Critical decision?

I set out one Friday evening to check out a gallery opening. One block out of the apartment and I hit a mass wall of bikes touring through Kreuzberg. This was the July edition of Critical Mass Berlin and having missed all the others since coming here I wasn't about to miss another, I tagged along.

  They meet at Heinrichplatz and finish there as well so although I had missed the start, I thought it would be a challenge to make it too the end, how far could they go... So we were a mass group of maybe 500-700 bikes going through the streets of Berlin. The law here says that if a large group of bicycles enter an intersection on a green light then all the members of the group are allowed to follow along even if it turns red so the group is not split up. The law also stated that if you have a large event (protest/parade/march etc) that you should register it with the police so they can close streets and manage traffic. These events have no organizer so the police have no real ability to shut it down unless they commandeer loads of police cars, surround the group and force everyone onto the bike lane. They have better things to do.

We left the east side and headed for Charlottenburg and the glitzy west of Kurfurstendamm. Shutting down Ku'damm was fun and turned a lot or tourists heads. Turning right off of Ku'damm we went under the Sbahn train and up to Charlottenburg Palace. After turning left we passed the Palace and started the long run up to Spandau. Looking ahead up the hill was like watching the life blood of the city, all those blinking red tail lights energetically swimming with singular purpose, be visible to the motorized world, clearing the streets of cars to make our presence known. Conversely, looking back was a sea of white lights as the tail of our human powered group left a clear white trail.

 On the way to Spandau in the west we pass an industrial area with the eerie sight of a Nuclear reactor. Now in the darkness it seemed almost traquil when not thinking about the cost of such technology. Surging past this we entered Spandau and went right past city hall to the old Zitadelle castle fortifications. However, before we got that far we hit a large traffic circle (round about). This was a highlight of the trip as by the time I got there it was completely full all around and cars were stopped from entering. A red and white ring running with the soundtrack of peddals and techno from the bike mounted sound systems. I did one long lap before we were directed out and back towards the east.

  I've been meaning to head out to Spandau to see the Zitadelle fortification and we went right past it but due to the dark and vibe of the group I missed it, something the size of, well, a castle. As we headed back east we passed the north side of the Nuclear power station. This enormous cooling tower belching steam was now back-lit by a full moon, another moment I wish I had my camera. A few kilometers on, we were "guided" but the police (appearing every now and then) away from the autobahn and back down to Charlottenburg. Following the canal that pairs up with the palace again we headed down to the Zoologischer garten. The natural flow took us through the heart of Mitte, past the city hall and north.

  Now entering Prenzlauer Burg we buzzed baby carriages, BMW's and yuppies out for a Friday night cocktail. Along the way Trams were packed with partiers as they watched us flow past the Sbahn and out to Weissensee. From there the route meandered its way towards Marzahn via streets named Allee der Kosmonauten which hearkened back to the Soviet era. Turning west again we headed towards Ostkreuz station and sailed over the bridge to Alt Treptow. I had considering turning back at a few points but pushed on however at this point we were down to about 100 riders. I sensed the home stretch now as we turned right towards Kreuzberg. I think it was about 4 hours later when we arrived in the buzzing Heinrichplatz bar scene. Everyone raised their bikes over their heads in a cheer of triumph for the few that persevered. Each small group or individual melted back into the Friday night crowd to refuel for the August run.

  I tried to track the route from memory on google maps and promptly crashed it as there is an arbitrary limit to the number of pins and destinations you can enter. In any event this was the rough route, about 65km:

Ciao
Andy

ArtSpin around Berlin

So apparently there's an event that started in Toronto called Artspin which is a tour of art spaces and location based performances. Last year a group of organizers brought it to Berlin, I missed that but this year managed to catch it. It was so successful last year that the organizers got a bit of grief from the police as the tour is on bike, about 300 of us. So this year they registered the event with the police and therefore we had a police escort:) The curator for this years show was Emily Perry.

  The idea is to tour around a section of the city with artists studios, galleries or event spaces open for the group to visit. This year it was in Treptow and Treptow-Köpenick in the east of the city. This includes a huge abandoned industrial complex that's now home to studios and a gallery.

  So it began just outside of the entrance to Insel der Jugend at the far end of Treptower park. To begin there was a beat box artist (Das Friedel) who went through the paces of a beat performance that could have been straight out of a Berlin club dance track. I'm not a musician but it sounded very good to me. You can hear and see more here.

  After that everyone followed the lead bike into nearby Planterwald forest as we made our way to the next venue. As we moved out, the prerequisite bike mounted amp and thumping sound track gave us out road tunes. The route took us past the classic abandoned amusement park Spree park. You can see photos of my visit to that here. As we moved past I noticed that there is now a new fence around the place so the city seems more serious about keeping visitors out. We were directed to a large clearing deeper in the forest that was setup as a playground for kids amongst the trees. This was the site for a dance performance by three dancers/performers. I couldn't tell you the story but it was interesting. Their site.

