The reasons behind tattoos are multiple. Today, getting a tattoo has become a common experience, a day-to-day thing almost. In other words, now we see tattoos in everyone’s body and everywhere around the world. Maybe, a lot of frontiers or ideas regarding the use of tattoos have been dissolved during the last thirty or forty years. By becoming a more common practice to decorate the skin, it’s not a totally ‘underground’ symbol anymore, or a synonym of marginality, the whole opposite: tattoos are style, a way of life and both artists and tattooed people are part of a vibrant international community.

The importance of tattoos is millenary. Otzi was probably the first human to use tattoos around about 3300 BC. Otzi is the oldest natural human mummy which has been found. It was in 1991 in the Italian Alps, and among all the different studies that have been made on this mummy, among them the discovery of food remains which could still be identified, are the oldest tattoos on his skin which is still preserved: these are slight lines which seem to become symbols placed strategically in some parts of the body, which lead to believe that these tattoos had a mystical-healing function, because they were placed on his articulations, where they found out that Otzi had arthritis. And so, tattoos have accompanied us since ancient times. In ancient Greece and Rome, for example, they used tattoos to mark criminals and, in Egypt, a tattoo had religious meanings and functions.

Today, the best tattoo artists are located, of course, in some of the most important cities around the globe: New York, London, Paris… Berlin of course isn’t an exception. The community involved in the use of tattoos in the German capital is widely spread, but if you choose to get a tattoo in Berlin, there’s nothing better than AKA. AKA is not only a tattoo and piercing shop but also a contemporary art gallery focused of course on painting and art on the body. Its tattoo artists are amongst the most famous, among them are Jessica Mach, Sarah B.Bolen, Guy, Raf, Madame Chän who has just been tattooing in New York, Jeffrey Luz, Lea Nohan, Peter Aurich and Belly Button.

Therefore, the best tattoos and contemporary art are combined at AKA in Berlin, a must-visit place where it’s really worth getting a tattoo. AKA isn’t a simple tattoo shop but a hybrid and experimental place where artists from all fields have the chance to meet. The previously mentioned tattoo artists have been chosen for their talent and personal and professional style, which not only comes from the tradition of tattoos but also from a background which combines visual artists, illustration, painting and street artists. For more information on AKA, booking appointments for tattoos and finding out about their different activities, visit the following website: http://akaberlin.com/

Alexa Ray

Nothing better than getting apartments in Berlin and being part of its important cultural and artistic lifestly. AKA is a place where you won’t just find the best tattoo artists in the city but also avant-garde art and culture.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Berlin continues to be the port of arrival for many artists, both from Europe and other parts of the world. What makes Berlin today a city so attractive for new artists? Multiple reasons; the tradition of producing art from Berlin, in Berlin, for Berlin and between Berlin, is almost endless. Indeed, the city has experienced many of the twentieth century avant-garde, conceptual art, and experimental music underground. Consider also the division of Berlin as a result of wars, creating two sides of art spanning the entire city, and so creating more powerful political resonance proposals. After the fall of the wall, the open free market, and after the re-occupation of Berlin by the Berliners, things have changed a bit.

For this tradition of breaking barriers, moral, aesthetic and creative, Berlin is both a city or place of art in every sense of the word. The proportions of a work done “in Berlin,” are different from those made “in Valencia”, so to speak. The artist stands in a central and symbolic market, where his presence in a particular environment and is influencing the approach to his work, the degree of his-life experience as an artist in a metropolis, note that this is part of the profile current contemporary artist, the merit of where you live power on your creative potential. And predisposes you do better business, having doors open galleries and museums, etc..

CTM.12 focuses on the most important experimental trends of the moment in Berlin. This festival has a long program of concerts, an exhibition hall and conference presentations related to contemporary art. The importance of an international festival of this magnitude should be highlighted, as it conglomerates a new audience, which is always alert to new ways of producing knowledge about young people and from all backgrounds. It is really recommended, if you work in the field of art and curating. The world of business and the arts always go hand by hand and, in this time of economic crisis, institutions and collectors are constantly looking to invest in new contemporary art. It is certainly an investment with great future potential.

