Until the 15th of January at the Contemporary Art Museum at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, there’s the exhibition ‘Cloud Cities’ by the Frankfurt-based Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno. The exhibition commissioned by Britta Schmitz with the help of Katharina Schlütler, is produced by the Freunde National Galerie, sponsored by Dornbracht Installation 2011 and by the donation of works of the collection of the National Gallery in London.

The work of Saraceno is a spectacular aerial installation, where thousands of transparent bubbles flote with the breeze. An astonishing mobile architecture, an oneiric game with shapes, textures, and the illusion of observing in an inverted way. Saraceno installs the illusion of aerial gardens, men who flote on pristine colour bubbles and objects suspended in the air.

The installation ‘Cloud Cities’ expresses the human dream of being suspended in mid air and floating softly and the view of not material limits. These are 24 futuristic works that as an ensemble are an aerial city and they transform into a single installation.

Tomás Saraceno was born in Tucumán, Argentina, in 1973. He’s an architect from the University of Buenos Aires and an artist by choice. His dream of installing a collective cloud on the net, taking new paradigms which move humanity through social networks, is one of his most ambitious projects, because it goes further than his creation, making of these great floating spheres a referent of what society is today.

Although he denies his role as an architect, in his work he denotes a different type of architecture, ludic, full of dreams, where science, geometry and even physics play a role in its creation. It’s hard to typecast, maybe it just has to be seen and enjoy its transparent and floating constructions to have the pleasure of appreciating the creation and its beauty.

In them he unfolds a single concept, freedom, that human dream which has moved thousands of men and efforts to reach it, and which still avoids us sometimes. He believes that the artist’s place is nature, and that’s why he builds spider webs, floating gardens and floating museums with objects or items which represent the whole world in its spheres.

He’s a kinetic and luminous sculptor who participated as the founder of the Madí movement. He explains his work by pointing out that it’s not an attempt to beat the laws of nature, like the force of gravity, but of creating the sustainable energy which bases itself in science, and for that he’s worked with NASA scientists who helped him overcome his limits, just like the Argentine-Hungarian artist Kosice, a forerunner of kinetic art, did in a manifest in the early 70s.

Saraceno’s work isn’t just beautiful but it also shows us a dimension of kinetic art which connects dreams with science.

For more information: http://www.smb.museum/smb/kalender/details.php?objID=29989

Nancy Guzman

A great chance to make the most of the autumn days and rent apartments in Berlin to enjoy this extraordinary exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof, the old station remodeled as a museum.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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The National Gallery Museum in Berlin exhibits, until the 9th of January, the exhibition ‘The Collection of the Banker J.H. Wagener’ in the mark of the 150th anniversary of the handing over of the collection which lead to the origin of the museum and the richest art collection of the 19th century.

The long construction process of the National Gallery Museum in Berlin began with great discussions impulsed by sectors who believed that a great city which was to be respected should have a museum to preserve and exhibit paintings from this century and previous centuries. Under this influx, in 1861, they created a gallery for art which didn’t have the museum’s character but would boost its creation.

It was the generosity and futuristic vision of the Berlin banker Joachim Heinrich Wagener, who had accumulated wealth and works of art for forty years, which gave him the boost to create the museum and donate his 19th century painting collection, under the condition that they built a museum and they preserved it for future generations.

The King of Prussia, facing this disjunctive generosity, felt obliged to accept the donation of 262 paintings in March 1861, and he ordered the construction of the palace which holds the National Gallery Museum of Berlin, which was finished 15 years later, in 1876. The first exhibition was made with this collection of paintings and it was called ‘Wagener and the National Gallery’.

This exhibition is an opening to the dialogue on the role that museums have had through history and their collections, since Wagener’s aim was to leave his collection for future generations so that they would appreciate the value that these works contained. A heritage purpose which opens today to be exhibited in its wholeness.