  Next we mounted up and with police clearing the way, headed farther east through Niederschoneweide and then over a pedestrian bridge spanning the Spree river to arrive at the former industrial area and Platz am Kaisersteg. Here there was in installation work of stretched plastic around poles by Lukas Adolphi. A short walk revealed the gallery space, G11 carved out of an old factory with paintings, sculptures and films playing in the cellar. I was impressed by some of the work as well as the space. A quick look through this blog will attest to that love of old spaces.

  The last stop at this site was at an old crane where a silk dancer, Bronwen Pattison, had attached her fabric to the crane towering above us all. She then gave us a amazing performance climbing up the fabric and repelling down to music. In this arena and with the now setting sun it was a great finish to this location, ending with a great round of applause. You can see some photos on her FB page here.

  Heading out from here, we went west, past the old east German radio station building, site of an amazing rave a few years ago. Now the land around the building has been cleared so its far less likely to be used for much. No doubt this site has been bought by developers. We finished the tour down the street at another old factory, partially cleaned up. At this site there was an installation by Graffiti Research Lab. This is a large scale projected image of a digital version of graffiti called Blitztag. They've coded up a custom paint program that interprets your pen strokes with wild colours and smears. The person painting is doing so with a laser pointer on the side of the building, probably 20 metres square. Its quite effective but after a few people took turns painting various things it quickly got a bit "same old thing". It might have been better to play back an animation of previously created images and animations to show what is possible besides your name or a simple face. At least change the colour palette every few minutes.

  Just behind this site was the river Spree and a fairly new beach club complete with pool which was the site of the after party. This also featured and an installation by Liquid Sky Berlin.

During this whole trip there were events happening along the way as we peddled, Telephone Based Bike Performance (not sure where this was), Between the Lines, Opera and cheer leaders to keep the pep high.

  So if that wasn't enough you can also check out the offical site here:
http://www.artspin.berlin/

Cheers
Andy

Stormy weather

Having lived most of my life on the west coast of Canada I haven't witnessed too many lightning storms, especially in summer. Berlin on the other hand is chock-a-block with storms every few weeks and its a treat to bike in warm rain (an almost unknown entity in Vancouver). Over the last few weeks I managed to capture more than a few storms on camera:

I see a plasma figure walking through Kreuzberg

Plasma man has found his date for the dance.

Ciao for now,
Andy

May 1st 2015

A tad late but I did take some photo's of the May 1st events this year. Kreuzberg was packed with parties, clubs, cafes, street concerts and food all making for an amazing atmosphere. See previous posts for more details,  2011 here, 2012 here and 2014 here.

A few people showed up.

BBQ (though some bars look like this on any given night thanks the smokes)

Anyone who was anyone was there.

A few more people showed up.

Sneaking a snog.

Hallo :)

 These four girls were part of a large group that photo bombed my camera and then ran off into the crowd. Very... photogenic.

Frank and Ollie both turned up in the same outfit, Ollie was not impressed.

Ciao for now
Andy

The devils in the details

A group of friends and I went for a tour to the old US listening station at Teufelsberg a few weeks ago. I've been out there before but now its being run by a collective of creative types with tours happening on a regular basis. More here. I was curious to see what has changed. The place has been cleaned up a lot and looks far less like a refugee camp.

   The name Teufelsberg means devils mountain in German and its actually a really nice area of Berlin. Its a large collection of rolling hills covered in forest, a few small lakes and lots of trails to bike or walk through, great in summer. Its when walking that you get a idea of how appropriate the name of this forest and "mountain" is. Even with a casual glance either side of the trail, you spot bricks, bits of metal, glass and other construction debris. This was the dumping place after the war for all the bomb damaged houses of Berlin. A mountain of dirt, debris and sad memories is birthing a forest of renewal.

  So for our tour of the listening station, we all biked out there and climbed the hill to the front gate. Despite it still being early March it was great weather for the trip. Its getting quite popular and a large crowd had developed by the time we set off.

  The first stop inside the perimeter fence was a large building that once housed the mess hall of the site. I didn't catch much of the guides comments as she didn't seem all that enthused about the place or was just tired that day, rather disappointing for a guide. Unfortunately we didn't go inside.

  Next up was the main tower complex with the large radar domes. The first two floors are now impromptu graffiti art galleries.

To the left is one of the piles of debris, now covered in people flying kites, model airplanes or hang gliding.

 In the shot above is a view over the much larger building, never made it very far inside that one, most curious though. On the roof there is now a large painting of a triangular cat/dog creature. Sadly this is not an improvement in my opinion as there used to be a great drawing of a cosmonaut monkey in that same spot, see below.

Inside the highest dome. It feels much more like a gallery now rather than a abandoned facility as it did before, see below.

The veils of secrecy removed.

The stamp of gentrification

 A few shots from years past,

  So, for the time being, that is my last visit to the Teufelsberg station. And yes we forgot to get the group shot for the end, next time:)

Andy