It has been in the 50s here...and that's been awesome.

Today we slept in late and went to brunch. I splurged on the full Interkontential Frühstück.
We then walked around the neighborhood looking for bike shops.
Then played some ping-pong in our nearby park.
They have these cool concrete and metal tables in the parks here I will have to get a pic of.
We went by the grocery store and then made some dinner.
...went to a couple of openings.
...played a couple of games of backgammon.
Now we are checking email and dorking out on some (Obama) news.
Soon we will probably finish the last half of 'The Darjeeling Limited' that we started last night and then go to bed.
Good day.

The Real Wal-Mart

For the past few weeks thing have been rather slow. I have been in between projects in my studio and decided to use the time to go to Wal-Mart for some input and inspiration. I have already been to IKEA quite a few times. Even though this trip to Germany is a cultural experiment, to be surrounded with new influences, I find myself exlporing the same concerns that I came here with. The same concerns, but from a slightly shifted vantage point.



The last time I visited Berlin, two years ago, I found the location of each of these stores but only had the time to visit one, IKEA. At the time I weighed my options and only now do I realize that I may have made the wrong choice. Between the two I thought that I would use the opportunity of being in Europe to visit an IKEA on its 'home turf' or well as close as possible (they're a Swedish company). There was an instant familiarity visiting the store, many big-box architecture intentionally follows identical patterns with their store design, but there were a few practical and psychological differences. The items being sold did not have a designer aura in this context, they did not feel like foreign furniture. The practicality and effectiveness of the design decisions was forefronted in a way that seems allusive and understated in America. Also, people were not walking out with whole rooms worth of furniture, toppling out of carts, to load into their family-sized vehicles. People in Berlin seemed to be shopping much more conspicuously, choosing only a few items at a time. Sure to return again soon, as most shopping in Europe happens in much shorter intervals, like buying groceries every few days. I had chosen not to visit the Wal-Mart in Berlin at that time, so this new excursion was a few years in coming.

As I said, I may have made the wrong choice back in 2005 when choosing between the two because when I showed up to the location last week to visit Wal-Mart, it was not there. It is hard to get rid of a 100,000 sq ft building, and that is not exactly what I mean, but there was another store in that location. As I was not sure what the new 'real' sign implied, I decided to go inside and find out. To determine if this was 'real' or this was Wal-Mart. Aware that Wal-Marts business practices are not the most popular nationally and internationally I thought that it may be possible that this was their European pseudonym, after all the stores colors were red, white, and blue. They do operate in a different name in Brazil and Mexico (I believe) having bought out their competitors, keeping the stores, and just changing ownership. This slight of hand may have proven successful on an international level. The first thing that I saw upon entering was an in store McDonald's, this russian doll effect of a store with in a store has not really caught on in Europe in the way it has in the US. Just think Starbucks in Safeway, or the ground breaking McDonalds in Wal-Mart. So I thought that I must be on the right track.



The more I looked around I saw familiar cues, the aisles upon aisles divided into sections by product likeness then by gender, each row ending with pallets of goods that serves as both display and storage, and each aisle punctuated by a floating sign with 'falling prices'. However, the signs that showed the before and after price were curiously devoid of any emotion, they are normally decorated with a yellow smiley face. Also there were piles of empty shipping boxes and broken products in the far corners of the store, and the shelving was not tall enough. These were escaping the tell tale branding components of the Wal-Mart experience, an attempt to maintain an immaculate showroom and seamless operations, "cleanliness is next to Godliness" might not be that far of a stretch. I was beginning to doubt that this was a 'real-Wal-Mart', and maybe it was just a 'real' store. I was convinced that if this was a Wal-Mart that their logo would have to be somewhere in the store, it is unlike them to not take any claim for their investments through branding. At a previous job, I was asked to acquire one of their logos to accompany a magazine story. This required contacting their PR in Bentonville, AK who said they would be glad to help, after I sent in a letter requesting the logo describing the context we would print it in, AND sending them a copy of the article. Then they would consider sending us a logo. Just then it caught my eye, a fluorescent green sticker on one of the legs of a womens clothing rack. "Property of Wal-Mart". This was subtle, more like the stickers on office chairs to prevent them from being stolen by claiming ownership, not very effective branding. Then they started to unfold and were appearing on the oblique side of the shopping cart handles. This seemed more believable, a slightly sub-conscious placement. Like the handles of shopping carts that say "Thank You" with a slightly raised text in the same plastic color as the handle itself, so you can feel it but not really read it.




