part 4 :: long weekend in berlin :: an unexpected mural at the park inn

in 2018, this mural - a colorful work of ceramics and glass - was uncovered behind a wall at the park inn in berlin. it's the tall building right beside the tower that's the symbol of berlin. it was the pride of east berlin in its day and today, it's a radisson. public art was a big deal in east germany and this beautiful, colorful work is just one example from 1970s berlin. one could easily be inspired by these same colors today. 

down in one corner, there were two names and they made a public appeal to find those people. gertraude pohl came forward to say that she was the pohl part of the signature. walk had made the ceramics and as the story was told to me, i don't know whether they came forward. gertraude had the sketches she had made of the work, back in the early 70s. and through them, she helped with the restauration.

four of the restored panels can be seen at the hotel today. the other five have disappeared without a trace. perhaps into the home of some art collector. or maybe they ended up in storage somewhere and they will be similarly rediscovered sometime in the future. i hope it's the latter. 

* * *

oh, and i found an article about it online here - just use the google translate function if you, like me, don't read german. 

part 3 :: long weekend in berlin :: do you read me?

i didn't have anything in particular that i wanted to do while we were in berlin, except for one thing - i hoped to find this bookstore again. it's really more of a magazine store and we visited it long ago when blog camp went to berlin. i didn't remember the name (despite how clever it is!), but i was so hoping it was still there. i didn't remember the name of it, but i knew it wasn't far from clärchens ballroom. i remembered correctly and it was indeed still there.

it doesn't have any normal magazines, just small, esoteric ones from independent presses. and it's so hard to pick just a few. i could have stayed much longer, but as it was, i did have a good browse. and i managed to pick just two to take home.

i'm working on a podcast about danish design right now and it seemed like so many of the magazines were about design. funny how that works when you're immersing yourself in a topic, it's suddenly everywhere.

do you read me - what a perfect name for a little independent bookstore. i'm so glad there are still such places in the world and that there were so many people visiting on a sunny saturday afternoon.

part 2 :: long weekend in berlin :: hamburger bahnhof

there was an open house at the hamburger bahnhof, which is the national art gallery, on the weekend we were there. that meant free admission! yay!

the bones of the old train station were visible and it made for some great spaces. there was lots of interactive art going on and gertraude even called her daughter to bring her grandson, who they knew would love it. they spent the rest of the afternoon there, after emmy and i went off to find some lunch.

eva fábregas made these enormous, tactile sculptural pieces that were in the main hall when you came in, but they were somehow cool and a little bit disturbing at the same time.

lots of little side rooms had interactive projects, where you could contribute. these bits of yarn made visual the connections and entanglements between people. 

american artist christina quarles was featured upstairs. she had curated the exhibition as well and there were all these cool elements involving screens and art on top of art that lent a cool and fresh perspective.

her own works were very bold and colorful and the orange vinyl laid over was really interesting, expanding the work beyond the border of the canvas.

the works behind the screens were part of the museum's collection and were chosen by christina to complement her work and all displayed behind these screens.

i hadn't seen her work before and found it quite thought-provoking.

there was an amazing exhibition of the work of fred sandback in the other wing and this picture by no means does it justice. it consisted of very simple lengths of yarn discreetly strung. you could walk into the middle of the works and it was weirdly moving in its simplicity. 

loved these giant flowers in the entrance to the "a collection for the 21st century" part of the exhibition. my brain had taken in a lot by then and i'll admit i didn't appreciate it as much as i maybe should have.

but this enormous ombre cloth was cool. but by then, i was getting "museum legs" and just needed to leave and sit down and let all of the visual impressions simmer in my mind. 

part 1 :: long weekend in berlin :: gracious hosts

i went to berlin with a friend. she wanted to visit some old friends who she hadn't seen in nearly 20 years, so we hopped on the train (at 5:30 a.m.!) and headed down for a long weekend. on the first afternoon, we happened upon a super cute little bar called misirlou and had a cocktail. it was so nice, we made it our "regular" and went back every day of our trip. emmy hadn't tried aperol spritz before, but she was hooked. i had the mezcal sour. yummy!

her friend, gertraude pohl, is an artist. she and her husband were famous artists in the old east germany and in fact, the last time emmy was there was for his funeral. gertraude is still a working artist and her two daughters are carrying on their father's woodworking legacy in a studio at the back of their home.

they live in the loveliest home - half of a huge, three story house on the line between lichtenberg and pankow. they were the most gracious hosts and we enjoyed a beautiful lunch when we arrived - a delicious balsamic potato and tomato tart and elderflower lemonade.

