoupark. Even though it’s done by the same makers, it’s not another Rio, or Scala, or Broken Hearts Club. It’s something new. We had loads of fun at the opening. I love those golden plant lamps! You can see some impressions of the party after the jump on two pages. Or you can check it out in person this Friday and Saturday at the official Flamingo opening weekend!
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by Frank | Party