After a few conscientious months in London I’m back in Berlin for a bit and so happy to be here! I feel very lucky to be able to spend some of my life in this inspiring city - it's the closest I've come to finding an actual, existing place that feels like a festival - which suits my personal manifesto to make the everyday world feel like a festival! I could put up amazing stories and pictures everyday but as anyone who 'follows' this blog knows, I won't! So here's a very brief guide to why I love Berlin...
The space..... wide streets and roads that are really quiet (especially after living in London for the last 10 years!), a lot of green - trees, parks, canals and loads of really good 'spielplatzen'!
Because it's so laid back and also because it's mostly flat, makes for a perfect biking culture. Many favourite memories of biking with a posse of friends from party to party - so much more fun than taxis!
Art everywhere! And from everything, often in the most unexpected places.
Originality with re-cycling - seen in a lot of things but demonstrated especially well in the beautiful, original bars and cafes. This is a more classy example, Wohnzimmer in PrenzlauerBerg.
People getting together and doing stuff, mostly for free. Mostly the motive for doing things here is not money, fame or 'success' but just to do nice stuff. It's extremely liberating.
Music of all kinds everywhere - this is OMP playing in Mauer Park, they play on children's toy instruments and only songs about sun or summer.
http://www.myspace.com/orchestreminiatureinthepark
History, it's very strong and a lot of it is very recent and as a friend of mine commented 'you can feel the emotion in the city'.
Activism, a Berlin tradition, but of course often done very creatively. These are protesters against the build up of huge media corporations along the Spree.
Style, individuality and the acceptance of it, whatever it may be.
Of course there is 'die andere seite der medalia' - the other side of the coin - but that's for another time, (maybe)! For now I'll just finish by inviting you to the festival/exhibition that our friend is arranging, it's called 'NEGLECT' - and is a very lovely bunch of artists/good people taking over 2000 sqm of abandoned floor space and rooms and filling it with art, ideas, music, performance, objects, drinking, dancing and imagination! The address is Am Treptower Park 28 - 30 from 12 midday on Sunday 9th non-stop for 48 hours. If you happen to be in Berlin at that time please come along, it's going to be special.
