christian von steffelin: views from above

before the end of last year we wanted to have some nice large format pictures of PLATOON, especially some from above.

so we invited our good friend Christian von Steffelin to create some of his breathtaking artworks on our site… as he already did some years ago
on our old PLATOON area.







me and Christian met on a very gray and gloomy day, which by the way is one of his favourite weather condition for creating his very expressive style of photography,















it took us a while to figure out how to get on the roof in front of our headquarters… but thanks to Doreen, one of our neighbours, who kindly allowed us to climb from her balcony, we finally managed to get there.














after setting up the tripod and the camera Christian stayed observing and pondering for a while, trying to find the best perspective from which to shoot....it felt like being a sniper looking after his target...














then suddenly, as if we were in the late nineteenth century, he sneaked under a dark cloth and CLICK...the first image was forever impressed on film...and it was the only one he did. in fact he really doesn’t repeat himself. one shot is enough...he is not like some digital snapshot accumulators...what he does, is a work of art.












the view from above was terrific…in the real sense of the word. definitely not something for the fainthearted. and for Christian, who actually does suffer a bit of vertigo, it wasn´t as easy as you might think.















Christian shoots with his large format wista rf 45 baseboard camera, which is originally used for mobile architecture, very similar to the horseman 45 model. also referred to as view camera following the early photograph type developed by louis Daguerre in 1839. it´s a very fascinating device.











thank you Christian for the fantastic experience, i really enjoyed it...and thanks again for the pictures, we appreciate them very much!















*Christian von Steffelin´s website is under construction, but we will post the link as soon as it is ready!
in the meantime check out the pictures he did for the now vanished palast der republik (palace of the repupbic)...and at the same time you can also read about this historical building, which for many years was a vibrant centre for the arts here in berlin.

PLATOON´s 8th anniversary

what a wicked party!!!
the 8th anniversary of PLATOON was a complete success!
we had a blasting party with lots of wonderful guests, incredible tasty food, hilarious perfomances and rivers of booze.








for the occasion we also opened our brand new two containers on the ground floor, which we used as lounge so our guest could have a chance to introduce themselves before stepping into the madness of the „schuppen“ bar.













Daniel, the chef, surpassed any expactations this time around; all of us were delighted to taste his delicious food, a blend between traditional german food and a touch of korean specialities....we had in fact a very special visit from seoul. the whole new PLATOON.seoul crew pleased us with their presence and i have to say that we all loved them very much. they all are totally groovy and we had so much fun together.
























the bar was really cosy and just the right place to enjoy the PLATOON vibe...there were little details around the room reminding to all the succesful missions PLATOON has accomplished during this years. it felt like home to the platoonies.













Anna and Olly, our resident visual-artist and muscian, performed their live act SONI RIOT...and kept everyone shaking their booties all night long.




























we also had a performance by Hela-Helen Plewis who just came from london and really wanted to perform for us here in PLATOON. well i didnt know much about her but her enthusiasm was certainly infectious...so we decided to let her surprise us...and well, she totally did! here a little taste of her anti-burlesque performance....





























im sure our korean friends had hips of fun as well...just look how Eva is gorgeously smiling here.



(a proper introduction of all our korean friends and their visit to berlin will follow very soon in another article)









but before that we want to thank again Soo for traveling all this way to come and meet us here in berlin. she is the cheerful lady you can see standing between Tom and his brother Dirk and thanks to her we will realize an incredible project in Seoul. a kunsthalle made of containers with a highlight on subculture and its impact on the art sphere. it will be very unique, one of its kind. but i dont want to say too much about it now. thanks so much Soo for believing in us and for joining us for this celebrations! we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.






well, and as every party known in PLATOON history, it ended up very very late... lets say in the early hours...

















the rest i leave... to your imagination.

protect system

and everyday we keep adding some new features to our headquarters.

until now it was almost too easy to access our site...it was in fact completely open to the street.








but this morning we attached a protect system to our staircase.

Mr Gunter Weber, from Layher scaffolding sytems came to sort this out....













with the help of Stefan of course, our building master, who is always eager to do some craftwork on our site....after all it was also thanks to him and his construction expertise that we managed to move our containers so quickly.


























and today as well the job was done in less then one hour.
















thanks lads...now we are also bulletproof!

views of PLATOON

Well, we could say that our new area is slowly getting into shape...and it already feels as if we naturally belonged to this spot.










the cold winter is approaching, but in our container it´s fortunately very cosy and warm...and before starting a hard day at work we always enjoy a little chat&coffee in the morning whilst sitting on our new heavy weapon benches.

although sitting there makes you an easy target for passer-byers...in fact our headquarters have suddenly become a tourist attraction...it doesnt pass one hour without someone snapping a cheeky picture at us while we work.







so today I thought I´ll have a walk and make some pictures as well... there wasn´t much to see until recently afterall...




































































despite the lads being back in Seoul, we keep very busy over here...and thanks to modern communication we are actually constantly in touch with them via skype....

today we also had a new entry: Philipp ... but I shall leave him the pleasure of introducing himself within the coming weeks...it´s just fair enough...everyone deserves some time to digest our philosophy before getting into action.










also the upper container isnt that quite....Heidrun and Aleks are always on the move.
















this is our Bar, well we had just one party in it but soon we´ll throw another one....so for all of you PLATOON.members in Berlin, keep in touch...you don´t want to miss it out, do you?































the view from our window is brilliant....and of course we can still see ALEX, the Berlin tv-tower....we got so used to it from our last place; and you know what, there is no better view to remind you where you actually are...especially if you work in a place that can vanish in one day and appear somewhere completely different the day after.










more updates about the PLATOON.area will follow soon.

work in progress

despite the fact we moved a month ago, the PLATOON.area is still a work in progress.











our two new containers are being converted into office space, for this reason some very good friends of PLATOON came directly from freiburg for sorting out the insulation.















Niels and his team worked constantly for days trying to cope with their hungovers in the day and going out partying every night... as it should be.

































Andreas, the blacksmith, cut the containers at one side for them to be connected in a L shape.















the space looks great already. we are just waiting for the next team to give it the final touch.















we also decided to move our PLATOON.pool on the side, it was a bit too crowded in front of the Bar.

















now everything seems to get into shape and we can´t wait to enjoy the results of such hard working days.
















in the meantime the lads, Tom&Christoph, are on a mission in asia. the upper container seems very quite, but in reality PLATOON is always prepared to face the storm.

movie: new.platoon.area

for all of you wondering how we managed to move our PLATOON.headquarters in such a short time,
we are now pleased to show you this short video cut about the whole action!

enjoy

end of the summer concert...

many many thanks to all of you who helped me to organize my farewell party here in Platoon on sunday the 26th august....it was truly amazing to have you here....i know i was a bit too hectic, constantly jumping up and down, trying to tie up loose ends ...but that was all part of it. i mean, part of this holistic event, to which so many of you contributed, in the name of friendship and a cheerful love, was for playing music unconditionally, without following any scheme of retribution....





i find it important and all of you should know, that it wasn´t just my leaving party from Platoon, (i am in fact still here), it was also Ronny´s birthday, the terrific bela bartok´s mikrokosmos guitarist that, with Nadia (flute), completely spellbound the audience sitting under a gentle rain; we hope to see more of your eclectic duo in the future...















Ronny also had to improvise as the role of sound engineer for the rest of the bands, since the original one had hurt his back. How would we have done it without you, man?

































Bettina and Jessie´s leaving party from their berlin headquarters was also another good reason to throw a party... in fact they left straight after for the u.s and were then heading to salerno where they will be staying for a while - enjoy the amalfi coast my dears and cheers again for the good vibes. lets not forget Bettina´s burgers..they really hit the spot!






























well at this point i want to give a special thanks to Toby (drums) for understanding the profile and family-like atmosphere that we wanted to create for this event and for still playing despite getting soaked, along with his fantastic drum set, by the rain...hope you enjoyed the experience though!
your unconventional rhythm melted just perfectly into the Autonervous performance; as a first debut with this constellation i think you will be blowing up many a stage in the foreseable future!


























the same goes for DISH, all of them came to rock the stage and you know wha´? they did!






















Holger (drums), Helge (bass) Celli (guitar) were just smiling all the way, groovy man, i saw more then one person in the audience playing their own air-guitars, and that says it all...















Espin (singer) was just getting out of control....he had been the most enthusiastic since i asked him to play....this man is a driving energy...follow him and you´ll get burnt.... after the concert he was so much on fire that he had to jump in our Platoon container-pool....and you all know how freezing it can be these days...i think I heard Tschhhhhh!!! at some point but maybe it was just a "mampe" side efffect!?!











we now have a very special gift from chin chin (street artist) on the Platoon courtyard....it´s such a great work of art! hey chin, Don´t forget to come to this part of town more often when going out for one of your „nightwalks"!

more about emeli theander #3318 via PLATOON
































thetape vs RQM (video)
what to say lads ?, you are just incredible; sometimes when i hear you play i get the shivers.... Luckazs (emcee) was having a rough day...there was a bit of pressure going on since both of them also had to perform at this very underground party (taking place in an actual subway am alex) later on that evening...but I found their performance fitted the whole atmosphere of the day perfectly...sit back ... it´s coffee time...
Robert (beat master) was sitting comfortably with his laptop playing at a mellow volume, creating a sort of cosy effect..lounge exotica..certainly not only music, the effect as a whole was kind of transgressing the boundaries of poetry.
we all very much appreciated you joining us for this occasion.....have fun at your next gig with Jahcoozi in malaysia !!!





















also Anna (soni riot) gave us some subversive flavour by stenciling my "grime barrel" which we used at the very end for the final jam session.
the instrument, which I created especially for the occasion in collaboration with Luis#3151 (conceptual artist) and Stefan (Platoon´s building master), actually consists of a shell oil-barrel that i play with a metal scaffolding pipe...it produces low frequency infra waves that one can twist into grime beats, or whatever. it´s really more about the symbolism, for instance the pipe is supposed to be made of coltan....does it ring a bell anyone? It´s everywhere from our mobile phones to satellite antennas...and well, it´s one of the reasons for why there is an ongoing war in congo....























anyway, the last performance was totally improvised, we jammed acoustic, like old pirates singing in circle around a barrel of rum...RQM rapping his way on a mental quest, Espin following with some very tribal chants, Holger playing a half cut Shell barrel like a possessed madman while Anna stenciled a gloomy "Platoon" on top of it...and me? well i was sweating while blowing beatz into that grimey barrel......cioe´dju know wha´i mean?















someone kept making crazy pictures and showing them to me at the same time...i'm not sure, but i think it was that drmotte dude, I'm really sorry for the lights man (I read your email and I apologies for the poor lighting on stage during the autonervous performance...but then again I think it was very much in tune with the music..mha? bollocks, they where just improvised). but to be totally honest, i was so much into making this thing happening at all that I forgot some of the basics....but you are always welcome to show us the way forward mate!.... we all know how sometimes you are able to throw some parties running fundamentally on love......and that is what we had last Sunday, no?... hope you people still got it...well if you do, keep it close 'coz we´ll exchange it again next time.... for sure...

Marcello

a short weather-break

seeing as not many members are drawn to the water at the moment, we´ll be leaving the pool area closed for the week-end.

the lawn is recovering, splendidly!


and we´ll organise another concert and consequent party soon...infact the two semi-final concerts send their greetings

another question to all those visiting our area: have you taken any nice pictures? then please send them to us!
we want to make a small documentation
about this wicked World Cup.

it would be cool if there were some pictures of you included...thank you!


da es im moment nicht sehr viele vereinmitglieder ins wasser treibt lassen wir das pool-gelände dieses wochenende geschlossen. der rasen erholt sich prächtig!

und bald werden wir mal wieder eine konzert mit party veranstalten! die beiden halbfinal-konzerte lassen grüssen..

noch eine frage an alle besucher des geländes:
habt ihr schöne fotos gemacht? dann schickt sie uns!
wir wollen eine kleine dokumentation der geilen wm machen. wäre doch toll, wenn da auch bilder von euch drin sind! danke!



*photo . andreas mühe . the aim of design