This year, CTM.12 point of focus is music, and from music, many other forms of expression are related. This year’s theme approach will be “the spectral”, understood as the phenomenon of statements or lines of representation, approached in a spooky or dark condition. The festival also runs in parallel the renowned festival Transmediale art and digital culture, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary. It should be also noted that the fabulous band Mouse on Mars will present its new album within the CTM.12 program. For more information on CTM.12, as well as its complete schedule of concerts and lectures, visit the following website: http://www.ctm-festival.de/

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Berlin and get to know more about its hectic cultural life. Berlin still offers the best of art and experimental sounds.

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Translated by: Hans
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In 1923, due to the increasing dissonance between the expressionist style of the painter Lothar Schreyer, member of the Berliner group ‘Sturm’, and the aesthetic foundations of the Bauhaus, which aspired to achieved a synthesis of all arts through pure forms, he was substituted as the director of the scenic workshops of the school, an essential part of the interdisciplinary plan of studies of the project of Walter Gropius, who aspired both to the elimination of barriers between artists and artisans as well as the acknowledgement of the possibility that art could influence in industrial production.

The successor to Schreyer was Oskar Schlemmer, who during the period between 1923 and 1929 transformed the Bauhaus scenic workshops into a pioneer multidisciplinary centre of experimental work that reflected, through dynamic ways, the artistic and technological sensitivities of the school.

The most representative result of this work was his seminal Triadic Ballet, that contained all the spectrum of Schlemmer’s theory on performance and which is, today, probably still the most interesting and complete fusion of dance, music and costume (that extended in space the contours of the body, a true driving force behind performance, through the use of metal, fabric and wires that transformed the actors into abstract figures) that had never been staged before.

Schlemmer’s works are a double witness on one hand of the tight and live existing relation between art and fashion in contemporary times and on the other of an era, the period between the wars in which Germany was one of the great capitals, not only of artistic avant-garde but also of fashion, able to compete in its own way with countries such as France or Italy in this field.

After having great success for many years in Barcelona, the international urban fashion festival Bread & Butter, possibly the most important one in the world in its field, has been hosted in Berlin since 2010, and will host its next edition from the 18th to the 20th of January in the centric and emblematic Tempelhof airport, which has been closed to air traffic for many years (http://www.breadandbutter.com/winter2012/). This is an event which is like a way of travelling to those unique times on board of no lesser special aeroplane able to dig out past, present and future, a legitimate sphere of relativity where art adapted to fashion seems to be moving in its own sphere, full of possibly, as Marshall McLuhan said, a certain infallibility that fills in some way the sensorial emptiness created by the different misplacements caused by technology.

It seems that a lot of time has gone by since Schlimmer’s experiments, although we still can’t say, like Chesterton, if the world is young or old, but the German capital is today like it used to be before, one of the most avant-gardist and vibrant cities in the West.

Paul Oilzum

If you rent apartments in Berlin around these dates, submerge yourself in the fascinating world of Bread & Butter, a festival that in barely ten years has become the most important in Europe.

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Until the 5^th of February, the Kunstbibliothek presents the work of the graphic artists Hans Hillman and Jirí Salamoun in an exhibition entitled I Dreamt I Was a Dog That Dreams. The organizers of the exhibition borrowed the name from a book by Hans Hillman to characterize the type of humor used by these two great artists that work with dreams, that metamorphosis that causes the unexpected.

The interesting thing about this exhibition is the introduction to the imaginative worlds of these two great graphic artists, who are halfway between dreams and reality. The exhibition invites the viewer to be part of this work and calls us to find fun in that space that lies in the path of the exhibition. Are their works a perfect mimesis, or just the sensual appearance of the exterior images of things, as the lexis described by Plato? Discovering this is the task of every spectator in this fantastic transit through the imagination and creation, which bring us together Hillman and Salamoun.

Hans Hillman was born in 1925. He was known for his film posters from the middle of the last century. His early start as a graphic designer, began while a student at the University of Kassel with his participation in a contest that couldn’t win, but which puts him in his particular showcase that blends art, design and avant-garde aesthetics conceptuality.

