Berlin, Walpurgisnacht 2009

In Berlin, the night from April 30th to May 1st traditionally is reserved for physical exercise and competition between the police and demonstrators. Following last year's almost eerie silence this year yielded a bit more, well, ritualistic action (not as much as the next day in Kreuzberg tho).

This selection of photos is quite random at best and most of the shots are blurry and grainy as a result of my refusing to use a flash in such situations thus all photos were taken with a wide-angle lense, iso 3200 and 1/25.

Noteworthy occurrences:
- a stretch-limo materialized out of nowhere amidst rioters and cops
- an ordinary garbage container on fire kept the media mob excited for the better part of 20 minutes
- stuck in a police kettle an angry man complains about the lack of emergency exits, prophesying several cops would lose their jobs over this

Here are the photos:

The Good Product: aschön Wallet

Yes I admit I am shamelessly and proudly promoting my latest acquisition: my second aschön wallet. It's beautiful, robust and hand-made. The best part: each wallet is unique.

aschön, which until recently used the label "schön", has been producing wallets and tobacco pouches for several years. The production rate has been stepped up a notch and a website is in the making. Until then you can find your own aschön wallet in Berlin at Big Brobot and a select few other stores as well as at the Boxhagener Platz fleamarket.

aschön: www.aschoen.net

Nasan Tur: "Komunismus Soziallismus Kapietalismus"

Today the gf and I stumbled into Nasan Tur's (cv) exhibition at Tanas by accident: we were asking directions to a Bill Viola exhibition (Bill Viola "Transfiguration", Haunch of Venison, Heidestrasse 46, www.haunchofvenison.com) and decided to have a look around. I remembered seeing reviews in several magazines and at least someone I know personally held Nasan Tur in pretty high regard.
He seems to enjoy taking jabs at society either by supplying willing marchers with subversive backpacks, or by providing those who always wanted to make a point with a speaker system, or simply by continuously summersaulting in crowed spaces. He also appears to be very fond of bad spelling and taking the occasional bath in a puddle.

Taking photos was kindly allowed by the gallery so here are a few examples.

"Time for Revollusion" (2008)

more...

There's more on the Sabotaz blog and I didn't want to repeat myself.

Geezer Graff Gala - The Opening

Well, some photos of the artwork and the opening of Geezer Graff Gala at Common Ground Gallery/Hip-Hop Stützpunkt in Berlin. Eliot did tremendous job promoting the show and his efforts were rewarded by a lot of visitors and press.

That's Geezer Graff Gala, Common Ground Gallery, Marienburger Str. 16a (backyard), Berlin.
The show will end next Sunday.

Base23:





Eliot:



Evol:




Pisa73:



Opening:

Geezer Graff Gala

Here's one show I am really happy to be a part of: GGG was curated and organized by (Beatbox-) Eliot and features works by Base23, Eliot, Evol and Pisa-Me-73.
The opening will be Friday, February 13th at 7 pm. It is the first exhibition at Common Ground Gallery/Hip Hop Stützpunkt (Marienburgerstr. 16A (backyard) in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin). For the opening the front of the building will be light-tagged by Tofa.

The exhibition will end Sunday, February 22nd but until then there's this list of events:
Friday, 13th - 7 pm
opening
- free entry -

Wednesday, 18th - 7:30 pm
movie "Beautiful Losers"
- free entry -

Sunday, 22nd - 12 pm
"Weisswürschtl Brunch" meaning a Brunch with Bavarian veal sausages
- free entry -
two sausages (they always come in pairs you know), a pretzel and a drink will set you back 4 euros.

Opening hours:
02/14 - 02/21 from 4 - 8 pm

From the press release:
"Mit der GEEZER GRAFF GALA (GGG) definieren vier Altmeister der Urban Art Szene am Freitag den 13. Februar 2009 ab 19:00 Uhr zur Einweihung der Galerieräume „Common Ground“ des HIP HOP STÜTZPUNKT den neuen Standard der Straße. Der Ausbruch aus den traditionellen Formen des Graffiti macht die Kunst im öffentlichen Raum mit neuen Arbeitstechniken und anspruchsvollen Inhalten wieder zu einem Kommunikationsmedium.

Mit reflektierten, ironisch gebrochenen Arbeiten repräsentieren EVOL (CTink), PISA73 (CTink), ELIOT (BK / AFM), BASE23 (D|CIDE) und TOFA (Tresor) die neue Generation von Urban Art Künstlern, die sich vom grafisch-illustrativen Ansatz und dem Lokal-Patriotismus der früheren Graffiti-Kultur gelöst hat, um mit ihren Arbeiten im öffentlichen Raum und im Galerien- und Eventkontext kritische Denkanstöße und lebensnahe Kommentare zu geben."

Here's the flyer:

Eileen Wunderlich "Chemo Babe" at Bongout

I went to see the opening with Eileen Wunderlich's Chemo-Babe photos at Bongout Gallery in Berlin last night. Three artists are featured in the exhibition: Eileen Wunderlich, Barbara Breitenfellner and Carolin Löbbert.
Mainly I went to see Eileen's photos which she had taken while in hospital in 2008 for a (successful) treatment of leukemia, hence the title "Chemo Babe".
The majority are staged self-portraits re-enacting established images known from the media, the strongest in my opinion is a copy of an Abu Ghraib torture photo.

I had already seen most of the photos on Eileen's website but obviously the large scale prints are much more impressive. She found a stunning way to cope with a life-threatening desease and handled it with an almost painful share of dark humour. In retrospect I think it's save to say that leukemia didn't know who it was up against, it's good to see Eileen well again.

The exhibition will be open until March 3 at Bongout Gallery, Torstr. 110. Opening hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12 - 7.

Charity Sticker Exhibition For Skateistan Project

Check this out, it's worth it:


More information about skateistan here and about the museum there.
What's better than helping someone out with a small amount of money while making a bargain at the same time?
Better be quick, that's my advice.

Opening:
Thursday, December 11 from 6 to 11 p.m. - Bring your friends.

Here I have three photos of the show. I didn't count but it looks like they have more than 70 individual stickers.

And this is what I had to offer: