I had been before about 4 years ago when my sister lived in Germany for a year, so we went to visit her. However I didn't see much because I got a really bad throat infection so couldn't leave the apartment. All I remember seeing is a chocolate shop which made models made out of chocolate. The most impressive was the parliament building, and a Ferrari made out of chocolate which was pretty insane, as the detail was immense.
Anyway, I didn't actually realise how much there was to see in Berlin! We went for 5 days, which I don't think was enough, however it is a good amount of days to go for at one time. I definitely want to go back sometime soon. I can't believe how much history and culture one city can hold. What impressed me the most was the graffiti in Berlin. It was like no other, as over there it is legal to graffiti, so it is everywhere. It was even just exciting walking round the not so touristy areas and finding something new behind every corner. The Berlin wall is just as impressive as the derelict run down buildings we had been seeing, but with more history behind it. Around the area of the Berlin wall we stumbled across some work done by the street wall artist called Bluu who does stop motion animations of his work on the walls. It was really impressive, mainly the scale of the whole thing. The artwork of his that was the best to me was the one of a man made up of tiny little men all scrambling to get to the top. I can't even begin to contemplate how he does it!
The temperatures in Berlin were pretty much below freezing, so we didn't tend to hang around in one place for too long, as it was just too cold. I really enjoyed looking round the Tacheles squats as well as they had so much going on all the time. The artwork they created was pretty impressive. It all fitted well into a pretty laid back relaxed vibe, as they were usually playing some techno somewhere around. The work I found most astounding was the massive sculptures they had made from bits of iron and welded together to create animals or humans. We had a look in this run down building which had many floors which has more artists selling their work. I loved having a look round, and actually bought a photo collage which has been arranged in a way to be quirky and a bit offensive. I would have liked to have taken more photographs of the whole area excepting that my camera broke earlier in the trip which I was a bit gutted about.
We also went to a couple of nightclubs, of which the first one called Mikz blew me away as it was like a secret club which was tucked round the back of which we wouldn't have found without the help of a couple of Germans. It was nothing I'd ever experienced, as the place they had it in was like somewhere you'd have an illegal rave cause it seemed pretty derelict except they had a proper bar, proper toilets and a proper banging dj. Everywhere was covered in graffiti and everyone seemed really chilled out, but at the same time proper going for it. Everyone just seemed in control, compared to the usual raucous behaviour of English drunks. The next night however we went to one of the most famous and high class clubs in Berlin which was called the Watergate. I felt like a celebrity in there as everything was the complete opposite from the night before- everything seemed extra new and stylish. But that's probably to do with the fact it's on the waterfront of the river looking at the Universal sign so you kind of feel like you're dancing on an island.
We had a look round this area which had art galleries after art galleries. They were small, but they were good to look at, as it had some art maybe we wouldn't normally look at, for example, there was a guy called Zhenchen Liu who somehow filmed scenes of beaten up Shanghai as layers of collage moving smoothly through the scenes. It was called "Under Construction," which showed the demolition of residential structures for the Shanghai Expo and resulting in human tragedies. It made me feel very sad watching the video, but I guess that's the reaction he wanted us to have.
I was also really impressed by the Holocaust memorial, purely for its design. It was built between 2003 and 2005 according to a design by architect Peter Eisenman. It's in a grid pattern which goes down in the middle and up at the sides, so that the vertical square concrete slabs seem higher in the middle when you walk down than the outside slabs. It is like a maze which makes it more interesting to explore. I found it really fun just to walk up and down it.
On my birthday (February 1st) we went to the Hamburger Bahnhof which was odd at first entry as all we could smell was animals, of which they had reindeer as an exhibition due to the mushrooms they eat. I think they were doing a scientific experiment. The gallery as a whole didn't impress me that much though however, as it was quite a modern gallery, so some of my ideas of art don't quite match some of the work that was in there. However, my favourite piece was probably a video piece which involved unmasked members of the anti-terror unit GBG9 taken in Turkey slowed down to extremely altering speed (the video was initially 5 seconds long, but has been slowed down to last 8 minutes instead.) At first I couldn't tell it was moving, but it was ever so slightly, and I stared at it for a good few minutes as it really fascinated me. We found an Andy Warhol section of the gallery which was surprising to see an artist like Warhol amongst artists I didn't recognise. The most impressive of his work was the huge print of Mao Gao, just because of it's scale and iconic image. Here are a few of my snaps of various places in Berlin before the lens on my camera broke:
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