In his own words, the beginnings of his career occurred in a devastated Germany. It was only in the post-war that movies came roaring back and the film club was created, where he participated in his first movie poster contest. From there he continues to works for the best films in the world.

One of his best-known works is the graphic design for the poster of Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin. The black and white poster only have two guns in perspective and the name of the movie at the bottom, but the graphic force, which it has, makes the ideological background of the film understandable.

Jirí Salamoun was born in 1935 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He was an illustrator, graphic designer and creative, he became famous for his comic works as Figure Maxipista, for his participation in the cartoon that became a bedtime TV series stories and wrote several books. Between 1961 and 1989, he designed about twenty film posters. In 1990 he directed the graphic illustration section of the School of Applied Arts in Prague.

Salamoun used the color palette without any complex, his works are reminiscent surreal colorful, naive and full of images that break expressiveness of traditional graphic design rules of the 50’s and 60’s in his country, whose concepts were traditional in forms and background. Salamoun was an avant-garde in the graphic design work, who expanded beyond the traditional media.

For more information http://www.smb.museum/smb/kalender/details.php?objID=24922&datum=16.11.2011+00:00

Nancy Guzman

New Year is a good time to take a few days off and if you stay in apartments in Berlin you will be able to enjoy the best of this beautiful city.

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Translated by: Hans
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The relation between performance and Germany has been long and fruitful, at least from the time of the Bauhaus, which, regardless of the pioneering work, later developed by Oskar Schlemmer- whose importance as a theoretical-practical and especially through the development of its mechanical ballets could hardly be exaggerated- we can attribute the institution of the first year of performance in an art school in 1921.

And not as a mere anecdote or eccentricity but, as an essential aspect of the interdisciplinary plan of study of the legendary school that originally attracted to the city of Weimar: artists, designers and architects such as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Alma Buscher, László Moholy-Nagy, Walter Gropius, Ida Kerkovius, Lothar Schreyer (the expressionist painter, playwright and member of the Berlin Sturm group to oversee the first scheduled performance courses, faithful to the proverb that says “the work being performed on stage is a work of art ” or the mentioned Schlemmer among others.

With such background, it isn’t surprising that the performance festival Tanztage in Berlin, which celebrates its twenty-first edition in the German capital between the 5th and the 15^th ofJanuary, at the Sophiensäle (http://www.sophiensaele.com/ kalender_2.php) enjoys such as excellent reputation.

Tanztage was founded in 1996 at the instigation of Barbra Friedrich and Benjamin Schlälike, with the intention of offering performance and contemporary dance young artists the possibility to develop their work on stage. The objective behind the festival was to create a scene that could gather and publicize performance artists to budding of the city, since this form of artistic expression doesn’t often have advertising or broadcast media.

With the appointment of Peter Pleyer as artistic director in 2008, the festival gained a new boost to expand the number and variety of its proposals.

The history of performance art, performed live by artists who build their own definition of it in practice, speaking to us from the early twentieth century’s avant-garde, in an open environment that offers endless variables and has attracted artists, who by one reason or another, felt that the established art forms are somewhat limited, especially the ones regarding the possibility of expressing their art directly to the public. Anarchy, deterritorialization and the inability to be well defined are typical characteristics of an art that makes use of indiscriminate and free literature, poetry, dance, theater, music, painting, architecture, sculpture and audiovisual media.

Paul Oilzum

The wide varied and often interesting Tanztage’s program is an excellent way to become aware of how ductile and challenging this art form is. If you rent apartments in Berlin during January, dare to be surprised by the young performers in the city.

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Translated by: Hans
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Photography goes further than a simple portrait. With every photo they include singular historical moments, unexpected situations and spaces. Berlin is a city ready for photography. When it comes to ‘photogenic’ cities, Berlin is one of the capitals of the world, with a large variety of structures, spaces, population and means of transport and communication to make of this trip in this city an intense and varied photographic exploration.

