Berlin Wall, East Side Gallery

I understand, and am utterly fascinated by the history of the wall, what it stood for then and what it continues to symbolise, so it probably isn't the done thing to go against any of this and just outright say that i didn't particularly like the 'gallery'. I found the whole thing very clinical for Berlin, it felt stiff and formal in contrast to what the rest of the city's art spaces had to offer. Here's some pictures anyway.

Berlin Biennale 2

The second place we visited was a beautiful space. It seemed to be like an old mill or something, with high ceiling rooms with no partitions or walls. It had the same two-staircase layout to the KunstWerke which was really nice as you could just follow the space without missing bits or going back on yourself too much. I loved the casual informality of the layout, the patchwork flooring and carpeting added a laid back homespun vibe which helps to set apart the Berlin art culture from our own, with the exception of the Museum of Everything.
The first piece on the ground floor was displayed really well. Chunky headphones dangled from the ceiling with coiled wires, whilst the video projected onto a decayed wall, it the set the scene for the whole space.
Another piece on the second floor was really intriguing, the piece subtley sprawled across the entire building, with piping and mechanisms cropping up all over. the water works were all dripping onto a huge block of salt which was consequently eroding onto a bed-like installation.

Is it a tree? Is it a Library? Its both of course

Berlin Street Art etc..

I always love to just wander around when away from home, especially European cities and admire the poster art, street art, local regular architecture (as opposed to the grand landmarks) and non-uniformity of it all in contrast to Britain. In Blighty every thing is done with approval and permission from the council etc etc, and it tends to feel stale when you get to such wonderful cultural metropolises like Berlin. I think this is how you can really get a feel for a place, when the normal boring buildings have the power to excite you, you know your not in Wolverhampton anymore! So here are a few of my pictures of the normal stuff

Holocaust Memorial

The Holocaust Memorial is an excellent piece of public art / sculpture / memorial. It has the ability to make you think about what it represents; the blocks of granite which look so harmless and insignificant from the outside, become huge, towering, oppressive and disorientating once inside the sunken base of the area. We both felt a strong sense of emotion and unease. Although the disjointed leg may indicate we spent our time in the memorial arsing around, it was almost essential so as to not become dragged under by the weight of it all. This image also gives some indication of the scale of the blocks. It is a beautiful, poignant memorial. The density of the material meant i felt lost and isolated when Simon was only on the other side of the block, i felt scared.

Bruce Nauman - Hamburger Bahnhof gallery

Boy oh boy did we see some art. You'd think we toiled away with a little itinerary skulking from one to the next. I've no idea how we did it all and managed to have a good time and see most of Berlin too:
The Hamburger Bahnhof was a much more conventional big city gallery. Modern art was the main thing on the menu with Warhols and other such gems. Bruce Nauman was on the specials and it was good to see a collection of his work. The best by far was the green light room, very disorientating. You walk down the angled entrance way and have to squeeze your body in at the last minute. Spend a minute or so in the green room, prepare to leave through the narrow hole (big people need not apply i'm afraid) and find that the world has gone purple! A real subtle but interactive piece which is ingeniously simple but amazing, i loved it.

Akadamie De Kunst - Mona Hatoum

A beautiful big Modern Gallery space to showcase Contemporary Art, in this case Mona Hatoum
Her work is very nice to look at, yet also pretty sinister. A cheese grater is magnified to the proportions of a dressing room blind, and the connotations on this scale and in relation to the human body are pretty scary. I managed to get a few sneaky pictures before duly getting my wrists slapped by an angry female invigilator. Ooops! The overall relaxed Berlin attitude to photographing didn't apply here, obvs not.

Berlin Biennale 1

Berlin Biennale was set across 6 locations, 4 of which we managed to visit. The first one was the KunstWerke Gallery, there was an amazing large scale wooden piece that appeared to be the skeleton of a house, alongside this was a chicken coop and some little birdies, it was an odd combination but inevitably a winner with me: where live animals lead, i shall duly follow. Hens aswell! I got to touch one of their feathery wings before it trotted back indoors to check out the art.

The best exhibition to date?

The Temporaren Kunst exhibition building in Berlin was like Jimmy G's (Or whatever the local name for you ballpool extravaganza is) for art-loving adults.
Designed by artist Jim Bock, inside the concrete block was a play-frame constructed from scaffolding, wood, caravans, stuffed tights, tires and upside-down sheds. Upon these hung and hidden were pieces of work by a variety of artists. Through the caravan was a kinetic installation, chair design, drawings hung from the wall of tyres (obviously) and photographs from a web of stuffed tights and socks. Burnt Pizzas formed the backbone of one room, and projected 8mm film filled another. If you are Berlin-bound it's definitely worth a bash!

BERLIN!!

This post is very uninformative and is in a nutshell me gloating in advance of my very long awaited and anticipated Birthday trip to Berlin! This has been three years in the making from one magazine article we read about the city we were hooked and dying to go. And now we are! so allow me my gloat thankyou please. Ta Rah for now! I shall have further gloats to post upon my return!