photos: Carrie Schneider
Nudity is nothing a Berliner is particularly shocked about. In contrary, I think that Berlin is the city with the most public nakedness in the world if you consider all the nude beaches and public sex parties. It is also a different nakedness than in a tropical or Mediterranean city because the weather is not actually inviting to take off your close. The Berlin nudity is a public statement to the liberation of the human body from all the social, political and gender oppressions. At least that is what I like to read into it, even though I doubt that all of the half naked 19year old kids at the Pornceptual parties would agree.
But I am losing track here. Let’s discuss Berlin’s political intentions on nudity another time… I actually just wanted to recommend a damn sexy contemporary dance festival starting today: Tanz im August. Scrolling through the pics I saw some naked flesh popping up in the press folder and I was wondering if a conservative audience would claim that the dance world needs sex to get more attention from the younger audience. This could not be more wrong. Dance is not automatically sexy when the bodies on stage are naked.
But there is an element of contemporary dance that I find extremely sexy (which is why I also used this alluring headline). It is the intensity and the ability to control, perform and present yourself and your body that intrigues the spectator. A contemporary performer is always in a constant dialogue between his own body and the audience and is within this dialogue able to create tension and persuasion. From my point of view, most of the times the nakedness of a performer is actually not erotic but rather a narration of intimacy and disclosure.
We selected several dance pieces from the festival taking places in some of our favorite theaters including Sophiensaele, Hau and Volksbühne, that we think are promising and worth visiting. Our recommendations after the jump.
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by Claudio | Theater
Dear Volksbühne,
with 100 years you might be a granny (still pretty young in comparison to other theaters in Berlin) but you are still sexy and edgy as hell. We had so much fun, you and I. You were one of my first friends here in Berlin and I spend so many hours in the third floor that I can’t even count them. Not only did you make me enjoy so many great pieces, concerts and parties and fashion shows. With your banners you always get my attention and around you I feel somehow safe. You were my favourite place in Berlin when I came here and you still are ranked pretty high. I hope I will spend so much more time with you and I promise to come visit more often.
LOVE!
C.
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by Claudio | Party, Theater
Short films are an earnest and undervalued approach to storytelling, evoking emotions and provoking ideas. Having curated a part of our third Berlin Film Night with Mobile Kino, we know that Interfilm does it best when it comes to providing a platform for independent films, and this year, we’re welcoming the 30th round of Interfilm’s International Short Film Festival, from November 11th-16th. Berlin’s enthusiasm for interdisciplinary art forms make it the perfect city to host this festival, so let’s embrace the beauty of the short!
We’re stoked to experience Interfilm’s most expansive festival to date, where they will be screening a record of 630 films in 60 programs, with films from 70 countries and 10 competitions with €45,000 of rewards. The featured short films boast an impressively expansive array of aesthetic styles and narrative techniques, with weird and wonderfully controversial themes. Some films defy reason and rationality while others set out to shine a light on truths we’ve been sheltered from. Highly anticipated by cinephiles and casual movie-watchers alike, live-action, animations and documentaries will be gracing the screens in 9 cinemas across Berlin, to enthusiastic audiences who share a value for the short film format in its own right. Find the programs and our festival highlights after the jump.
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by Skylar | Movies, Videos
The Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Mitte is diving head first into the film festival circuit. Two great festival programs will commence at the old beauty Kino Babylon and the massive Volksbühne this Friday. From Oktober 2nd through 5th the Tuscia Film Fest 2014 brings the highlights of the Italian art of filmmaking onto the silver screen. And while the final film of their program is still flickering in the Babylon, the Volksbühne opens the gates for Lakino. The Latin American Film Fest will present films, discussions and art from the faraway continent until October 12th 2014. Details after the jump.
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by Lia | Events, Mitte, Movies
photo: Oliver Rath
Last week a very special event that I have anticipated a lot happened at Volksbühne Berlin on the big stage of this prestigious theatre. Esther Perbandt, one of my favorite avant-garde designers in Berlin, celebrated the 10th anniversary of her label. Knowing beforehand what she had planned for this special occasion I was super excited.
I was one of the few photographers that were installed on stage right in the middle of the show, so I saw everything up close. When the big curtain opened the light stayed off and an eclectic experimental sound choir began to sing hauntingly. The mood was set perfectly. After a while the lights came on a contemporary dancer dressed in Perbandt gave a performance in the vain of Valeska Gert, the inspiration for Esther’s new collection titled Grotesque. It was great to see fashion combined with dance in such a theatrical manner. Once the dance was over the runway show started and models came from the side walking into the audience and back. Seeing it from the back with all the lights and people in the background was really stunning and the excellent electronic music that was playing really gave me goosebumps. What a fucking cool show! And the collection was also great to look at, the best one she has done so far for sure.
Once the show was over Esther came out with her assistant with confetti rain and standing ovations. It was such a moment of glory. As if having your name spelled across one of the most impressive buildings in town isn’t already enough this show was probably the biggest highlight of her entire career. Right after the curtains closed I gave Esther a hug and she was still shaking of excitement. Very understandable! For me it was one of the best shows that I have seen in all of the years that I went to Berlin Fashion Week.
After the jump we have 3 photo sets for you from this amazing event. On page one we have backstage photos by our guest contributor Olga Khristolyubova, on page two we have the runway photos by Oliver Rath and on page 3 we have photos from the big after show party by me. Enjoy!
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by Frank | Fashion, Party, Photos
It’s time to win something amazing again here on I HEART BERLIN because it’s your Lucky Thursday! In anticipation of the upcoming Berlin Fashion Week we are raffling off tickets for one of the biggest highlights of the season: The Esther Perbandt 10th Anniversary fashion show and after party at Volksbühne.
Esther was born and raised in Berlin, but moved to Moscow and Paris in the course of her education and practical experience in the fashion world. When she returned to Berlin in 2003 she started her own, self-titled label and in the following 10 years became one of the most important local avant-garde designers with her own flagship store in Mitte and retailers all over the world.
Her new collection titled Grotesque is inspired by dancer and performance artist Valeska Gert who was famous for her edgy, provocative and androgynous style in the Golden Twenties of Berlin which ties in perfectly with the elegant, yet unconventional style of Esther’s label that often plays with gender roles in a sophisticated manner.
Find out how to win tickets for the show & party on Wednesday, January 15th 2013, after the jump.
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by Frank | Fashion
The last time I visited a theaterpiece by the Signa collective I was wowed for several days. It was at Ballhaus Ost were the whole theater was transformed into a mental ward. I was a patient there for a whole day and I will never forget the experience. Now the Danish theater group is back in town and ready to strike again with a really provocative matter. At Club Inferno you will become part of a sick parallel universe, where most of its “inhabitants” are stuck and rarely ever take a step outdoors. Read the whole synopsis and more information about the play after the jump.
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by Claudio | Art, Theater
Being young is sometimes much more scary than you think. Especially if you live in such a big city like Berlin, where everything seems possible but nothing seems easy if you still are a teenager. The very talented young director Max Hegewald followed a group of eight teenage actors for two years. The result is an episode film portraiying each of them in his own weakness and fear called “Die Angsthasen“. The premiere was last Sunday at Volksbühne, and I hope to see the film soon at another opportunity. Watch the trailer after the jump.
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by Claudio | Movies, Theater
Arnold Newman, “Pablo Picasso. Painter. Vallauris, France. 1954”
The art week starts, less dingy and more militant than the last one, with capitalism killing love, and it ends with a deathly poets’ battle at Volksbühne. In the meantime, two outstanding photography exhibitions crystallize to be the weekend’s highlights: Candida Höfer presents bombastic still lifes, and C/O Berlin dignifies Arnold Newman‘s portrait shots of the creative elite in a large retrospective. Additionally, Allan Kaprow – the godfather of “happenings” – is reanimated and there is a group show at Künstlerhaus Bethanien that sorts out the black market of translations. Get all the information after the jump…
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by Anna-Lena | Art, Misc.
Balam Acab
Ski trousers, granny’s socks and booze is the recipe to stay warm. And hussle from the metro to your favored location and back. Pull yourself together and show some balls you pussy-whipped teen. Your ancestors had no heater, they used to be real men..watch out for free tickets on our Facebook homepage. Parties for real men and strong women after the jump: Read on…
by Suz | Party