The exhibition has 140 works, all of them paintings, which reflect the life and times of the 19th century, and which show the outlook of the artist of the time in Europe and Germany. In 1815, his collection took the shape of romanticism, with landscape and architecture paintings, with a great sense of realism.

For the occasion they also re-printed the original catalogue from 1861, with rich illustrations and comments which paint a picture of the thought on art at that time. Also, the central archive contains another archive with a collection of texts of the artists that Wagener gave to the museum to be exhibited. On this occasion, the museum organized a small exhibition with a selection of them.

This exceptional exhibition which contains works from great German artists like Peter Von Cornelius, Friedrich Overbeck or Philipp Schadow among others, is an achievement of a public and private alliance which enhances the museum task of the National Gallery of Berlin.

For more information: http://www.smb.museum/smb/kalender/details.php?objID=29805&datum=23.03.2011+00:00

Nancy Guzman

Leave behind that tiredness which usually arrives at the end of the year and the commitments that it brings. Rent apartments in Berlin and enjoy a city where there’s European history written in each corner, and you can also take advantage and buy a few Christmas gifts.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Alison “VV” Mosshart and Jamie “Hotel” Hince are famous in the  music scene since long ago. Both had bands in the past or had been producers before joining up together to initiate  a project called The Kills which rapidly became one of the bands with a solid reputation in  the alternative music scene. The Kills were formed in 2000 and, after four albums, they managed to obtain the love of not only the world’s biggest critics but also of thousands of fans filling stadiums every time they played a gig.

The first three albums of the group were “Keep On Your Mean Side”, “No Wow” and “Midnight Boom” and in April this year, they released their latest production named “Blood Pressure”.

One of the most interesting features about The Kills is their diversity as one of its members is from the U.S. while the other from Britain. Mosshart, before embarking on this project, played in a punk band called Discount in Florida while Hince, on the other hand, was in a few  British bands such Fiji, Scarfo and Bluth Power.

After meeting in a hotel and seeing that both were group-less because their respective bands had separated the two artists created what is now known as The Kills. Both spent a lot of time writing lyrics that were sent back and forth via email due to the distance that separated them.

After rehearsing  and doing a few live shows they found out  that they had the time to record their first album and did so within two weeks. The rest has become history and now the duo is one of the most important ones in the alternative music scene from around the world.

More information: http://www.c-halle.com/events/date/2011-11-30/The%20Kills

C-Halle: Columbiadamm 13-21, 10965 Berlin, Germany

MiLK

If you want to enjoy the power of Mosshart and the quality of Hince’s guitar you can rent apartments in Berlin and enjoy this presentation on the 30th of November at the C-Halle.

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Translated by: Marc
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Two places that, were part of one of the saddest stories of humanity and today are an important part of a society that has learnt how to look at its mistakes in the face, growing and becoming a cosmopolitan country, open and culturally rich. I speak of Sachsenhausen, a former German concentration camp and the Stasi Museum in Berlin.

The first of these museums operated as a concentration camp since 1936. In the beginning, Sachsenhausen was a camp of political prisoners and opponents of the Nazi regime, among these, there were evident distinctions in the way they dressed, this way the Jews were the most dangerous, then there were different levels according to nationalities, social groups and beliefs such as gypsies, homosexuals, blacks and Jehovah’s Witnesses. The camp was home to more than 140,000 prisoners of whom over 30,000 were killed. Among the prisoners, there were a large number of women and children who were carried horrific medical experiments out. Another fact is remembered by this concentration camp, located at about 30 kilometers from Berlin in the town of Oranienburg, was the money counterfeiting by a group of Jewish prisoners who were selected for this mission, a fact that today is famous for the film “the Counterfeiters”. This camp ran until May 2, 1945 when Soviet troops released it, the exact time of this event is marked today in the entrance to the camp, which in later years operated as a gas chamber killing center.