As I left I felt that there were mixed signals and more questions had been raised than I had anticipated but there was deffinitely enough evidence to suggest that Wal-Mart had been here. After a little more research at home I came up with a conclusion. It was not Wal-Mart, well not anymore. Wal-Mart sold all of their stores and moved out of Germany in 2006. In the end I think I made the wrong decision in the summer of 2005 to choose IKEA over Wal-Mart. I could visit an IKEA in Europe any day, but I had missed my opportunity to visit this American giant in Germany.

Parteipolitik

In the United States we have a two party political system while Germany has a representational democracy where political parties get representation proportionally to the number of votes that party receives. The main difference is that in the United States the specific person we decide to vote for is more significant than a party (because there is a range of opinions within each party), and in Germany and Europe it is the opposite, you are voting more for a party and its platform and the specific person is less significant.

But Germans also separate political discussions into two different types; Kulturpolitik and Parteipolitik. I think this is a valuable differentiation that would help clarify some of the 'political' discussions that go on in the United States. Kulturpolitik is conversation around cultural and educational policies while Parteipolitiks regards specific political parties.

When I was applying for Drury University, back when I was finishing High School, I was a finalist for a full tuition scholarship to the school (I think it was called the Presidential Scholarship). As part of that process, the finalists had a special invitation to the college for a weekend and an interview with one of the top administrators. One of the questions I was asked during that interview was about my political opinion concerning the upcoming 1996 elections. I had never been interested in the seemingly narrow conversation of 'politics' and I told him as much, which probably knocked me out of the running...but, that was the truth and I couldn't really say otherwise. I still think that the question itself was awkwardly inappropriate, as though an answer of Democratic or Republican was more or less 'correct' or at least the answer they were looking for, however, I also wish I had had the vocabulary at the time to explain that I was much more interested in Kulturpoltiks than Partiepolitiks...and have been ever since...until now...

...well, kinda.

Increasingly over the past couple of months, R and I have grown obsessed the with the Presidential Primaries (and eventual Presidential Race) going on in the United States. While we both have had broader interests in Cultural Political issues, especially through the lens of Art History, all along...this is the first time we have felt motivated to closely watch a political race...especially on a daily in-depth basis. There are perhaps many reasons for this; we are unusually excited and inspired by Barack Obama's candidacy, now that we are not in the US (and bombarded with the information everyday) we can enjoy an outside perspective which might make things more interesting in the larger world context, and last but not least...this REALLY IS a important race for the US...considering the decisions that are going to have to be made by the new President, such as Iraq and the falling US economy to name a few examples.

Despite this, I have hesitated in discussing the ongoing political dramas we have been engaged with over the last weeks. I didn't want this blog to digress into specific accounts of how I think Barack is awesome, Hillary has turned nasty, or McCain really just seems to be an inappropriate candidate. However, as time has gone by, I have started realizing that we are not only engaged in the specifics of what political pawns have been played during the course of these campaigns, but also how this race has manifested in a variety of medium. I think now that our engagement is as much about seeing the ways television and especially the internet has changed the ways political discussion exists, and how that has made for a blurry line between the Cultural and Party politics of our time, as seeing what each candidate does with this situation.

As a general example, on Wednesday I was watching a live feed on CNN of Obama giving a speech about Iraq on the 5th anniversary of the invasion. Simultaneously, CNN offered a live feed of the "San Francisco Protests" which was literally a helicopter flying around with a camera zooming between downtown buildings hoping to get a glimpse of some protests...but mostly I just saw a bunch of people going about their daily business. And finally, a bit later, I watched a live feed from my home town of Ozark, MO, where they were showing the swollen Finley River running just under a bridge next to the park I use to play softball at in High School. [side note: While all this was going on, Hillary was in Michigan trying to get the legislature to pass a resolution to hold a re-vote in the state whose delegates were penalized, where she was the only democratic candidate who did not remove her name from the ballot.] The combination of all this information provided a strangely poignant moment, as though my distant and recent past and potential future were being broadcast to me in the present, 5000 miles away in Berlin.

There are also many specific examples of media usage that have been interesting during the course of these campaigns. To simplify them down I thought I would list a couple for each candidate, the ones that are left anyway in what is essentially a three-way race for the White House.

First, Barack Obama has totally ruled the internet. One of the first things that excited me about him was his website. I know that might sound silly, but as someone who has designed and managed website I have an unusually sensitivity to the user friendliness of sites and this one is great. It is also the powerhouse for his ability to inspire grassroots organization. And, since this has been the medium he has ruled...many other web projects have been inspired by this candidate. [Yes We Can video, Obama Works, Obamacycle]

My favorite I already posted www.barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com. I first read about this when scrolling through the main blog on Obama's site (which I do often) and someone posted a link to an article about it (and other sites) in the Washington Post or something, but framed it like it was making fun of Obama. Once I checked out the site I thought it was fantastic and whoever wrote the article must have no capacity for irony. After some further research it turns out that the author was a contributing writer for Wired magazine (R use to work for). His wife was a huge bicycling enthusiast...until she became obsessed with Barack Obama...hence the title. But it doesn't just stop there...there are now many sites who have taken this theme and run with it. No artist could have done better.


Second, I give TV to Hillary. Up until very recently, she was the only candidate regularly on talk shows. She has even been on Saturday Night Live a couple of times. I think the most interesting aspect of this has been the development of the "3 a.m." ad.

First: the original ad put out by the Hillary campaign in Ohio.


Second: within 24 hrs Barack put up a response ad


Third: Hillary appears on a SNL episode in which they parodying the 3 am ad


Fourth and finally?: ironically...the girl in the 3 a.m. is a serious Obama supporter...and created her own 3 a.m. ad



And Finally, John McCain. Except for rumors of his bus "The Straight Talk Express" and that his daughters are avid bloggers on his site...I honestly have not kept up as much with John McCain...of course, he is not really even campaigning right now. But, I did run across this supporter-created video the other day that I just have to share....

Good Friday

Spring has been peaking around the corners, with buds on the trees and blossoms on bushes, but winter has been holding out. We have had a strange, cold, week of rain and snow...frequently at the same time. Today there was sleet and hail, but a few days ago snow fell like big fluffy cotton balls. The ground too warm for it to stick but it was a beautiful sight to see.



-----

Last Thursday, we went and checked out the new exhibition at Daimler Contemporary Art, Classic: Modern II. Again, insightful to the history of modern art in Germany. It was a show of post-war abstraction focused on Germany and specifically the Kunstakadamie in Stuttgart during the 40's and 50's. There were even a couple of videos by Willi Baumeister, a teacher of great influence at the school. He made videos that were shown like news reels, before the feature movie in major theaters. These videos meant to educate the public about this (then) new development of 'abstract art'.



-----


more fakeytecture

------


"View in 1986 from the west side of graffiti art on the wall's infamous 'death strip'" from wikipedia

Last Sunday we headed over to an opening at Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum. This is a really interesting project space ran by 5 artist/directors. Essentially, the empty lots that make up the Skulpturenpark is undeveloped land in the center of Berlin. This land was part of the 'death strip' between the Berlin Wall and the East barricades, an area where many were shot down trying to flee to the West.


'The Single Room Hotel" by Etienne Boulanger

The Skulpturenpark has a continuous rotation of projects and events in these lots. One long standing and fascinating project is 'The Single Room Hotel" by Etienne Boulanger. This box sits on the corner between two of the central lots and is inconspicuously covered in signs like a regular billboard tower. But, one only needs to duck under the edge and climb a narrow ladder to find themselves in a compact but comfortable 'hotel room', complete with working shower and composting toilet. This room is available to rent for only €30/night...


Daniel Bozhkov (in maroon shirt) with Kebab stand

However, we visited Skulpturenpark last Sunday for a different project...the opening of Daniel Bozhkov's Sigmund Jähn Park and Kebab Stand. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first German in space, Bozhkov renamed this section of the Park after Sigmund Jähn and invited a Kebab stand on the premises. The exhibition runs 7 days, 20 hours, and 49 minutes- the duration of Jähn's flight. There was a life-sized sculpture of the astronaut, billboard paintings by Daniel and an audio track by conductor Yotam Haber (which combined among other things NASA Voyager sound recording, Beethoven's 'Turkish March", and German car commercials). There are many other aspects to this project, including a surveillance camera, that require too much length to explain here, but the cultural intertwining that happens in the project speak as much about the location's history as its present tensions. I also knew Daniel from Skowhegan where he is the fresco instructor and a continual source of inspiration to all who meet him...so it was great to see him while he was in Berlin.

-----


Bauhaus-Archiv

Yesterday, R and I went over to the Bauhaus-Archiv located on the south-side of the Tiergarten. We weren't sure what we would find there but it was a great installation on the Werkbund Exhibition in Paris (1930) by the Walter Gropius (Bauhaus director) and colleagues. The original exhibition was based around a modern German design- a vision of modern 'high-rise living'. It was five themed rooms, 2 of which were reconstructed for this exhibition at the Archiv. Among other things, the proposed apartment complex contained a communal area complete with bar, library, pool, and dance floor.


original model for the Bauhaus Dessau (1929)
...which R and I hope to visit sometime this spring

Mauer Park

Mauer Park pic by R

Interbau

Last week I walked through the Hansa district in Berlin to see the Interbau exhibition for West German modern housing. This exhibition is located on the west side of Tiergarten and was a competition held in response to the modern housing projects that were being built in the DDR along Karl-Marx-Allee on the other side of the city in the late 1950's and early 60's.

