Berlin Biennale 2016, photo: Timo Ohler *
This summer seems to be the perfect time to discover new art and cultural exhibitions in Berlin. It’s not Gallery Weekend, it’s not Art Week either, yet there are still so many interesting exhibitions going on worth checking out. Of course the biggest one of all of them is the current edition of the Berlin Biennale that takes place at multiple venues all over central Berlin. This year’s concept of the acclaimed exhibition is quite controversial, the more reason for us to go and check it out! But we also have a brand new private art collection in town that follows in the footsteps of the me Collectors Room and the Collection Boros at the former Bunker. This one found a new home in the former Konzulat, a place that will be dearly missed but is now filled with new life. For a less high-concept, more down-to-earth kind of exhibition we recommend the #LiveThere Haus, an exhibition by visual artist collective 44flavours from Berlin who took over the Hallesches Haus for a few days next week. This and much more in our new Berlin exhibition highlights guide for the summer of 2016. Enjoy!
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by Frank | Art
photos: Anna Agliardi
The summer party of the UdK – University of the Arts is one of the cultural highlights of the summer. Crazy performances, nice jazz music, outlandish musical singers and of course beautiful art works of the graduating students are just a few of the highlights of this spectacular night. Sadly this year was a bit different than the other years. Most of the ateliers and working studios were closed for public. The students are protesting against the new faculty politic which is having less permanent professors and is working with more guest professors instead. These guest professors are often famous artists with a big name bringing a lot of attention to the university. But of course for the students this PR strategy means also less assistance also during the semester holidays and generally speaking famous artists are not automatically good teachers.
Even if I think the protest has its valuable reasons, I was wondering all night if not showing the work of the students is the best strategy to accomplish anything. The Rundgang is always a perfect platform for the upcoming artists to present their work to the public and to the press. Rejecting this opportunity for a bigger cause is a understandable decision. But as a lot of befriended artists of mine also said: It would have been much more effective to show art and cancel the party instead. Or at least don’t serve alcohol. But this would be crazy, right?
Anyway, we had a good night and enjoyed discovering some artworks and listening to the music and dancing in the magical courtyards of the university. You can still go and discover the artworks of the graduating students and the architects during the whole weekend. All the information and addresses are listed here. Enjoy the photographic impressions of last night shot by Anna Agliardi after the jump.
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by Claudio | Art, Party
Bobby Kolade SS16, photo: Huss/Truong
Today we would like to offer you our juiciest piece of our seasonal Berlin Fashion Week cake: Our favorite collections. We’ve had a great time checking out all the shows and presentations and it was truely a wild and inspiring season. Never before have we seen so much colors and unconventional designs on the runway of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin. A big toast to all the designers who have dared to be more progressive and less conformative this summer. Enjoy our highlights after the jump.
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by Frank | Fashion, Photos
photo: Alicia Kassebohm
Probably the most talked about of all the graduate shows of Berlin Fashion Week is the one from the UdK. It’s Berlin’s most experimental fashion school and one of the most renowned ones in Germany. Their graduates show is the only one that is part of the official Berlin Fashion Week and it takes place on the official runway of Mercedes-Benz. In the past years the UdK show hasn’t always been my favorite one, Weißensee and ESMOD also have some great talents that have shown amazing stuff. But this year the show was really amazing. Our guest author Alicia Kassebohm took a look behind the scenes and made some backstage photos for you that you can see after the jump. On the second page we also have a best of from the runway show with photos by Corina Lecca courtesy of the UdK.
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by Frank | Fashion, Photos
This Friday it’s time for one of the biggest masked balls in town: The famous Zinnoberball takes place every two years and is organized by students of the University of Arts (UdK) since 1954. It’s quite spectacular and I’ve made one of my all-time favorite party photo sets there 4 years ago. Last time, two years ago, we didn’t get in due to the masses of people trying to go there. So if you are a student of the UdK I would recommend you to buy your ticket in advance for the upcoming one this weekend. Everyone else should be there way early! This year it’s actually a two-day marathon starting with the first dance on Friday night, a breakfast and day program including readings, a barbie doll catwalk, live bands and visual installations on Saturday and the final big party on Saturday night. Hurrah! We are excited. More details after the jump.