Today Sachsenhausen is a open-air museum that holds many of these buildings of terror to the knowledge of all interested people, it is a nice place to visit, for sure, but we are facing one of the most difficult episodes of human history in a clear and direct way. Within its grounds there are reconstructions of the pavilions where the prisoners survived, as well as a museum with photographs from the period, costumes, weapons, etc.. And still remain the foundation of gas chambers and halls of medical experimentation. Guided tours of the Museum Sachsenhausen performed in almost every language and depart from the Brandenburg Gate at 11:00 hrs in the morning twice a week.

On the other hand, the Stasi Museum is located at the headquarters of the former GDR. It is a museum that impact its visitors, first because it keeps intact many of the high command offices of the ministry and because of the large number of artifacts, photographs and documents of intelligence that were made in the political life of the citizens of East Berlin in order to avoid anti-considered subversive behavior. The museum is now undoubtedly one of the most interesting of the city of Berlin, opened in 1990 in order to keep alive the social memory of the years of repression, like Sachsenhausen, two museums of events that no one wants to live ever again, that’s where its value lies, it avoids the death of social historical memory. Two museums that are recommended for your next visit to Berlin.

For more information visit:

http://www.stiftung-bg.de/gums/en/index.htm

http://www.stasimuseum.de/

Luz Obscura

An important part of society’s knowledge is to try to understand its history, for this there are places like Sachsenhausen and the Stasi Museum. Rent apartments in Berlin and visit these two impressive museums.

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Translated by: Hans
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The figure of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) will always be shrouded in mystery. Not only because of its mysterious murder, which continue to proliferate on all kinds of conspiracy theories that have filled thousands of books around the world. Also, apart from all these, the years that preceded his arrival in the world are involved in a controversy for allegedly supported his family connections with the Irish mafia and the most dubious manner in which his father made a fabulous fortune speculating advantage in the bag the uncontrolled situation that caused the financial crash of 1929, who also knew how to get an extraordinary revenue.

His undeniable attractiveness, charisma and oratorical skills, coupled with the vigor of his youth, unusual in the political life of the highest levels at the time, helped him to crystallize in his figure the best hopes of the American dream, determined not to turn back to the past nightmare years of war and ideological strength, illustrated by phenomena such as McCarthyism during the first postwar years.

Although in comparison with the extreme conservatism dominant in much of the United States, Kennedy went down in history as one of the figures of civilized American leftism, his management period had some shadows, such as a certain ambiguity, which is often justified by reference to strategic considerations, the struggling of the civil rights that was taking place across America and the assumption of the apocalyptic tone of the Cold War, was the perfect scenario for the United States to get the idea of the necessity of the American hegemony in the world, making an understandable concern of defending against a possible Soviet attack of  most Western bloc countries, into a real crusader ideology dominant in the realpolitik of international power confrontation, whose ultimate goal was the destruction of communism, despite the fact that the Soviet position after the war was essentially defensive and aggressive, but in favor of creating a mixed economy of states governed by parliamentary democracies outside the Soviet Union.

In fact, perhaps the most memorable moment of Kennedy’s political career, was his speech in West Berlin in June 1963, which concluded with hundreds of thousands of the so-called free world, in contrast to the oppression experienced in the other side of the wall , he expressed solidarity with the inhabitants of the city, while pronouncing the famous German phrase (which paraphrased the Latin sentence referring to ancient Roman civilization) “I am a Berliner.”

It is therefore not surprising that Kennedy has a museum in Berlin http://www.thekennedys.de/english/museum/museum1.html dedicated to his memory, which houses one of the most complete collections of photographs, official documents, as well as private and personal recollections of the fascinating Kennedy family.

Paul Oilzum

Regardless of the considerations that can be done about them, it is hard to deny the importance that Kennedy has in the contemporary history, reaching an almost heroic and legendary status, also sanctioned by the tragic death of some of his most relevant members. If you are near Kennedy Museum when renting apartments in Berlin you will see that his power of attraction remains intact.

