April 2011

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Gallery Weekend Berlin: April 29th – May 1st

27. April 2011 in Art, Berlin, Events, Festivals, Film, Photography by Paul

Gallery WeekendBeginning this Friday in Berlin is Gallery Weekend, which runs through to Sunday and offers up three days and nights of exhibition openings across 44 galleries in the city. As you might be able to imagine, with such a number of galleries taking part, there is a wide range of visual arts to enjoy from artists all around the world.

You can visit the Gallery Weekend website for more information, but if you would like to see what is on at the galleries closest to the Circus, here are some more useful links. Have fun!

BQ
Weydingerstrasse 10/12

Galerie Eigen + Art
Auguststrasse 26

Galerie KAMM
Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse 45

Kicken Berlin
Linienstrasse 161a

Koch Oberhuber Wolff
Brunnenstrasse 9

Neugerriemschneider
Linienstrasse 155

PSM
Strassburger Strasse 6-8

Sprüth Magers
Oranienburger Strasse 18

Galerie Wien/Lukatsch
Linienstrasse 158

Congratulations Hertha – Welcome Back!

26. April 2011 in Berlin, Football by Paul

hertha

Well done boys…after a season without top class football in the city of Berlin, Hertha BSC have won promotion to the 1. Bundesliga at the first attempt. It seems so long ago that Berlin was playing host to Champion’s League football…maybe this is the step back to greatness?

Grand Opening of The Berg Gallery

25. April 2011 in Art, Berlin, Circus Hostel, Events, The Berg Gallery by Paul

TheBerg_BunniesYesterday the sun was shining. Everyone on the streets seemed to be walking around in a dazed and hazy good mood, as if the early afternoon beers had kicked in, or the realisation had struck that yes, winter is finally over, and we are going to have many more days like this as we enjoy the Berlin springtime and summer. So it was the perfect day, Easter Sunday, for the opening of The Berg Gallery at The Circus Hostel. Once again, many thanks to Jakob from Mila for his inspiration, organising this, and introducing the project yesterday. Plenty of people came by to see the bunnies, have a glass of sekt, and enjoy a spot of open-air jazz. There are a couple more pictures below, but here are some useful links if you want to find out more about The Berg Gallery:

Bunny-Cam! Yes, see what the Bunnies are up to right now on The Berg Gallery website

Invitation to Yesterday’s event – includes more information about The Berg and The Gallery

TheBerg_Opening

The view from inside the hostel…

TheBerg_ViewfromTheHostel

See more pictures from yesterday on The Circus Facebook Page

The Berg Gallery – Chapter 01 – Coming to The Circus on Easter Sunday

21. April 2011 in Art, Berlin, Circus Hostel, Circus News, Events, Temporäre Kunstbox, The Berg Gallery by Paul

This Sunday will witness the transformation of our Temporäre Kunstbox into The Berg Gallery, and The Circus and Mila would like to take the opportunity to invite you to the opening:

The Berg Opening

The Berg – is an imaginary place.

It’s absurd and purely exists through social reference. Hence, it creates ‘common sense’. The Berg combines a strong notion of individual freedom with a deep sense of complicity. This duality of ‘doing what you want‘ and ‘doing it together’ is emblematic of a contemporary Berlin lifestyle. The Berg is this existing city’s icon.

The Berg Gallery – is a real place.

It is dedicated to ideas that share the TheBerg’s spirit. It’s eight square metres are open to changing installations that recall the ironic blend of the original project. The Berg Gallery is curated by Mila and hosted by The Circus.

The Berg Gallery – Chapter 01  … denn Sie wissen nicht was Sie tun.

Witness a critical moment in the history of the city at the foot of The Berg.
Easter Sunday, 24.04.2011 at 15:00h
Weinbergsweg 1a, close to Rosenthaler Platz, Berlin-Mitte

The Berg on Facebook

trace and shadow II at the Temporäre Kunstbox

20. April 2011 in Art, Berlin, Circus Hostel, Circus News, Events, Film, Temporäre Kunstbox by Paul

For the next few days, until Saturday, we have another new artist occupying the Temporary Art Box at The Circus Hostel. Johannes Bock is a photographer, film and media artist from Berlin, and he is showing his short film “traces and shadow II”, which you can watch from the street or in the lobby of the hostel reception – or, if you are not here in Berlin with us, on the video embedded below. Here is the text that accompanies the exhibition:

trace and shadow, HD video, 2010, 2:58min

The term “Aura” was used by Walter Benjamin as a description of a phenomena, which is found in nature as well as in the history of art. In his essay “Artwork in the Age of  Technological Reproducibility” he describes it as “a one-time appearance from afar, regardless how near it may be..” and tries to defines it with aloofness, originality and uniqueness. In 1935 Benjamin declares an increase decline in the Aura of art, through the unrestrained reproducibility of artwork primarily to the growing tecnical development.

