I can’t think of a cooler, more relaxed European city for young people or the young at heart than Berlin. (Barcelona is up there too). This past weekend my boyfriend and I took our respective youngest teenage daughters to check out Gallery Weekend Berlin . It’s a very relaxed affair with galleries staying open late, artists giving talks and plenty of black on black hipster-watching. We tried to get the Berlin look at Fiona Bennett’s eye-catching hat shop on Potsdamer Strasse about a ten minute cab ride from the southwest centre of Berlin. See the creative Bennett in her studio below.
And some of her fans…
Just around the corner from Bennett’s shop is a leafy courtyard full of treasures – both artistic and fashion. On the one side, unassuming art galleries have taken residence in old-fashioned pretty buildings. And on the other side, an industrial-sized building – once the home of der Tagesspiegel newspaper’s printing presses – is now occupied by Andreas Murkadis’s fantastic 10,000 square foot, uber-stylish concept store.
The girls continued to strive for that elusive Berlin look at the Mykita display at Murkadis’s shop.
Finally, they gave up, and we began our art odyssey in earnest. First we checked out Blain Southern’s great space.
The towering gallery is the perfect backdrop to show off post-war British sculptor Lynn Chadwick’s steel beasts.
Then we explored the stunning Neue Nationalgalerie glass box designed by Mies van der Rohe in the late sixties just before he died.
The German-American architect really was a genius; he even thought of where teenagers could take a tanning break…
Another must-see is the extensive Ai Weiwei show at the Martin-Gropius-Bau Gallery, spanning 30,000 square feet in 18 rooms and designed specifically for Berlin. It’s his largest show to date. The politically charged and beautiful one-man epic exhibition titled ‘Evidence’ runs until July 7th. The show is so vast one might miss Weiwei’s art video of being in prison. Don’t. It’s quite racy.
Below is an image from Weiwei’s “Study of Perspective” where the thought provoking Chinese contemporary artist chose iconic landmarks from Tiananmen Square to the White House asking viewers to question their automatic deference towards any establishment. Here Tate Modern gets the finger.
Changing neighbourhoods, Auguststrasse in the Mitte district is a delight. It’s full of galleries (i.e. Eigen + Art), shops (i.e. Wunderkind) and places to eat. We loved the former Jewish Girl’s School which is now home to several galleries, including the CWC Gallery which has an aesthetically beautiful show called ‘Before They Pass Away‘ by tireless British photographer Jimmy Nelson. Nelson spent three years trekking to the remotest parts of the globe from Siberia to the South Pacific capturing disappearing tribes. Below is ‘Gogine Boys’ shot in Papua New Guinea. The show runs until June 21st.
Hungry? The former Jewish Girls’ School has two restaurants- one a very relaxed cafe called Mogg & Melzer (so relaxed we left, but that’s probably because we’re horrible hipsters) and a high-ceiling, high- design Pauly Saal. Note the original missile touch (not toe) below.
Other restaurants we enjoyed a lot during this barely-scratching-the-surface weekend were Katz Orange and Dudu.
May, 2014