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Translated by: Hans
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In September 2007, a 30 year old man died in the Chinese city of Guangzhou after three consecutive days of playing on the internet non-stop. He lost consciousness in a cybercafe and the emergency services couldn’t do anything to reanimate him. He was just one of the tens of millions of fans of online games that exist in that country. But we don’t have to go to such drastic extremes. Every day we come across businessmen who walk like zombies answering the emails on their Blackberries, people that use the iPhone just to know where the bathroom in their own house is, and teenagers who don’t even know their friends because they’re all part of a virtual community.

Human kind has changed a lot with new technologies, up to the point that many don’t even think about how the human being has lived without these tools for over a million years and nothing has happened to them. From the 90s, articles in the medical community have been published on a ‘new problem’ which the media baptized with the initials IAD, Internet Addiction Disorders, gathered in the revisions of the psychiatry bible, the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), which is currently in its fourth version.

We find ourselves in front of teenagers who can be, on average, using the internet for over 8 hours a day, with a very high potential of risk of addiction which is accentuated if the user is introverted, has low self-esteem and a poor family iife. The computer and the virtual world in which they end up living, gives them a lot and asks for nothing in return, compensating their dissatisfactions in real life. When the net stops being a tool for obtaining information and becomes a way to evade from reality, we become its prisoners. The most extensive cyber areas of evasion are the pornographic websites, the betting and gaming websites and the virtual communities. These people who spend so many hours a day in front of the internet have more chances to develop depressive symptoms. And it they can’t use technology, they develop symptoms of anxiety.

We would consider it an addiction to new technologies if leisure prolongs itself too many hours, as if to say, if the person prefers being, for example, on their computer than with their friends or family, if the person has a compulsive need to get online, is unable to go out on the street without their mobile phone or if they feel unstoppable needs to buy the newest gadgets.

We would be talking, therefore, of an fully fledged addiction, the difference being that we wouldn’t be in front of a chemical addiction to substances but in front of an addiction of psychological nature. Like in all addictions, the person’s substrate, ergo their potentiality, plays a very relevant role. The treatment implies firstly the admittance of a problem and a motivational will towards change. Depending on the level of addiction, they recommend either total abstinence or fixating time or content limits. Group therapies are adequate because the affected ones, mostly, are teenagers with self-esteem and sociability problems. The role of the family is of vital importance for the success of this therapy.

Ara

One of Europe’s most technologically advanced cities is Berlin. Its citizens walk down the streets with iPhones, iPads, etc. If you rent apartments in Berlin visit its electronic shops and observe the people.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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“I will be a poet or nothing at all” is the phrase which represented the great German writer Hermann Karl Hesse, but not the already established Nobel Literature Prize, but the spirit of the young man who wanted to be a writer is what these words uncover, the conviction that he had on his future and how much he gambled on it: all or nothing.

Hermann Hesse is a renown writer around the world for various of his works, although his biggest consecration came from the Nobel Literature Prize. They gave it to him in 1946 and that was used to diffuse even more his work, and motivate many newcomers to read his books. He was born in Germany and died in Switzerland, but his whole soul was always tied to the German people, especially when he had to live and bear the Great War.

Siddhartha is one of the most famous books by Hesse because, being short, it has a massive reach. The young readers feel attracted especially by this book because it inspires enthusiasm to live. By being so popular, it was translated into all the world’s languages.

Although this book was written in 1922, it achieved world relevance when the German won the great international literary award. Even so, Hesse’s words power enabled it so that today it’s one of the most-read and famous books and read in all universities around the world.

Hermann Hesse formed himself as a writer all of his life, although he didn’t know it. He lived tragic situations like the war, the death of two of his brothers, a suicide attempt and being locked in a mental hospital, among other things. He also had a heavy religious education which he then passed onto some of his work. On the other hand, he had clear literary influences since he was little. His mother’s father was the owner of an editorial of religious texts and, in his teenage years, Hesse began to work in a bookshop without knowing that it would be the cradle of all of his grandeur as a writer.

