Sir Elton Junk performed a special show yesterday in front of the Mauerpark in Berlin. Now you might say “wait a minute, is this supposed to be Elton John? He doesn’t even look like him!”. Sure he does, if you take a closer look, you will see that they both have the same haircut!
The “robot” is a creation of Kolja Kugler, a native Berlin “Metal”-Artist. One of his most recognized works of this time is “The Lost Tribe of Mig”- project, an immense installation in the city center of a Mig 21 fighter plan flying out of a four-story building. Also a pretty famous, his “Afreakean Bass Player“, a life-sized robot driven by pneumatics which is capable of playing a bass guitar with a real band.
As Berlin is a city of art, it is quite easy to find strange things, like this 12-metre-tall, fire spitting, metal Tannenbaum (Christmas Tree) in front of the Europa Center at Breitscheidplatz. The Tannenbaum, which blasts flames into the sky every 30 minutes, is named “Traffic Tree” and is Berlin’s newest attraction when it comes to Christmas trees.
During the last week, the World Press Photo organization held an exhibition at Berlin’s S-Bahn Station Friedrichstraße, showing the winners of the World Press Photo Award 2011.
World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955 the organization is known for holding the world’s largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest.
The Exhibition contained over 100 pictures from all over the world, events that happened in the time between July 2010 and July 2011. A complete Gallery with all pictures can be found at www.worldpressphoto.org, some of these pictures may not be suitable for children’s eyes.
A Hotel designed for musicians located directly on the banks of the river Spree right beside Universal Music and the MTV Headquarters. The nhow Hotel Berlin is really a special kind of architecture.
nhow stands for a new generation of hotels: offbeat, lively, dynamic and with a local flair that simultaneously has worldwide appeal. nhow centers on music and design and is the only hotel in Europe offering two professional music studios.
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the relationship between Germany and Japan, light was used to project the word “Peace” in languages from around the world on Berlin’s most representative landmark, the Brandenburg Gate. One program, 2 different Parts, with orchestral music and an amazing art-light-show, enchanted hundreds of visitors for about 30 minutes.
The Kurfürstendamm received a fantastic birthday present, huge helium-filled fairytale creatures designed by the French artists’ group Plasticiens Volants, a fish, sea snakes, dragons, lizards, birds and a gigantic “Happy birthday, Ku’damm” hot air balloon with more than 40 French and Berlin-based artists in costumes or on stilts. From Halensee to Breitscheidplatz, tens of thousands celebrated this special open air theater.
Another cool Event last weekend was the BURN OUT MAN Festival, or LUNAR PARK Festival, an international art and culture festival over 3 day with quite an interesting ending.
“During three days the visitors and SHOWCASE BEAT LE MOT put up the monstrous figure of the BURN OUT MAN. Together they integrated their wishes and fears into this giant in order to sacrifice him at the end in an excessive ritual”
So it’s kinda like the Burning Man in Nevada, just a little bit smaller.
The legendary tourist attraction Art House Tacheles was closed last month after serving as a home for many artists from around the world for more than 20 years and I went there to take a couple of pictures before the whole thing will be demolished in the near future.
The Kunsthaus Tacheles was an art center and nightclub that was opened in East Berlin after the Berlin Wall came down in the spring of 1990. Tacheles is a large (9000 square meter) building on Oranienburger Straße in the district known as Mitte. The exterior of the building was damaged from shelling in World War II, and much of the damage was never repaired. Huge, colorful graffiti-style murals are painted on the exterior walls, and modern art sculptures are featured inside.
The Kunsthaus was formerly a department store in the Jewish quarter (Scheunenviertel) of Berlin, next to the synagogue, it was originally called Friedrichsstadtpassagen. After serving as a Nazi prison, the building was taken over by artists, who called it “Tacheles”, Yiddish for “straight talking.”
What happens if a lonely piano is standing around in public? After some examining, people are starting to play on it and you will get a big plus, if you can actually play something that doesn’t sound like as if you are hitting the keys with only two fingers.
Berlinale 2011 is over. During the last week 18 young photographers received the opportunity to experience working as professional photojournalists to show us this years Berlinale through their eyes, or should I say, through their cameras?
All the works were gathered at the C/O Berlin gallery and Dieter Kosslick himself opened the exhibition “Close Up!”.
