berliner kunsthalle

during the weekend I attended KUNSTINVASION, an exhibition part of an initiative to turn the wholesale flowermarket in kreuzberg into a Kunsthalle by 2010.

Kunsthalle literally means Arthall, a place for creative activity, meant as a platform for artists to freely express themselves, away from structures of retribution and out of the need to please cultural tourists. the initiative Berliner Kunsthalle is represented by cultural institution, artists association from friedrichshain-kreuzberg as well as curators, artists and cultural managers.

on the speakers podium at the opening we had, among others, Christoph Tannert from Künstlerhaus Bethanien, who is highly involved in the project and managed to convey the enthusiasm surrounding the initiative. the idea and intention are great…the location as well, but I have to say that the potential wasnt used at its best this time around. however we welcome the initiative and wish them the best of luck!

*unfortunately the links are in german

chessboxing worldchampionship 2008 berlin

Chessboxing fever is raging again in Berlin!
only a few weeks to go before the big fight in Chessboxing's light-heavyweight division.




on 5 July title-holder Frank Stoldt from Berlin faces Russian challenger Nikolay Sazhin. the Russian nation is eagerly awaiting the chance to crown their first Chessboxing king as Sazhin attempts to dethrone the German champion.



tickets are on sale until 7 June 2008, so make sure to get one in time! you can order them here

check out for some previous blogs about ChessBoxing via PLATOON :

1 2 3 4 5

Mitte gegen rechts

when it comes to radical right extremism, there arent many people here in Berlin/mitte that would turn a blind eye ... even tolerant people cannot tolerate the most untolerant breed of dickheads on this planet. some things are just crossing the line too far.

the opening in february of »TØNSBERG« a clothing shop selling thor steinar nazi-sportswear caused a huge upheaval here in mitte, resulting in spray bombing, multiple window stoning and antiNAZI stickers spread all over the area.

however disputable the aggressive reaction might be, there are also some who took things a step further..starting a blogspot and an art project motivating and involving the whole community to rise their voice against the welcoming of radical right extremists in our hood.... unfortunately the phenomenon is spreading across germany at a scary rate!

so all of you who didnt get it yet... a protest container will be placed on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz on saturday 31.05 at 14h, and a StreetParty will follow...to make it clear once and for all...out with that NAZI shite from mitte!

STREETPARTY on rosa-luxemburg-platz saturday 31.05.2008

14h: opening of the container-exhibition „Mitte gegen rechts“
15-18h: regular tours in the exhibition
15-20h:open air concert with Mark Aizikovitch, dbZwoVier, Kraftpost, Sickerman, Mittekill and dj Samtboy

here some more info in german:


»Mitte gegen Rechts« ist eine Initiative von AnwohnerInnen und Gewerbetreibenden in der Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße, die sich als Reaktion auf das Geschäft »TØNSBERG«, das im Februar 2008 in der Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße eröffnet wurde, gegründet hat. »TØNSBERG« bietet eine große Produktbandbreite der Bekleidungsmarke »Thor Steinar« an – ein Modelabel, das offensichtlich unter Rechtsextremen beliebt ist und durch den Verfassungsschutz als »szenetypisches Erkennungs- sowie Abgrenzungsmerkmal« bezeichnet wird.



SPRING EIGHT FESTIVAL / GRAZ / AUSTRIA

hello again ... my last blog entry was long ago.. but now some news from my home country:

when the first flowers are blooming and the grass gets greener in graz (austria) it's time for

SPRING EIGHT FESTIVAL
may 21 - 24 | graz
www.springeight.at

so today spring eight starts!

i already recommend you last year the springfestival - austrias biggest festival for electronic art&music.

this year again the programm is full of fantastic acts and artists between techno, electro, minimal, house, ... like
roni size / busy p / the streets / dj mehdi / roisin murphy / robyn / shantel / senor coconut / hot chip / rainer trüby / richard dorfmeister / rodney hunter / louie austen / ...

overall more than 100 acts - typical for spring a great mix of international star-djs and also native, upcoming artists and well known vjs.

besides special exhibition at kunsthaus graz and workshops at fachhochschule joanneum, and many many more attractions ...

tickets for spontaneous trips to spring eight www.oeticket.com (4-days-pass 68€, day-pass 22€)

be there .. or listen live-stream at FM4 !
wish you a nice week...

MUTO – a wall painted animation by BLU

Urban artist BLU from Bologna, has published a new ambiguous animation painted on public walls in buenos aires and baden. most of you berliners must reckognize some of his gigantic work ...that can still be found around the city,

i was wandering up and about his site....going from his sketches to his urban extravaganza painted all over the world.....im impressed, this guy is truly amazing.

enough words...just go and explore it by yourself!
but first sit back....and enjoy this totally dope wall painted animation!



MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

the gecko at rosi´s

a quick advise for tonight...
Espin, front singer of DISH and The Gecko, who rocked the stage at the end of the summer PLATOON.festival 2006, is performing tonight with the Gecko at Rosi's in F'schain. it's a very important gig for them, and they would really love your support... it should be a really great evening we hope you come along.

Rosi's - Revalerstrasse 29 at 9 o'clock, they start early because they are playing support for Promises Promises, a band from Western Germany. the entrance is only € 5

watch this shortcut featuring DISH in PLATOON during the magic summer 2006:



and here a little show featuring Espin in
„big in berlin.the trend show“.

It's not Rio...

Excited by the great weather and all I heard about this big event, I didn't want to miss Berlin's unique "Karneval der Kulturen" on the last pentecost-weekend.




Leaving the metro station on Hermannplatz, I immediately dived into masses of people, who partied the streets of Kreuzberg. More than 4000 artists, representing 80 nations, entertaining over a million visitors - it was quite an impressive picture of Berlin's cultural diversity.









The procession, consisting of hundred different wagons, each representing an own cultural lifestyle, moved from Hermannplatz to Yorckstrasse - separated by dancing people, shaking their bodies to different sounds from all over the world.
It was real fun being among them, especially because of all those nice costumes and colorful appearances.























































































Never having seen it, i must admit on the downside, that the event also reminded me of the numerous pictures and clips of the famous Love Parade I saw throughout the media. Most people shook to the drum'n bass wagons and big transparents spanning the streets and reminding people to drink water, gave the carneval a special Berlin touch.























Nevertheless, all the artists did their best to show their way to party hilariously on this sunny weekend on the streets.

It's not Rio - it's Berlin, fine enough...?

For more impressions and background-infos check out www.karneval-berlin.de

PECHAKUCHA BERLIN VOL. 8.1

as already announced on their website, the PechaKucha team is proud to be working together with DMY Festival on their next edition of Pechakucha Berlin.

in the midst of the inspiring atmosphere of the design-festival with an international audience we´re sure that this Pechakucha evening is going to be a highlight.
the festival team will recruit part of the speakers from the DMY-participants, the Pechakucha team will contribute additional presentations to make it a perfect mixture.
as always all presentations will be made available as Videopodcasts, or simply viewed directly on their site.

after Pechakucha there will be an aftershow party with Exsample (normoton)spinning some records! So bring your dancing shoes and make sure to take friday off!

this whole thing will go down on the DMY-fetsival area, in the Glashaus / ARENA. if the weather stays as nice, the adjacent Badeschiff (place to swim on the Spree) is worth a visit!

++ a little taste of the LIST OF PRESENTERS ++

* Marco Riedel (Roomdivision / design, architecture)
* Bernhard Moosbauer (The Barebackshow / vinyl records with endless rills)
* Joana Breidenbach, Till Behnke (Betterplace.org / online-platform for microfinancing)
* Steffen Bärenfänger (B&W Interactive & Motion Design / does design need to be beautiful?)
* Eric Wahlforss, Alexander Ljung (Soundcloud / innovative platform for musicians)
* John von Ascheraden (heimatmedien / video as synthesis of the arts)
* Niklas Roy (international dance party / discomachine)


PECHAKUCHA MEETS DMY!

22.May // doors open 20:30 // start 21:20 (One our later than the usual time!)

Glashaus, ARENA, near Badeschiff // entry fee €5,-


if you´re interested to know more about past editions of PechaKucha via PLATOON check this out:
8th 6.1 6th 5th 4th 3rd 2nd 1st
and of course the Seoul vol.5 edition.

DMY: clusterAsia and intercity