It was in 1895, at the age of 18, when he managed to get paid work which allowed him to live for himself and also to get involved in literary arts. The bookshop was called Heckenhauer, and it can still be visited in the city of Tübingen. There he read the most influencing writers to him, such as Goethe, Schiller and all the ones encompassed in Greek mythology. That’s how he created Siddhartha, the book which talks about Buddhism, of Oriental culture, of the importance of the “being as an individual”, and how that unique person relates with the whole world.

The word ‘Siddhartha’ expresses “that person who reached their goals” or “all wish which has been accomplished”, and it’s with those simple words that one understands the mind and soul of Hermann Hesse, an advanced intellectual who was always one step ahead in relation to the society of that time, in terms of art and literature.

Reading Siddhartha while you walk around the streets of Berlin will be an experience that you’ll remember forever and which will make you see the world in a different way.

d.b

If you rent apartments in Berlin you’ll be able to see a city which represents the old Germany very well. You’ll be able to see which influences this literary genius had to write his works and how his surroundings stimulated him to stand out from the crowd to be able to survive.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Noise rock history is already quite long, one should review it. Perhaps it could be reviewed in the experiments of people like Stockhausen and John Cage, as well as the whole Fluxus movement tradition of artists. However, within the noise rock, there is an album that is inevitable not to name, the wonderful “White Light / White Heat”, perhaps one of the most risky companies at that time. After the ” inevitable explosion”  of their first album, the Velvet could not help but create one of the most daring of all albums in rock history. With only 5 songs, “White Light / White Heat” has been the inspiration for hundreds of bands, from the whole punk scene of the 70′s, to all the action of Japanese noise rock experimentation spread and permeated all over the globe. Experimental noise is living in all parts of the globe. This is perhaps the confrontation with the sound settings for precious bands as Love Lies Crushing, or pop confrontation and high-decibel, as A Place To Bury Strangers.

Today, There are recording companies specialized in this genre. The extreme sound, or perhaps the “extermination” sounds is all over the planet. The case of Japanese artists such as Merzbow, who has taken the feedback of the sound textures of sizes never assembled before. But to continue quoting Japan, and the Underground Velvet, one would have to go back to the classics and Rallizes Rallizes Denudes, an experimental Japanese band that created jams of pure noise, punk and psychedelia in the late 60′s. Although less known, Rallizes are the best example of what the “White Light / White Heat” I think in many generations. It is also recalled cosmic noise projects such as Acid Mothers Temple, who with a voracious and wild psychedelia, reaching highs of white noise, where oscillators, guitar feedback and drums are mixed in a cosmos unexpected. Another of the best examples of “Japanoise” is in the Experimontags, in the Violent Onsen Geisha radical work who make extreme psychedelic remixes and edits, which is combined in a sarcastic and loud sounds from hip hop to jazz.

Experimontag is a session that occurs every Monday at the wonderful Madame Claude Berlin bar. Madame Claude is located in the popular district of Kreuzberg, and is one of the landmarks of this city in regard to good music, experimental, underground and alternative public environment. Some of the projects that have been in Madame Claude are BBBlood, Ben Butler & Mouse Pad, Christy & Emily, Embryo, Harry Merry, Justice Yeldham, Lucky Dragons, Novell, Paul Metzger, Sylvester Anfang II, Steve Gunn, Thavius Beck, Woog Riots among others. For more information on Experimontag and Madame Claude, please visit the following website: http://madameclaude.de/

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Berlin and make sure to attend Experimontag, an event with the very best of sonic sound to disturb your senses. Berlin is one of the best places with the widest rage of alternatives when it comes to music and art, become part of this city that awaits you.

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Translated by: Hans
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Despite the prestige which they’re still enjoying from most part of the specialized musical press and of having reached the number one in the British charts, among the many good things which have been said about the Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs, who will play at Huxley’s Neue Welt on the 24th of November (http://www.huxleysneuewelt.com/events.html), there haven’t been many comments which praise their originality.