 

the home was filled with objects collected over a long lifetime and it was so comfortable and inspiring. there was something interesting to see and be curious about, no matter where you looked.

shelves filled with interesting books, big windows with plenty of natural light pouring in. 

art - made by gertraude and norbert and others on the walls and shelves. there's even a candlestick by my favorite danish ceramicist in the middle of the shelf. 

a mix of furniture collected over a lifetime, which somehow just all worked together.

small collections and gatherings of mementos that invite you to have a closer look and ask to hear their stories.

gertraude's work on the wall in the living room.

norbert's woodwork on the top shelf, photos, books, and just a warm, cozy, inviting feeling. it was really inspiring to be there. gertraude didn't speak english, but her daughter, who lives with her, did and so we muddled through in a mix of english, german and danish. we had a lot of interesting conversations and i learned so much about east germany and how life was in east berlin. 

a magical toy shop in berlin

back in september in berlin, just a couple of doors down from the apartment where we stayed, there was a magical little toy shop.  it was stuffed from floor to ceiling with toys new and old. in the back was a bearded man who sat in a lair repairing toys. he was surrounded by drawers of supplies - eyes, little screws, small wheels, any bit or bob that a toy might need. did you get that? someone was repairing toys? instead of throwing them away! isn't that magical?

the proprietor was a real toy geek. he was intense in that way that only a geek who really burns for his particular geekdom can be. he was such a geek in fact, that i suspect he lived in the back of the shop. and he seemed harmless enough, tho' when he tried to usher us into the basement through an alice-sized tiny door to ostensibly see his collection of east german toys, he did seem slightly less harmless.  we declined.

my favorite bit was his wide selection of little tin replicas of the old-fashioned mechanical toys. i bought several robots and this magical little ferris wheel. it has a key that you wind and then it turns around.

it was the kind of store that gives you hope for the world. hope that it won't all be taken over by the giants - toys r us, wal-mart and the like - hope that there is a place still left in the world for magic. and wonder. and a bit of geekiness. and where they repair toys instead of throwing them out. but maybe that's just berlin.

really expired film

take some really expired (in 1991) kodak ektachrome 120 film you found in a flea market, put it in a fabulous old rolleiflex TLR camera, go to the west coast of denmark, take a few shots. forget about it for about a year. go to berlin, take a few more shots. wind it up. send it for processing. and voila...

sabin on top of an old german bunker at blåvandshuk - the westernmost point of denmark

some rather eerie statues standing near esbjerg in denmark

the lighthouse at blåvandshuk

inside the main train station in berlin

the brandenburg gate

street scene - berlin

i'm digging on the overexposed, groovy old-fashioned look the expired film gave these. unlike some of my other cross-processed rolls, there's no red cast here. interesting how that works. i'm really falling in love with film. and would be learning more if i could remember the settings i used on these photos...

signs of berlin

because it's the weekend and i'm still hankering for my blog camp weekend in berlin of a couple of weeks ago, i thought i'd share a few of the fabulous signs i saw there...

should have gone back to this club.
it looked like a happening place.

there were tons of bits of art here and there on light poles and such.

this city is bought up.
i do wonder what they meant by that, because to me the city seemed so authentic and wonderful
and not at all like it had sold out.

ya gotta love robots. tho' those teeth were slightly disturbing.

you could wander the city just photographing fantastic graphics.

i wanna go back to berlin. maybe i'll get husband a weekend there for christmas. as a kind of a self-present.

more scenes from berlin and the answer to it all

i think i'm coming down with a cold...scratchy throat, dull headache and feeling generally slow and sleepy. so before i crawl off to bed to reread a bit of murakami, i'll leave you with a few more shots of berlin goodness...

i love that this building is #42 - because as you know if you're a fan of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything.