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Berlin Wall Anniversary – The XXth Century at the German Historical Museum

3. August 2011 in Berlin, Berlin Wall Anniversary, History, Museum, Photography by Paul

germanhistoricalmuseumOn the 13th August it will be the 50th Anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall. As you can imagine, there are a number of things going on in Berlin and in the run up to that date we will be posting some of them here on the Circus Blog so that you can go and check them out.

The XXth Century – People-Places-Times is an exhibition at the German Historical Museum that brings together two decades of their photo collection of contemporary history and everyday life. For the past twenty years the museum has been collecting photographs that range from the final years of the 19th Century to the end of the German Democratic Republic in 1990. The photographs therefore document German history and daily life in a period of 130 years.

Because of the 50 year anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall, the German Historical Museum has put the focus of the exhibition on the division of Germany between 1961 and 1989, and many pictures show the way that the wall divided the city, and in some cases streets and houses, and became not only the most symbolic realisation of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War division of Europe, but also left families and friends stranded on different sides of the barrier.

Details:
The XXth Century: People – Places – Times
Two Decades of the German Historical Museum’s Photo Collection

The German Historical Museum
Unter den Linden 2
Open Daily from 10am – 6pm
More Information

For more information on the different events marking the anniversary of the Berlin Wall, visit the website 50jahremauerbau.

U-Bahn Exhibition: Ost-Berlin vergessene Mitte

27. Juli 2011 in Art, Berlin, History, Our Neighbourhood, Photography, Stuff We Like by Paul

weinmeister1Just down the street from the Circus is the U-Bahn station at Weinmeisterstrasse, which is home until the 7th September to an exhibition of photographs from the artist and photographer Sabine Peuckert. The pictures document the neighbourhood around Weinmeisterstrasse, including streets close to the Circus such as Rosenthaler Strasse and Linienstrasse, during the East Berlin period and were mainly taken around 1980. Just a quick look as you get on or off your train makes you realise how much the neighbourhood has changed in the intervening thity-odd years.

You can see more of Sabine Peuckert’s photographs of the neighbourhood on this page on her website, and if you have a spare couple of minutes whilst you are in Berlin, jump off the U-Bahn at Weinmeisterstrasse and take a look.

weinmeister2

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

A Slow Sunday in Berlin

14. März 2011 in Beer, Berlin, Books, Cafe Exhibitions, Circus Hostel, Circus News, Events, Film, Food, Photography, Shopping, Slow Travel Day, Stuff We Like by Paul

we all like cakeThe morning after…well, it was an absolutely wonderful slow day yesterday, with tours, books, cake, beer, films and talks, and I just wanted to use the opportunity to say a great big thank you from the Circus to everyone that came by, joined in the fun, and of course those who brought their energy and creativity as part of the Slow Travel Day:

Sharmaine and Thomas, the most knowledgable booksellers in town from Dialogue Books Berlin.
Everyone at the team from Context Travel for their information Walk of the Wall.
Our urban sketchers Rolf Schroeter, Olga Prudnikova and Catalina Somolinos.
There were no better cakes and sweet treats in town than those provided by Berlin Reified and FoodieInBerlin.
Stuart Holt for presenting and showing his Most Interesting Person project.
Johannes and Stephan for bringing the BIER.
Florian, who gave the assembled crowd a definate feeling of wanderlust in presenting his film Jakarta-Berlin.

And of course, to our cultural curator, Paul Sullivan from Slow Travel Berlin for all his hard work in organising the event.

You can see some more photos again, after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

Slow Travel Day: March 13th 2011

1. März 2011 in Art, Beer, Berlin, Books, Cafe Exhibitions, Circus Hostel, Circus News, Events, Film, History, Photography, Slow Travel Day by Paul

slow travel dayOn Sunday 13th March 2011 we will be welcoming the first SLOW TRAVEL DAY to the Circus Hostel. Curated by the good folks at Slow Travel Berlin, it promises to be both a stimulating and relaxed Sunday at the Circus, including coffee-tasting, unique city tours, film presentations, music, a pop-up bookshop and of course – this being Germany – some beer.

The Circus Cafe will be the focal point for the activities, and will be hosting throughout the afternoon a pop-up bookshop run by Dialogue Books Berlin, who will be displaying and selling a handpicked selection of books related to Berlin either by subject, theme or author.

In the morning/early afternoon there will be a choice of unique city tours:

Berlin Wall Tour – no ordinary Berlin Wall tour, but an in-depth three-hour special organised by Slow Travel Berlin affiliate Context Travel (a company run by award-winning National Geographic writer and academic Paul Bennett).

Urban Sketching Tour - to celebrate the recent inauguration of Berlin’s chapter of the worldwide Urban Sketching movement, local pencil Ninjas Rolf Schroeter, Olga Prudnikova and Catalina Somolinos will be giving a guided 2-hour sketch tour.

The tours will return to the Circus Cafe for coffee-tasting as well as cake and other sweet treats that are being provided very kindly by Berlin food (amongst other interesting stuff) bloggers Berlin Reified and FoodieInBerlin…those of you with a sweet tooth should certainly make sure you are in the cafe at 4pm for that!