Not only Artwork has an aura, but also has every individual, which usually isn´t noticed. Aslike every human leaves a shadow, it also leaves a mark on his surroundings. We create an invisible space around us, volitional or entirely unconsciously. These may be overlapped by legacies or traces others, but never changed. Unconsciously we define the invisible shape the room shall have. But sooner or later the traces we leave behind will fade. Sometimes, as with many paintings ancient Masters of art, they arise after centuries, without remembering the name of the creator. In the course of this, the context can be changed. The “Aura” is invisible/unseen.

The Video Work “trace and shadow” is an attempt to reconstruct this Aura. Concentrated only on the paintings essential elements, you can get glimpse of it. Leaving out details and texture, aswell as the reduction to the chromaticity black, white and grey, it enables to construct some kind of Mood Board. The composition and simultaneously reduction of speed in certain components of the audiovisuelle fragment, function here as boosters and catalysts. What stays (at best) are the traces and shadows we leave behind.

You can see more of Johannes’s work on his website here.

The film:


trace and shadow II – fading von dok2007

Circus Talks #6: Reflections on the Second World War and its Aftermath

18. April 2011 in Berlin, Circus Hotel, Circus News, Circus Talks, Events, Fabisch, History by Paul

circus-talks-buttonThis Wednesday we will be once again joined at The Circus by speakers from the ZeitZeugenBörse e.V. (Centre for the Witness to Contemporary History), an organisation that brings together eyewitnesses to different periods and moments of history to share their experiences and memories with people like us.

We are extremely pleased to be welcoming Dr Golkowsky and Mr Rottschky on Wednesday. Mr Rottschky, born in 1923, will talk about growing up in Berlin during the rise of National Socialism, and his experiences as a soldier during WWII, being held in a British Prisoner of War camp, and life in Germany after the war. Dr Golkowsky was born in 1934 in Silesia, moving to Western Germany at the end of the war. He will share stories of his experience during the war, the flight to the west, and observations on life for himself, friends and family, on both sides of the iron curtain.

After the talk, both Mr Rottschky and Dr Golkowsky will be available to answer questions, and once again we expect it to be an extremely interesting and informative evening.

Here are the details at a glance:

Topic: Reflections on the Second World War and its Aftermath
Where: Fabisch @ The Circus Hotel (Rosenthaler Strasse 1, U-Bhf. Rosenthaler Platz – U8 Line)
When: Wednesday 20th April at 6.45pm
Speakers: Dr Golkowsky and Mr Rottschky

The talks are in English, entrance is free, and everyone is welcome. See you there.

Adele’s Literary Salon at the Temporäre Kunstbox

15. April 2011 in Art, Berlin, Circus Hostel, Events, History, Temporäre Kunstbox by Paul

Adele Poster

The Temporäre Kunstbox at the Circus Hostel is currently playing host to Adele, who is spending some time with us as she tries to discover more information about the anatomist and chronicler Johan, who disappeared without trace and took his diary with him. As she continues in her quest, she meets Zille, Virchow, Käthe Kollwitz and some other, perhaps less-famous faces from Berlin in 1900. Each day in the Kunstbox, the exhibition develops little by little…

This literary adventure of Berlin in the period around 1900 has been brought to the Circus by the good folks at Das Wilde Dutzend. The exhibition will continue from today through to Sunday, so you should definitely come by and check it out between 4 and 7pm each evening as the search for clues continues. The exhibition actually opened on Tuesday, and below you can see some photos from the opening, and there are more here on the “Wild Dozen’s” facebook page.

Adele Vernissage 3

Adele Vernissage 2

Adele Vernissage 1

Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis

14. April 2011 in Berlin, Film, History, Stuff We Like by Paul

berlin symphonyIf you would like to get a sense of what life was like in Berlin in the 1920s, then you could do a lot worse than checking out the 1927 film “Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt” (Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis). The film was directed by Walter Ruttmann, with a musical score by Edmund Meisel, and it portrays a day in the life of the city in a kind of fictional-documentary style.

There is no real story, except for the story of the city itself, but this was the aim of the filmmaker:

“Since I began in the cinema, I had the idea of making something out of life, of creating a symphonic film out of the millions of energies that comprise the life of the big city” (source: Wikipedia).

So don’t expect a traditional storyline full of plot twists and turns, but enjoy the skill of the filmmaker in depicting those scenes of everyday life that would have been normal for audiences at the time (the marvel, in 1927 would have been seeing them up on the big screen), but for us offer a window on the past, taking us back over eighty years and onto the streets, the parks, the factories the restaurants of this city that we live in.

The film, which is embedded below, is available on the youtube channel from openflix, which is a great resource for watching all kinds of old feature and documentary films online. You can find out more information at their website.

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