illustrations: Ligia Fascioni
The Berlin Wall that once divided the city has been an important symbol ever since its fall. However, its image has served not only as a grim reminder of just how cruel the world politics can get, but also as a proof that even in the darkest of times, humans are capable of creating art. The concrete canvas that the remains of the Wall provided in Mauerpark don’t cease to inspire new artists even as the paint is starting to peel off.
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by Michalina | Art
When the word “wall” comes up in any other city in the world it doesn’t really stand out. When it comes up here in Berlin it suddenly gets this super heavy meaning. Yes, the Berlin Wall will forever be a scar that the city is wearing across its heart, in some places more visible than in others. But Berlin has so many more walls than just THE wall. I’m talking about the so-called firewalls or “Brandwand” in German, the walls on the sides of the typical townhouses. Not that they are something specific only to Berlin, but due to the destruction of the city so many of them are visible because houses are missing in the row.
At first site these walls look raw and unintentional, but if you look closely you can see that they sometimes have a kind of footprint that was left by the house that used to be in front of it. It’s like a shadow of the past that won’t go away. Many fire walls look really run down, some have graffiti and tags, others more elaborate and commissioned murals. Some are just painted and clean, and others have received some windows (something that is actually illegal because it defeats the purpose of the fire security).
The German photographer Harf Zimmermann, one of the founders of the famous Ostkreuz photo agency, has dedicated a whole photo book to the most charismatic walls of the city. It’s a beautiful Berlin documentary piece about this lonely and often neglected part of the city. It was released by Steidl last month. After the jump we have a little preview for you.
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by Frank | Books, Photos
photo: Ilse Ruppert
One of the treasures of this year’s Berlinale was the documentary B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin that captured the wild and crazy years of West-Berlin in the 80s before the wall came down. I know that we commonly always think that it was the East part of Germany that was behind the wall in the case of Berlin it was actually the West part that was walled-in like a prison. It must have been a strange feeling to be surrounded by the Soviet-led East Germany and I am not surprised that this led to a lot of chaos, craziness and rebellions of the youth culture. The 80s are known for its punk and rave eras and you can still feel the influences of that in fashion and music nowadays. It’s funny when the older generations comment the 80s by saying: Oh, you remember the 80s? Than apparently you haven’t been there… I was still so young back than and too far away from Berlin deep inside East Germany that I didn’t catch anything of it. But thanks to the film B-Movie by Jörg A.Hoppe, Klaus Maeck and Heiko Lange I have a chance to relive it through a lot of footage from the time, a lot of it previously unreleased.
The film follows British musician, actor and author Mark Reeder as he moves to Berlin to discover the creative underground scene of the strange city. The film is like a collage of images from the nightlife, the street riots, the art and music scene – there is definitely a lot of sex, drugs and rock’n roll involved. We encounter a young Nick Cave as he dips into the city, we meet Westbam before the Loveparade and many more legendary characters that started their careers in this period of political instability. It was a world that was undergoing drastic changes which made everything more extreme and I think this is what made the 80s so significant in the history of Berlin. Watch the trailer after the jump and I think you will understand what I am talking about…
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by Frank | Movies
Last night I was witness to a great a moment: The wall came down. And I’m not talking about the Berlin Wall, which coincedently also came down exactly 20 years ago. I’m talking about the wall between reality and dream. While I missed the opening hours of the Checkpoint to cross the border into the land of dreams, I was at least able to see the final performance of this giant art project called DreamYourTopia, when the walls were torn down by sledgehammers and chainsaws and the border tower was flipped over and smashed into the ground.
Some of the visitors seemed disappointed by their border crossing experience. I guess they expected some friendly hippies that greeted them with flower necklaces and guided them over to the land of dreams. But these border officers were tough and didn’t make it easy for anyone. Good so! If it would be easy then it wouldn’t be so special, would it? More impressions after the jump.
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by Frank | Art