What is understandable in some way if we stop and think about a series of factors such as the fact that, on one hand, Kaiser Chiefs, whose name comes from the South African football team where the Leeds United local hero Lucas Radebe started his career, carry on a long English tradition of rock bands who are proud of being football fans (Rod Stewart, Bernard Summer from Joy Division and New Order, The Wedding Present, Oasis, Lily Allen, Jarvis Cocker from Blur and even Elton John, are just some of the most famous of the plenty examples which we could find), and, on the other hand, they’re one of those bands such as Franz Ferdinand, The Futureheads or Dogs Die In Hot Cars, which, in the first decade of the 21st century, have become flag bearers of that new post-punk wave of mods from the end of the 70s and beginning of the 80s, applying vigor and quality to what is really just another revival.

However, it’s difficult not to give them credit of innovating, in some way, what was the appearance of their fourth album by complete surprise, the last 3rd of July on their website, which is appropriately and prophetically called, not only what regards the eminent visual character of the transmission of contemporary culture but also in consideration with the politico-social drift of Western society while the new barbarians press on the borders, ‘The Future Is Medieval’, and it might go into rock history as the first album made to fit.

Yes, making the most form the phenomenon of the loss of the physical quality in discs caused by digital technology, Radiohead eliminated with ‘In Rainbows’ the need to put a fix price on an album, back in 2007. Kaiser Chiefs took another step forward in the re-invention of the way in which you acquire music by making the client choose ten songs in the order they wish, from a list of twenty, all of which you could listen to a sample of before choosing. On the other hand, once you’d chosen the ten songs, for which you paid a total of £7.50, each client was authorized to sell their own version of the album, winning £1 in royalties.

The album, which was a total of twelve songs, has been out for a few months in physical format and its songs constitute the heart of the concert that the band will play at Huxley’s Neue Welt.

Paul Oilzum

Although they’re essential a collection of singles, ‘The Future is Medieval’ contains, together with the usual joyful energy, songs which are a bit darker, melancholic and gloomy. You’ll be able to listen to all of them live if you rent apartments in Berlin at the same time as this highly awaited concert.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Bombay Bicycle Club is probably one of the indie bands that has gained most popularity in the recent times. The group took its first steps in 2005 when Jack Steadman, Jamie MacColl, and Suren de Saram along with Ed Nash got together to do what they liked the best: play music.

After winning a band contest  on England’s Channel 4 in London the band was invited to open the 2006 V Festival which is no less than one of the most important festivals in the European country. At that time their luck began to change, and soon, they were offered a contract  by a record label, so they started producing music and launched not only a series of EPs, but also their first LP in 2009, which included songs such as”I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose “, or hits like” Evening / Morning “,” Dust on the Ground “and” Always like This “among others.

But their real success came with “Flaws”, their second production which was released on July 2010 through Island Records. The record, contrary to what had been the first album, was completely acoustic. It both had covers of their own songs and other tunes bypopular artists like John Martyn or Joanna Newsom all in an acoustic format. The world’s leading magazine gave a thumbs up to this new album and the fans welcomed it with great enthusiasm.

Currently the group is also releasing new material , during late August, they presented “A Different Kind of Fix” returning the band to its roots and taking them far away from the acoustic format. In this production you can see how the band has matured with an album that has evolved lyrically and sound-wise  not only singing about love but also about  friendship and life. For now the only single they have released, is the incredibly catchy -currently being heard everywhere-, “Shuffle”.

http://www.c-club-berlin.de/events.html#TB_inline?height=500&width=800&inlineId=bombaybicycleclub

Lido: Columbiadamm 9-11, 10965 Berlín, Germany

MiLK

The band will play in Germany on November 22nd at the C-Club. So if you want to visit one of the most beautiful cities in the world and enjoy Bombay Bicycle Club all you need to do is rent apartments in Berlin

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Translated by: Marc
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