Going on holiday with a camera in your hand is usually something essential, of course. But the vision of the tourist isn’t exactly the vision of the traveller. If we think about the ideas of ‘flâneur’ by Baudelaire that later Walter Benjamin would develop from Paris on the construction of discourses, identities and economic policies surrounding the structure of the city, we can’t stop considering photographic exploration of the public spaces, not only as the result of a touristic experience but also the exact diary of an experience of the subject facing new contexts. And so, photography, both in its doing as in its re-consideration, generates narrow visions of the world as well as wide cosmopolitan ones.

The trip with a camera must not become naive. Berlin has a cosmopolitan community as well as a deep and diverse history which your camera can explore, as well as the daily things, the trails of the past in the day-to-day and the crossroads of contemporary history in photography itself. Diverse aesthetics mix in Berlin, from old buildings and housing which survived the Second World War bombings to new and modern ones, underground districts, graffiti, bars and museums. Tradition and modernity mix. If you also want to visit some of the best photography exhibitions in Berlin, here are some essential ones:

The Photography Museum is an unmissable stop for those who are interested in photography. Since 2004, it gathers fans from all over the world. The amount of visitors over the last few years surpasses 500,000, and its permanent exhibition is renown as one of the best in Europe. Today, the Helmut Newton Foundation intervenes in the organization of the exhibitions in this important museum. Therefore, a large part of the work of this fascinating photographer will be at your disposal when you visit this museum.

A gallery that you can’t miss also is Camera Work. Here they present the best in contemporary photography as well as the most famous classic photographers. This gallery was founded in 1997, and in its collection it presents classics such as Man Ray, Irving Penn, Horst P. Horst, Peter Lindbergh, Peter Beard, Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus and Helmut Newton, as well as new and emerging artists, supporting the new talent in photography. Among these we find Silke Lauffs, Martin Schoeller and David Drebin.

Kicken Berlin is another of the important photography galleries in Berlin that you can’t miss. With a wide collection and exhibitions taking place for over twenty years, Kicken Berlin is a valuable reference point to have a perspective both of today as in historical terms of the aesthetic processes and exchanges of international photography which have taken place in the last few decades.

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Berlin and enjoy the best in international photography.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Until the 9th of January 2012, the Martin Gropius Bau Museum in Berlin exhibits ‘Side by Side Poland – Germany. A 1000 years of Art and History’. The exhibition is organized by the Berliner Festspiele, financed by the Federal Government Commission for culture and media and the Polish Ministry of Cultura and National Heritage.

The exhibition is presented in a parallel way at the Royal Castle in Warsaw and in the Martin Gropius Bau Museum in Berlin, and they frame the interest to revise the real borders and the art and creation borders, which are of the interest of both the EU Council and the Polish Government.

The curator of this interesting exhibition which revises a common history which surpasses borders is the Polish art historian Anda Rottenberg, who was the director of the National Gallery in Warsaw for many years, as well as the curator of the Polish exhibitions in the Venice, Istambul and Sao Paulo Biennials.

This exhibition made up by 800 historical pieces and contemporary art objects mark a turning point in the history of the two nations which have lived very cruel, rapturing and dividing moments, such as the invasion of Warsaw in 1939 by the Nazi troops and then the Cold War with the Berlin Wall which separated Europe in two. Through it we can clearly see the relation between both nations during 1000 years of history.

The exhibition is spread around in 19 spaces and it has 22 chapters which are ordered by themes in order to help the understanding of the relations between Poland and Germany. The exhibition begins with the historical story which shapes the relations between the two countries with the arranged marriage of the Polish prince who would be King Mieszko II with Richeza, daughter of the Count Palatine Ezzo, which would enhance his power and domain in 1025. This union for State reason, made Richeza become Queen of Poland and it consolidated the ties of interests and politics between Germany and Poland in the 11th century.

It continues with the arranged marriage of Landshut, Duke of Bavaria, with the daughter of the Polish king Casimir IV, Jadwiga, in 1475. This arranged wedding had the aim of uniting them against the expansion of the Turkish Ottomans. For this purpose, the Krakow embassy made the arrangements and the Prince of Brandenburg, Albert III, compared the wedding with a mission of a divine fate and the result of Christianity and the empire.

