photos: Julieta Segura.
No matter how happy or miserable, wealthy or poor, we all came from the same place – the vulva. Performer Dani Brown states in her newest Performance “The Pressing” at Radialsystem this weekend the question how our world would be if the female sexual and reproductive organ would be on center stage.
Avid followers of iHeartBerlin know that fashion label UY is one of our favorites in Berlin and very close to our hearts. No other label has elevated club wear like they did and turned it into a lifestyle. UY is one of the longest-running clubwear labels in Berlin with a history of presenting their work in a very creative and multi-disciplinary way. Three years ago they celebrated their 5th anniversary with a stunning performance at Halle am Berghain choreographed by our friends from The Progressive Wave with the soundtrack created by Dasha Rush. It was a true spectacle and one of the most impressive presentations of a fashion label we had seen. Check out my photos and animations of that show here.
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.
performer: Bishop Black.
Tucked away in the depths of the Salon Zur Wilden Renate beer garden lies the Peepshow, a glimpse into a ruby fantasy.
Between the currently closed club and the self-service bar stands the peepshow box, so unassuming, from afar that you could even miss it on any casual evening downing beers and having a smoke. Luckily, tonight you’re a bit more curious, and on a second glance, you notice little cutouts looking into the box, each with a small vagina plastered underneath and a sign that says “tip the slit.” Just before 20:30, a voice announces to the crowd over a megaphone that there are 2 tickets left for the 20:30 peepshow. Buy one. Buy the other for your friend if you have a spare five euros.
photos: Aja Jacques.
It takes a lot of effort for an artist to build up a career. Berlin has undoubtedly been a center of avant-garde artists from all around the world, offering a unique platform for innovative and unstigmatized arts. However, during the last year of the Covid lockdowns, they had to sacrifice what they have built-in years. Berlin artists embellished our nightlife and arts scene with their diverse and original touch but now with no jobs, no stages, and no live audiences, they are stripped off of their platforms even though their art still radiates talent and creativity.
The photographer and former performance artist Aja Jacques created Berlin Offstage after spending the last three months interviewing and photographing some of these artists in their homes and leads us through a series of vignettes of their fears and concerns. Jacques aims to create an open space for public discussions about the struggles of the art community in Berlin that has been left in the lurch during the pandemic.
photos: Arata Mori.
There are so many wonderful creatives making art in Berlin, and it’s always a joy to see two of our favorites collaborating. This week, two of them, artist Chiharu Shiota and the dance company Sasha Waltz and Guests, are collaborating in an online event that you definitely don’t want to miss. A stunning installation and a dance performance will be fused together at the iconic König Galerie and you can join in online.
This year was quite different, wasn’t it? There was a lot of crazy stuff happening, but we can all agree on what the most significant thing was: the pandemic. If you would have told me a year ago that this would happen, I probably would not have believed you. But here we are, 9 months into a global outbreak of an airborne viral disease that has turned the world upside down.
Of course, this pandemic brought us a lot of negative things, but I don’t want to focus on those – you can simply turn on the news for that. I want to focus on the things that were good, specifically on how people responded to the crisis in positive ways. While a lot of us were struggling with our lives, our work, and our mental health, some people gathered their creative energies to come up with great things to brighten the days of everyone else and show some optimistic spirit.
Each year, as the temperature drops and the days grow shorter, gloves become increasingly important. Even on my five-minute bike ride to work my knuckles freeze, dry, and crack without the pair I picked up at a flea market in Amsterdam last year (soft suede and obnoxiously leopard print because I can never pass up an opportunity to be as extra as humanly possible). Gloves are functional, beautiful, and provide another layer of the self. They wrap around the human shape but are not constrained by it; I may not be a leopard but with my gloves, my hands are.
If the frigid Berlin weather doesn’t offer enough glove appreciation for you, there is another remedy. NEW DAWN | Tools to Touch in Times Ahead, a virtual-reality gallery experience uses the glove as its focal point. The multi-media display features 33 artists who explore the glove through photography, CGI, animation, graphic design, dance, performance, sound design, and curatorial practices as a “device for enabling holistic experiences in a discursive, material, and visual speculative future.” And to experience it you don’t have to leave the comfort of your screen.
When the magnificent Martini Cherry Furter opens the door to the main stage of Ballhaus Naunynstraße to welcome you in, you know you’re in for a treat. What awaits you inside is a feast for the eye thought up by dancer and choreographer Jao Moon and his team. “Everybody Can Be Everybody Can Not Be” is the fourth work of the young performer, but his debut as a choreographer of an ensemble.
Following the strong aesthetics of his previous solo piece Memory of Dislocation, Jao is once again presenting a piece that is visually stunning – not only because of the beautiful stage design by Michi Muchina with light by Emilio Cordero Checa, or the costumes by Billi Lobos, but also because of the unique and talented cast, including the aforementioned Martini, as well as Amada Tinoco, Natasha Vergilio, Francisco Bejarano Montes de Oca and, of course, Jao himself.
photo: Frank Sperling
Do you have a favorite apocalypse? Imagine you could choose between, team atomic war, team climate-catastrophe or team asteroid? Or would you then rather love a real biblical Armageddon-thingy with seven plagues and at least an obese woman pretending to be a dark messiah coming for us all?
The newest dance performance light spectacle by Ariel Efraim Ashbel and friends called no apocalypse not now at HAU 1 is bringing all the weirdest apocalypses to the stage you can imagine. From devastating no man’s land to a world who is formed by black bubbles floating around, the performance collective was able to create with a few simple ingredients a dark, humorous and enigmatic powerplay of images for the audience.