In the early evening Stuart Holt will present his Most Interesting Person project – a trail of films about some of Berlin’s most interesting people – each chosen by the preceding subject – which features journalists, human rights activists, film makers and more. A very special happy hour(s) is being provided by BIER , a Berlin-based company that brew their beer at a small, family-run brewery in the German countryside.

At 7pm down in Goldman’s Bar we will be screening Jakarta-Berlin, a road-movie documentary from the young German director Florian Augustin about his overland adventures. Florian will be joining us to introduce the film and take questions after the screening.

Afterwards we are very happy to announce a guest DJ spot from Robert Lippok, founder member of legendary Berlin-based electronica legends To Rococo Rot! Robert will play a mix of electronica and indie music, some rare TRR tracks and material from his new release on Raster Noton.

It promises to be a great day, and we are really pleased and proud to be working together with Slow Travel Berlin and everyone else involved. We hope to see you there!

Cafe Exhibitions #1: Unterwegs

31. Januar 2011 in Art, Cafe Exhibitions, Circus Hostel, Events, Photography by Paul

Ilda-poster-A3This Friday the first of our new series of Cafe Exhibitions will open at the Circus Hostel, where we will be presenting the photography of the German-based Korean photographer Ilda Kim. The photographs come from a larger collection entitled “Unterwegs” (On the Road). Here is what Ilda says about his work:

Beginning

Upon looking at my Unterwegs photos, people often ask me where I took them.

It is essentially a spatial question. This extremely plain question prompted me to recognize the differences between me and others in perspectives for space and life. In other words, this provides my Unterwegs project with the necessary impetus.

Discovering Similarities Amongst Diversity

Travelling, or a momentary detachment from a society excites us with a sense of liberation, whose core element is the freedom from the reality. When the travelling becomes an incessant routine, however, it becomes another reality in itself. My life has reached a stage like this, and the constant travelling became my life to a large extent. Thus, while travelling, I find a sense of settlement from travelling instead of differences from diversity.

Recognition of memory fragments and afterimages while in motion

My internal interpretation, or mental image, of space is closely related to the modern methods of transportation. The modern transportation methods afford speed which is beyond what humans are naturally capable of, and this speed turns my memories into passing, blurry and unfocused shards of images. This is my memory about Unterwegs.

Transparent Barrier

In those shards of memories are vague reflections of other spaces, or reflections of internal spaces on the windows which form a barrier between the space I belong to, and the space outside. I, separated from the outside by the windows, become a spectator and an outsider. Images of Unterwegs may be an expression of an outsider who cannot assimilate with the space he can behold.

Ending

When viewed collectively, the images of Unterwegs loses the meaning as “Spatial Signs.”

Another meaning of settlement which is unique to a life of a nomad, and the fragments and afterimages of memories, or Unterwegs, are a reflection of self through the outside and a trip of identity.

The photographs will be hanging in the Circus Cafe from the 5th February 2011 until the 1st March 2011. There will be a small vernissage this Friday from 7pm, and the cafe is open from 8.30am until 8pm every single day of the week if you would like to come by and take a look…

www.kimilda.com

The Forgotten Heart of Berlin

17. November 2010 in Berlin, History, Photography, Stuff We Like by Paul

stadtmuseum

(Photo: Karl Johannes, Neuer Mühlendamm, 1968, Diapositiv digitalisiert, Eva Rothkirch, Berlin)

Berlin has been the scene of many great historic moments, from the tragic to the uplifting, and these historical events have shaped not only the experience of Berliners but the architecture and look of the city. From the grand buildings erected on Unter den Linden and the destruction of the Second World War, to the division of the city between two competing ideologies and the past couple of decades since reunification – when the centre of Berlin often felt like the world’s biggest building site – history and the evolution of Berlin have been played out right here in the bricks and mortar of the city’s buildings.

The development of the centre of Berlin and the neighbourhood known simply as “Mitte” are documented in a new exhibition at the Stadtmuseum titled “Berlin’s vergessene Mitte”. The earliest photographs in the exhibition come from 1853 and trace the rapid changes to the neighbourhood including the rise of Berlin as a metropolis in the 1920s, through to the ambitious re-building projects of the East German government following the near total destruction of WWII, many of which have themselves been pulled down as Berlin shapes itself once more.

The exhibition looks like it should be a fascinating look back at the history of the city and how it has changed over the past 150 years.

Berlin’s vergessene Mitte runs until the 3rd March 2011. Stadtmuseum website.

The Different Faces of Berlin – Then and Now

1. September 2010 in Berlin, History, Photography by Paul

Potsdamer Platz 1989…

1989

Potsdamer Platz 2009…

2009

As you might remember, the media last year was absolutely full of the twenty year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and there were many articles, films, discussions…you name it, about the changes that have taken place in Germany over the past twenty years. The photos above come from a cool interactive graphic on the Spiegel website, which comes from that time, but I think it is still fascinating to take another look at how the face of Berlin has changed in those years since the wall came down and Germany was reunited.

The photographs are from the Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung/Geoinformation/Karten.

Thanks to Digel for finding it.

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