It’s inevitable to deal with the Second World War and its tragic consequences, not only for those who were transported to the concentration camps and the resistance of the Warsaw Ghetto. but also because the end of the war lead to the Cold War and the division of the world, where Germany was divided in two and Poland became part of the socialist block.

To show the Second World War and the suffering of the Poles, they will present the film ‘Kanal’ (1957), made by Andrzej Wajda.

For more information:

http://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/de/aktuell/festivals/11_gropiusbau/mgb_aktuelle_ausstellungen/polen_deutschland/mgb11_polen_deutschland_1000jahre.php

Nancy Guzman

‘Side by Side Poland – Germany. A 1000 years of art and history’ is a great exhibition which cannot be missed, so rent apartments in Berlin in good time and make the most of enjoying interesting proposals in restaurants and underground cultural activities that the city offers which is the modern trend in tourism.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Although the „Gemäldegalerie” (Old Masters Paintings) has probably the most important and most valuable pictures of Berlin, it’s not too well know among the visitors. The reason may be in it’s location – close to the Potsdamer Platz, at the so called “Kulturforum”.  But most of Berlins famous museums are concentrated on the Museuminsel (museums island), the Old National Gallery, the Old and the New Museum, the Pergamon Museum and the Bode Museum – all in buildings that have their own history and are pieces of art themselves and on top of that some of them like the Bode and New Museum have been renovated with much time, effort and expenses so their recent reopenings were highlights in the art world and drew the attention to this space.  Also the whole area around –  “Unter den Linden” – was planned (18. /19. century) as a center of  art and knowledge. So apart from the museums island the nearby Humboldt University, the Staatsoper and the first public library next to it  – founded by Frederic the Great – belong to this complex.

The Gemäldegalerie was also a child of it’s time: just before the wall came down – in1986 – the competition for a new museumsbuilding that should contain the old master paintings was held and the construction continued during the process of the reunification. 1998 this modern building opend it’s doors. From the outside nearly unvisible is the inside with it’s clear proportions and the quiet elegance stunning. There is huge empty hall in the middle with columns and a fountain based on the geometric elements that are also used to create a clear and calming atmosphere that is the perfect surrounding for the enjoyment of the art pieces.

The Rooms are located in a centric circle around this main hall so that two wings are created that go in chronological order starting with the oldest paintings at the entrance and end up with the 18.century at the other side. What is even more astonishing is that we have the south alpine tradition starting with Italy on the left hand the north alpine tradition on the right hand so that there is not just a chronological but also a geographic order what makes the orientation really simple.

And the art pieces are a feast themselves. They have masterpieces of Giotto and Botticelli, Caravaggio and Canaletto but also Lucas Cranach and Rogier van der Weyden or Rembrandt. In quality – although not quantity – this museum is to compare with such as the National Gallery in London or the Prado in Madrid. The smaller size is more an advantage since one has at least the feeling might be possible to see the main part in one day, but the biggest advantage is the lack of tourist – so one can enjoy all the treasures almost alone.

Mara Maroske

Enjoy some of the most important old master paintings like Caravaggio’s “Amor” in an almost private atmosphere together with all the other museums of Berlin. So don’t hesitate to rent apartments in Berlin and meet also its vivid contemporary art scene.

Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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On the 16th of December, the German DJ and producer Paul Kalkbrenner will be playing at the Arena Berlin Treptow, where he’ll present his latest album ‘Icke Wieder’, with which he considers he’s arrived to his musical maturity due to the depth and the complexity of his sound mixes. To carry out this album, Kalkbrenner retired for a whole year from the turntables in clubs searching for the tranquillity that creation requires.

Paul Kalkbrenner was born in Leipzig, Germany. His musical studies began in 1985 with the instrumental formation of the trumpet, for which he had a long theoretical preparation in music, construction and sol-fa lectures which he ended successfully in 1990. Since then he dedicated himself to making small musical works, but his aim wasn’t in traditional music.

