photos: re-nt, Julian Zigerli.
Since our first article about designer face masks from Berlin that came out in April and featured 7 different designers who were amongst the first to produce masks a lot has changed. The senate has imposed rules that it’s compulsory to wear masks in public transport and shops. But also many more designers have decided to create masks with their own style so we have some good looking alternatives to the self-made ones or the ugly blue hospital ones. In the end, we have to wear these on our faces, so at least they should look good somehow, right?
With so many more options on the market, we thought it’s about time to make another designer face mask guide for you. We are glad to be able to support some local small businesses with our guide and give our readers some pointers on where they can get what they need. We decided not to repeat any of the designers from our first guide as this one still is new and valid. So please see this as the second part, you can find the designers from the first part right here.
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by Frank | Fashion
photos:Anna Agliardi
“We make things that break easy. We people don’t!” – That is the outspoken subtitle of the new documentary/theater/dance piece The Ghosts by Costanza Macras at Schaubühne. Featuring underaged but incredibly talented acrobats from China telling the story of their lives in between acts of artistic braveness this piece has a quite unusual but nevertheless engaging and interesting topic. For Macras the Chinese acrobatic artists, who once were celebrated for their bravery now live in materially precarious, ghostly conditions. This manifests a metaphor for life in contemporary China, with its contradictions, social injustice and power structures. Those who once brought the country glory and honor are discarded as soon as they are no longer top achievers.
Instead of taking the audience by storm with a strong and unstoppable ensemble as in Macras’ previous pieces, The Ghosts comes to life through the three Chinese girls who were the heart of the piece. Also, the dynamic with the audience (and maybe also an unplanned manipulation) was quite special in my opinion. The young girls presented the circus acts they usually show to the visitors of an old amusement park on a little Chinese island. The audience bamboozled and often even clapped between the acts as if they where in a circus instead of a theater. I think most of the (intellectual) audience in this kind of theater would rather disapprove to watch underaged children perform dangerous acts for their amusement. But out of the context and hidden as “documentary theater” I guess that some people actually quite liked the adrenaline pumping acrobatic talent of the performers. This showed to me how easy it is to make people like something, they would normally disapprove of. And this little mind-trick was for me actually the best thing of the whole piece. Tonight you have still the chance to see the amazing piece at Schaubühne. Check out photographic impressions of The Ghosts after the jump.
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by Claudio | Theater
photo: Anna Agliardi
The year 2014 seems to be the year of remembering the past. On the one hand we have 100 years of industrial war, on the other hand we commemorate positive events like the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The last century of European history is very complex. Everything seems connected. Remembering things the right way, is more difficult than we ever imagined. No wonder so many theater makers want to bring real live memories on stage to show the different perspectives.
Our beloved Argentinian choreographer Constanza Macras went to the city of Dresden and talked to eyewitnesses who can remember a city that no longer exists in the same form today. The actions in the piece “The Past” which premiered at Schaubühne this week, refer to the ancient techniques of ars memoriae, whereby in order to recall the thing to be remembered, we first have to find and organise our impressions. The piece explores architectonic places as narrative instruments of our history – in the rewriting of history, for overcoming the wounds of the past, and for understanding contemporary events (personal and global) as part of a constant cycle that we experience as the passing of time. This piece will have a second part that will premiere in Spring 2016. Talented Italian theater photographer Anna Agliardi went for us to the general rehearsal to get some exclusive impressions. Photos and dates after the jump. Read on…
by Claudio | Theater
Photos: Arno Declair
I am dancing by myself has become the hymne of our generation without anybody wanting it. We have to use dating apps to meet new people, share our photos of our newborn kid on Facebook to make people notice that we are becoming a parent and hope that one day you will have enough likes, retweets and shares to be happy.
Our sense of approval has no connection with the real world anymore. At least in the new dance piece Never Forever at Schaubühne Berlin. The intense collaboration between German theater director Falk Richter and Israeli choreographer Nir de Volff could not have become more disturbing (in a good sense). Falk Richter’s texts tell stories of people whose humanity is increasingly giving way to a post-human condition of living unnoticed in a giant city. They are scattered city warriors in survival mode, prepared to commit any extreme act in order to feel that they are alive; people who are infinitely replicated, self-styled beyond recognition in online profiles, thoroughly scrutinised and monitored. On the poetic text fragments the bodies of the talented and well conducted cast of Nir’s Company Total Brutal take the stage with even more power, brute strength and craziness than ever before. Don’t miss the chance to see this piece with German text but occasionally English subtitles. More photos, the trailer and the dates after the jump. Read on…
by Claudio | Theater
photos: Thomas Aurin
There are some theater and dance companies that make me wish to have pursuit other career options. Since I am way too old to become a dancer I have to limit myself to watching their incredible perfomance and perhaps review them. One special company which is such a pain to watch because they are so incredibly good that you wish you could be on stage with them is the Costanza Macras ensemble Dorky Park. If you never heard of them and wish to experience my unbareable craving to be involved, they are playing again their great piece Megalopolis this weekend at Schaubühne. More photos, a trailer, a summary and details after the jump.