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by Frank | Party
On Saturday I took the chance to visit one of the most interesting vibrant creative hubs – the Uferhallen in Wedding – to see the exhibition opening of Nachschlag, a group show of art students from UdK and KH Weißensee. It’s one of the most fun exhibitions I have seen in a while and I loved many of the giant paintings that I saw there. You have to go there. It is still open this week daily from 14-19h with a finissage on Friday at 19h that will also feature a boxing fight (or something). Get an impression of my favorite pieces after the jump.
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by Frank | Art
photos: Maik Lagodzki
If there is one thing I really like in terms of art it’s gigantic artworks. That’s probably one of the reasons I like big street art murals, because where else would you have the space to create art in the size of a house. The art students of the UdK and KH Weißensee definately found a space for their huge canvases in the studios at the Uferhallen in Wedding. I love this place, not only because of their awesome restaurant Pförtner, but also because this place seems so independant and free from the hype around Neukölln.
This Saturday the students will celebrate the opening of their group show Nachschlag which will feature mainly huge paintings. I’m really excited about this show and will definately go there. When I discovered the photos by Maik Lagodzki who already made his way to the studios and took some photos of the work in progress I got even more enthusiastic about it. Get an impression of what is expecting you on Saturday after the jump!
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by Frank | Art
For me the most important part of Berlin Fashion Week are the young designers who are still in their wild and experimental phase where they are trying out new things with their designs regardless of any commercial aspect of fashion. The fashion shows of the design schools of Berlin, such as the UdK, Weißensee, HTW, Esmod and others, are a wonderful pool of talent and ideas and I always try to see as many shows like that as I can. This season I made it to the UdK show and the self-organized group show of 4th semester HTW students at Stadtbad Oderberger. Both shows presented a big number of designers and it’s always a bit of a bazaar of different styles and qualities of fashion. In both shows I had one absolute favorite. At the UdK it was the graduate collection of Henning Jurke who presented his work under the title Celebration. When the first look of his menswear collection – a vibrant trench coat in hot metallic pink – entered the runway I instantly had to smile and got into a really good mood excited for every next look to come onto the runway. It’s one of those rare moments during fashion week when a design triggers an emotion in you that makes the whole hassle of sitting through one show after the other totally worth it.
The same thing happened to me with the last pair of outfits by Wiebke Christin Le Bus at the doppelgaenger show by the HTW students. The mix of Where The Wild Things Are and South American folklore was just a delight to see and instantly made me dream of a whole collection in that style. I specifically liked the idea of the colorful knitted pants transitioning into colorful painted feet. Enjoy some impressions of both shows after the jump.
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by Frank | Fashion
Chalet
After such a busy week such as the last one I actually feel like not doing anything for the next 7 days. But of course leaving you without my weekly list of event recommendations would not be fair. As I have so many photo sets still to prepare for the next days I will have to keep myself short this week.
On Tuesday bloggette and DJane Oh-Sophia is hosting a special (free) dinner at Merkezi. Salon der Alchemisten is a new party with live music taking place this Wednesday at Chalet, the new club inside former Heinz Minki that is now owned by the former Bar25 owners. On Thursday the HBC opens the big group exhibition Do It Again. Also, Stevie Hanley is having a book launch with an exhibition and live concert by Alexander Geist. On Friday the LEAP is opening their 4th edition of performance night Body Controlled. If you didn’t dare to take your crazy outfit out for fashion week, then maybe do it at the Blitz party. On Saturday London-based queer party Gutterslut is coming back to Berlin to haunt the Sisyphos with their big trannies.
This week is also the best time to visit the design schools here in Berlin, as they are all having an open house where they present the work of their students. UdK is open from Thursday to Sunday. The HTW is having their Werkschau from Friday to Saturday. And the Weißensee School is celebrating the opening of their exhibition of students work on Friday evening. The exhibition will continue until July 29th. Read on…
by Frank | Art, Fashion, Party
How many people do you know who are trying to apply to an art school like UDK or Weißensee? I feel like I know at least 100 of those young artists who tried to enter one on of the prestigious art academies Berlin has to offer. Even if most of them got rejected, some of them are currently really successful artist, stage designers, photographers and what not. On the other hand I know a lot of graduated artists who are working as bartenders. I always realized that success in art academies has nothing to do with financial succes. THIS IS FOR LOSERS is a project in Berlin that has set itself the task of give attention to unconsidered artists. They are looking for artists of all kinds that were rejected this or last year at Berlin’s art schools. Find out more about their project and how you can apply on their facebook page.
by Claudio | Art