she is there

Marina Abramovic is performing her longest piece called "The Artist is present" each day right now in New York's MoMa, wearing a floor length gown in red, symbolizing courage as well as sacrifice, or blue, symbolizing Mary in christian religion, making people cry, laugh or both just by sitting on a chair looking at the person who sits opposite.
Exhaustion, intimacy, threat and silence can be live viewed here. I do not know if I would take the chance and the seat, would you?

More pictures: Moma on Flickr, Marina Abramovic made me cry (via This Wasteland) and The other artist is present on Julia Stelzner's blog.

temperatures are rising

Last night, Berlin faced several openings - from today on you will be able to:

# See Cyprien Gaillard's "The Berlin Archive 2009–10" at 032c. The piece itself is nice, or as N said, coherent and pretty complex. However, I was excited to see if there were going to be any major catfights at the opening - Cyprien Gaillard is not only known as the artist who is striving to be on every art mag cover, but who is also breaking a lot of girls' hearts on his way. The number of girls I knew were affected doubled last night, and rumors were shared quietly inbetween the guests (the narrow concrete balcony would have made a terrific stage though). Still it is pretty interesting to get a real-life experience of one of the oldest artist chlichés.

# See Olafur Eliasson's "Innen Stadt Außen" at Martin Gropius Bau. Eliasson has been living in Berlin for years and still this is his first major exhibition. I wonder what took Berlin so long to discover that one of the most popular contemporary artist actually lives and works in Prenzlauer Berg and get this exhibition done.

# Be a member of Soho House. The british concept of elitist, yet cool member clubs with gym, pool, bar and suites has arrived in Berlin. Last night's "soft opening" was a mixture of artists weighing on the stupidity of chinese people, gallerists getting all touchy-feely doused with a lot of hair gel and expensive perfume. I am not opposing "high class" developments, when they are done in style. They served fried squid rings.

# See Andro Wekua's "Gott ist tot aber das Mädchen nicht" at Schinkel Pavillon, which who knows why is named after Schinkel, but just has some components of another Schinkel building attached to it and was built in the 1960ies by Richard Paulick. However, it's beautiful.

Cosmopolitan knows best

"Brush up against somebody in the elevator, in a restaurant, on the street. He may act as if he doesn't notice, but he'll love it."

"If you have good legs, wear a very tight short skirt and very high heels. Bend over with your back to a man (to pick something up or look in a file drawer, etc)."

As you know "chronic datelessness is almost never fatal or permanent, and it is curable", thank god!

(This is so contemporary)

Quotes taken from a random Cosmopolitan issue, ridiculed in an articel in Sassy March 1993, scanned by Tavi

I'm not Mitte

Regarding to Sugarhigh's classification, at least I hope I am not:

1. evasive glare framed by non-prescription extra-large glasses
2. pale skin from excessive internships
3. scarf (length when unrolled: 7 metres)
4. oversized poncho (Pantone shade 275 C)
5. wirey arms to match bicycle
6. custom iPhone with hipster app and facial recognition status-scanner
7. last issue of AnOther Magazine, borrowed from Do You Read Me?!
8. modest vintage shoes, last worn 1928 (€400)
9. 2x4" bag containing single grain of rice
10. designer Dutch bike (monochromatic)

The fabulous illustration was made by Sam Gieben.

Pretty correct as well: P-Berg Mum and Kreuzköllner. Get on SugarHigh via Facebook or click here.

900g Horst, frisch gedruckt

900 Gramm frisch geschnitten Horst zum Vorzugspreis von 3,80€ in jedem Zeitungsladen. Dazu gibt es 200g Vanessa am Stück. Wird unter dem Decknamen "De:Bug #142" verkauft.