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by Claudio | Theater
photos: Matt Lambert
“Don’t talk to strangers!” said the mother to the little Red Riding Hood. I wonder if nowadays the fairy tale mother would say: Don’t go home with some anonymous Tinder, Grindr or whatever other app date. Social networks have an increasing influence on our sexual behavior. Straight and gay people are chatting, flirting and hooking up more through their smart phones than through live interactions. But what if the stranger connected to you through your phone isn’t just a simple lonely dude but a psycho killer whos intentions are to harm you, kill you and then eat part of your body? What sounds like a plot of a semi-interesting thriller was actual a real live scenario not so long ago.
The 29-year old porn star Luka Rocco Magnotta from Canada is accused of killing, dismembering and eating a Chinese student and uploading the evidence to the internet. He was picked up by Berlin police in the Summer of 2012 at an internet café in Neukölln, center of gay hipsteria. The gay scene was shocked that among them was a predator able to kill. Luka even went dancing the weekend before getting caught at Cocktail d’Amore a party we often recommend here on the blog.
For the upcoming theater festival for new theater F.I.N.D. at the Schaubühne Berlin an extraordinary installation based on the alleged killer will have its premiere. Swedish but Berlin-based director Thomas Bo Nilsson and his team created a large scale installation in the Schaubühne Studio that will be running for 240 hours non-stop day and night. The installation is inhabited by 60 performers, acting in a fragmented universe of both living and commercial spaces. The audience can visit MEAT at any time during the performance. You can buy a ticket for a 4 hour slot where you can come and go as you like. Parts of the installation will be streamed online. We are avidly looking forward to see this incredible pieces as it reminds us of others beloved theater experiences as Club Inferno for instance. More details and a very dark and scary trailer produced by local director Matt Lambert after the jump. Also stay tuned for a detailed review after our visit at the installation .
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by Claudio | Theater
photo: Thomas Aurin
You all know, Frak and I are big admirers of Costanza Macras and her theater company Dorkypark. Also, I am big fan of theater and dance outside the setting of a stage. Outside Berlin, inside a dark teutonic forest called Müggelwald our Argentinean choreographer is doing a unique show for Schaubühne. The performance of Forest: The Nature of Crisis asks if during an era of crisis, there can be a return to nature and explores the associated desires and the significance of the regional in times of a global economic crisis. Macras will be working on cultural patterns attached to the forest and relates them to its myths, fairy tales and images. A piece of Berlin forest is turned into a contemporary artificial landscape where we will encounter environmentalists, forest campaigners, economists and freaks. I am really looking forward to it and I hope you do, too. More pictures and information after the jump.
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by Claudio | Art, Theater
Europe in times of change shows that the old continent has a lot of rebels’ blood in their veins. The social and economic crisis is creating despair and protest especially in the Southern countries. But as in any period, big drama makes great drama – at least on stage. Young, fresh plays from around Europe will be presented at The Festival of International New Drama F.I.N.D. at the Schaubühne this month. From March16th to 24th the stage will be taken over by directors, actors and writers from all over Europe to present their work in Berlin for the first time. Read our recommendations after the jump.
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by Claudio | Theater
photos: Thomas Aurin
There are some theater and dance companies that make me wish to have pursuit other career options. Since I am way too old to become a dancer I have to limit myself to watching their incredible perfomance and perhaps review them. One special company which is such a pain to watch because they are so incredibly good that you wish you could be on stage with them is the Costanza Macras ensemble Dorky Park. If you never heard of them and wish to experience my unbareable craving to be involved, they are playing their new piece Megalopolis this weekend at Schaubühne. More pictures, a trailer, a summary and details after the jump.
Read on…
by Claudio | Events, Theater
street art by Miss Van, photo by Dr Case at Flickr
Who is more successful? The pretty woman that everybody just loves because of her beauty? Or the ugly one who might be more intelligent or funnier but probably depressed and unsatisfied? Exactly these are the thoughts that young and enterprising women have to face. Why I think I should become less superficial and which two special young authors I would like to compare, you’ll find out in the German version of this article.
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by Claudio | Entertainment, Events