It was in 1994 when he began his live act career, a variant of DJs who differentiate themselves because not only do they sample but they work live, adding sounds and instruments live, which requires a higher level of knowledge to intervene in the music. At the end of the 90s, more specifically in 1999, he released his first EP, ‘Largesse’. His first pseudonym was Paul db+, and under that name he made his first release.

His creative capacity as well as his incessant work rate to reach his goals took him to record in the same year, 1999, his second EP, Friedrichshain, with the Berlin-based label BPitch Control.

But his interests in music were so broad that in 1996 he’d already began his career as an independent producer with the aim of giving shape to a musical work and to professionalize his activities in music. The capacities that he showed meant that many TV channels noticed him. Through those jobs with ARD, Premiere, ZDF and other companies, he developed an enormous capacity in sound editing, which has finally been a plus in his musical work.

Despite the best about Kalkbrenner is the whole range of creation and production, on stage, he’s a monster of electronic music. In his sets he uses a synthesizer software and a sequencer, together with a MIDI controller, hardware synthesizers and beat machines. A wonderful technical architecture which give his sets stage-musical excellence.

His styles are linked to minimal, techno, minimal techno and the so called IDM, or Intelligent Dance Music, born in Detroit in the 90s and which has styles such as ambient and Detroit techno.

He’s one of the DJs who features permanently in the programmes of the best European and world festivals. Since his beginnings he’s played in festivals such as Fusion Festival, Nature One, Melt, Mayday, SonneMondSterne and other important events.

Film has also been kind to Kalkbrenner. In 2008 he participated as the main character in the film ‘Berlin Calling’, and together with his brother Fritz, they created and produced the background track ‘Sky and Sand’. The whole musical production of this film was edited in the album which has the same name as the film.

For more information: http://www.arenaberlin.de/event.aspx?eventId=349533

Nancy Guzman

Remember that if you feel tempted to attend this show, you must book your tickets in advance. In the same way, I recommend that you rent apartments in Berlin in good time, so that you have the best stay and you can enjoy this city with a Christmassy feel.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Style and tattoos go hand in hand. Today, everyone goes for a tattoo which represents them, yet another symbol of their individuality and style. There are thousands of tattoo styles and, also, there’s a whole Rock’n'roll aesthetic which comes with tattoos. Many girls who follow the ‘pin-up’ trend tattoo their body with different designs, usually with striking colours: flowers, skulls, cars on fire, animals…

The girls who go for the ‘pin-up’ look, are usually of an uninhibited nature, and don’t hesitate to wear tattoos on parts of the body which are exposed, in an open and sexy way. To have a tattoo, you have to be somewhat daring, choose with good taste and don’t look back. Of course, before choosing the tattoo which goes with you the most, you also have to be aware of the colours or tones which go best with your skin and, if possible, get to know how your skin scars before doing it. This knowledge and preparation will turn the final result into a striking and attractive one. A professional tattoo artist will know how to give you advice on these details.

Following the rock trend, many people choose to have tattoos of logos or names of their favourite rock bands. Down the years, the prejudice against tattoos is nearly extinct, and it’s not surprising that now, fathers and sons share tattoos that they got at the same time, as well as couples in love or groups of friends. The beauty of a nicely and carefully done tattoo, because after being tattooed one has to take care of their skin, can last a whole lifetime.

In the same way, another tattoo trend of today is the classic oriental tattoos, or also tattooing ideograms with phrases, ideas or names. Phrases or poems are also being tattooed, for example the line from Shakespeare that Megan Fox has on her back. The care and effort of these tattoo artists makes them at present some of the biggest experts in the field of professional drawing and design on an international scale.

All of these options and variables on the legendary art of tattooing will be at your disposal at the 21st International Tattoo Convention in Berlin. More than 200 artists from all over the world will be attending. Also, there’ll be presentations of traditional Asian tattoos. There will of course also be live music so that you can also enjoy a good concert as well as getting a tattoo. Among the activities there’ll be the choice of the ‘Tattoo Queen 2012′, as well as seminars, workshops and specialized conferences on the art of tattooing. For more information on this convention, visit its official website here: http://www.tattoo-convention.de/

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Berlin and be part of this fantastic international tattoo convention.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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