...and, what else have we been doing...

...for the last two weeks?

For the first week after my birthday we spent a large amount of time finishing up our Creative Capital grant proposal that we submitted on March 4th. We feel pretty good about our proposal, but even if we don't get it I think the process was really fun and informative. There are three rounds to their review process and we will hear if we made it through the first round in the beginning of June.

On Thursday, Feb. 28th, SS came over and helped us proofread. We were joined later by my friend, WH, who I met at Skowhegan. He actually just won a Creative Capital grant so it was great to be able to talk about that process with him, although he applied in the Fine Arts category while we actually are applying under Emerging Genres. On Friday, after spending the afternoon at KW (for a show that wasn't that great), we joined WH at the 'Global Alien' exhibition that R blogged about before.


Antonio BALLESTER MORENO, Peres Projects

On Saturday, we went to an opening at Peres Projects here in Berlin (there is also a space in LA). Our friend, DK told us about it because he works there and we also ended up meeting R's studio-mate ES there. The crowd was young and 'hip' and the work was mostly bad painting, so it felt like a little bit of SF here in Berlin (like a big Jack Hanley opening) but it was interesting to see their expansive space which spreads over two different buildings.

We submitted our CC proposal on Tuesday, March 4th, and then we had another deadline on the Thursday the 6th for "Anonymous Drawing #8" exhibition here in Berlin. It is kinda like the Monster Drawing Rally at Southern Exposure in SF, but is just an exhibition in itself. They accept 1-3 drawings from about 100 international artists and these are hung on the wall with the artist's names written underneath. All drawings are 150€ and when someone buys one they are taken down and then they find out who the artists is. The organizers take 50€ to help produce the show and catalog and the artist gets 100€. This is the 8th year of this project and we were both interested to see how this plays out. We find out if our drawings are accepted toward the end of the month and the show is on or around April 4th.



Later that day we went to a dinner over at Babylonia with my former class there. Most of the people had continued on to the next class and they invited us over for a dinner they were holding. Just like class, English, German, and Spanish languages were flying around in all directions throughout the evening. It was great to see my classmates again...esp. with the addition of their significant others. We met a Swedish couple that live pretty near us and from them learned that a large percentage of Swedes chew...as in tobacco. Both brandished their skoal cans proudly, which they brought with them from Sweden (I believe you cannot sell chewing tobacco in Germany). Who knew?

We resumed "Kunst-Tag" (Art Day), on Friday the 7th by going over to the Old National Gallery (Alte Nationalgalerie).


left of entrance arch, Old National Gallery
I really hoped these wooden attachments were someone's contemporary sculpture, and not some badly constructed...protection?...support?...couldn't quite figure out their function.


Caspar David Friedrich: Klosterfriedhof im Schnee, um 1810

It was great to see the collection, but nothing blew us away. Sometimes, it is nice to just see a bunch of portrait and landscape paintings. They had a great room full of Caspar David Friedrich paintings.

After that, we headed over to the Deutsches Architektur Zentrum (DAZ) for the opening of an exhibition called 'Berlin-New York Dialogues'.




As the site says, "Two of the world’s most dynamic urban centers, Berlin and New York, are making radical transformations in their streets and skylines. "Berlin – New York Dialogues: Building in Context" investigates the changes in these two cities by looking at the contemporary built environment and mechanisms of urban regeneration – the social, political, economic, and cultural processes that affect building." They compared three neighborhoods in NYC (Chelsea, Red Hook, and South Bronx) to three areas of Berlin (Spandauer Vorstadt, [East] Spree Area, and somewhere they called Chaussee- & Invalidenstrasse).

Alot of the information was common knowledge to anyone who is, or knows people who are, trying to negotiate these cities...well, maybe not everyone, but esp. artists. It was a pretty academic view of things ultimately...and while the topic of gentrification was discussed we both felt they didn't take a very critical view of it. The show was informative to see in light of our CC proposal, which is about artist-initiated live/work spaces, to help us think of ways that we could, and would not want to, approach our project.

The Day I turned 30

I can't believe that I haven't posted for two weeks!


pic of the Fernsehturm from today

On my 30th birthday, which was Feb 26th, it was rainy so we didn't get to make our day trip out of the city (to a nearby lake) that we had originally planned. Instead, R took me to dinner at the top of the Berlin Fernsehturm (TV Tower). That is the big tower pictured above.


entrance to the elevator, bottom of the Fernsehturm


observation deck

First we went up to the observation deck. We went around sunset so that we could get good daytime and nighttime views of the city.