Katrin Brack: Bühnenbild

Katrin Brack ist eine Bühnenbildnerin, die ich überaus bewundere - ihre Art den Raum zu formen ist so einfach und doch so beeindruckend. Oft basieren ihre Bühnenbilder auf einem einzigen eher armen oder gern auch "campy" Material - seien es ein Baum samt Wurzeln, ein überdimensionaler Trinkbecher oder Tonnen Konfetti, Schaum und Kunstnebel unter denen sie die Bühne begräbt. Ihre Arbeit rekuriert auf Zero, Landart und Arte Povera, sie baut Verbindungen zur bildenden Kunst auf (und ich bin mir sicher, dass ich hier zig Referenzen vergesse) und löst sich oft von ihrer eigentlichen Funktion als Theaterraum um zu einem eigenständigen Werk zu werden.
Theater der Zeit veröffentlichte nun die erste Werkschau Katrin Bracks. Neben großformatigen Bildern ihrer Inszenierungen seit den neunziger Jahren, stehen zwei Essays von Anja Nioduschewski und Stefanie Carp sowie Zitate und Widmungen von Regisseuren und Schauspielern wie Luc Perceval und Dimiter Gotscheff.
Auch wenn ich sagen muss, dass beide Essays recht oberflächlich versuchen in zudem noch ähnlicher Weise die Atmosphäre von Bracks Bühnenbilder zu beschreiben und leider darauf verzichten historischen Bezügen und Einflüssen ihrer Ästhetik nachzugehen, ist die Bildersammlung mit den persönlichen Widmungen durchaus beeindruckend und beweist vielleicht sogar, dass Katrin Bracks Arbeiten sich als Gegenstand einer kunsthistorischen Untersuchen eignen würden.


Katrin Brack: Bühnenbild / Stages. Berlin: Theater der Zeit. 2010. 28 Euro

Bild: Der Fall Esra, Hamburg 2009

dog with crocodile and birds

I am currently working on a series of pictures where I encounter a lot of unexpected oddities - like this puppy made out of pink plastic diamonds.

Chipps for everyone!

Last night the new restaurant of Berlin legend Cookie opened its doors in one of the strangest districts of Mitte - just behind foreign office impressively luxurious townhouses and posh restaurants popped up in the last years, giving the area around Hausvogteiplatz the feel of a gated community, or, as some visitors of the opening put it, Munich. However, the whole Mitte bunch squeezed inbetween cheese balls with beetroot and mushrooms, roastbeef and free Cremant. I guess time will tell how this new district will develop, if its going to keep its alienating effect, or mingle. Chipps is definitely a good start to make it into a more lively neighbourhood.

Picture: HaebMau

es gibt sie noch, die guten dinge

Rainald Goetz nennt das glänzende Hochhaus zwischen Mitte und Kreuzberg den Ort der Hölle - nachdem ich mich gestern Nacht zwischen dem frisch gekauften Feuilleton der Welt im neuesten Spielzeug der Mitteria am Oranienburger Tor betrank, ist es durchaus gut zu hören, dass diese Mauer immer noch steht.

in a bubble

Still from Maren Ade's "Everyone Else" - a subtle and accurate portrait of an uneven couple, that's only close when everyone else is absent.

Birgit Minichmayr might be awarded "Best Actress" tonight at Deutscher Filmpreis for this role.

Nightmare Material

Chris Landreth's animated short movies are the perfect nightmare material if you watch them late at night as I did. "The Spine" followed a movie about frustrated 32 year old provincial austrian women (Barbara Albert's "Fallen", recommended by Blica) on Arte. Still, they are beautiful in their weirdness and though I could not stand to watch all the scenes (especially the beginning, where the parted man fights his own hand, or green hair proliferates out of the capped head and fingers of another), I could not stop either. Watch it on Arte Plus 7 until next Wednesday.

Prisoners, be silent, be silent and be sharp

At home: The young Catorialist

This is Eddie, he likes to wear a classic look with a twist. For this shooting he chose an accessory, that might be underestimated these days: a ruff, referring to the mid-sixteenth century, but slightly down dressed to meet the current needs of Berlin Mitte.

(I wanted to post this on my official blog, but the Canadian said we are not yet on a "cat content" level. So that leaves Facebook and this secondary, too often neglected outlet.

Title shamelessly stolen here.)