Here we are with Berlin in the background.


SW view

This is the SW view which features the river Spree heading west through the city. When the city was divided the wall ran along the north side of the Spree in the west. You can see a stark difference across the river from the smaller, older German building on the 'west' (south side) of the river and the East Block housing on the 'east' (north side) of the river. This view overlooks the areas of Friedrichschain on the left and Kreuzberg across the river on the right.


SE view

Here is the river Spree running to the east. In this pic you can see the main boulevard we spoke about earlier, Unter den Linden. It runs from Alexanderplatz (the plaza surrounding the Fernsehturm) to the large city park, the Tiergarten (animal garden) where the zoo is. That park was royal hunting grounds back in the day. If you pull up the larger pic you can almost see the Brandenberg Gate, which straddle the entrance to the park from Unter den Linden.

In the foreground you can also see the Berliner Dome, Berlin's cathedral. It is on the middle of 'Museum Island'. The Spree splits right before the island and you can see the second part of it on the right side of the pic.


NE view

This is the norteast view that overlooks the Mitte. I made a little arrow pointing to where we live...which is very near Alexanderplatz. Much of this area was bombed out during WWII and has been rebuilt since the 70's.

We learned that the block area we live in, the block that is cut diagonally in half by our street, is called Scheunenviertel. This area was originally just outside of the city walls. In the 17th century they built several barns and housed hay and cattle there. In 1737, the King required Jews to settle there. It has a long history of being a Jewish neighborhood but was not the center of the Jewish community...that was actually in nearby Spandauer Vorstadt where the New Synagogue is located.


NW view

This view overlooks Karl Marx Allee, the road leading off into the distance to the right. This is a great way to see the expansive east block housing projects that line the boulevard.
In the foreground you can also see some construction that is still ongoing around the entire city.





After checking out the observation deck, we headed upstairs for dinner in the rotating restaurant. While our table circled the dome 3 times in every hour, we looked down on Berlin below as it darkened into night.

U-Bahn Strike Day 6

The U-bahn is on the 6th day of a 10 day strike, but today the clouds finally broke and the weather was warm. People were wearing shorts, sitting at outdoor cafes, playing music on the street, and laying on the banks of the canals.

Global Alien

The past week has been staggered and rather busy. Staggered, because we have resorted back to the American clock while working late nights on a collaborative grant proposal and staying awake to watch live feeds of the democratic debates. The project proposal was finished and submitted this morning, if accepted we may embark on a cross-country U.S. tour to produce a book called 'Live/Work: by artists, for artists' incorporating on-location photography and editorial writings.



WH, an artist that S knows from Skowhegan, arrived in Berlin last week to spend the next month working on two projects funded by recent grants he was awarded. He came to Berlin because of his interest in German Expressionist films , he creates videos that complicate the how these films portray race through black-face, savages, and minstrels. He came over for curry dinner the other night and we discussed our feelings of displacement and where to relocate after Germany, a topic that has influenced us to write a book, and asked his opinion about the question 'New York vs. anywhere else'? Tonight we may attend a screening of Metropolis with him at Babylonia where the music score will be performed by a live orchestra.

We all attended an opening at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien on friday called 'GlobalAlien', which is also the name of the artist collective exhibiting work in the show. Above is a photo of S attempting to interact with one of the works in the show. This piece consisted of a box-like room, where you enter into a hall of mirrors built around a Theremin, a musical instrument that responds to your presence. The endless repetition of yourself as an image and the feedback noise of the Threremin seemed to allude to the self-conscious experience of individuals living in foreign cultures. Almost more poignant was the fact that when we entered the piece it was not responding, a total lack of communication. (It was working for the Germans ahead of us?) There were a few sculptures in the exhibition and an anti-branding campaign piece where you could iron phrases on to the clothes you were wearing. Most of the show consisted of videos and performance, two processes that lend themselves to this culture on the move. When you pack your bags all you need to remember to bring is your body and a camera.

Visiting the exhibition it also occurred to me that Global Alien was an inclusive theme, and that I held a position in this culture. Instead of being the other 'other' (the group of people implicated as 'not global aliens'), I was the 'other'. So be it that we are resident aliens (and probably not the political rallying point of this conversation), but it was then that I realized that I was part of a group of aliens. However, this did not create a sense of commraderie. Being a foreigner in Berlin is as close as you can get to being a 'majority minority' as anywhere in Germany, like the demographic groups in Texas whose votes have become the recent focus of presidential campaigns.