KASPAR KOENIG - fashion, design, sound, workshops

i want to present you an interesting person, who probably will work together with PLATOON in future ...

kaspar koenig (born in 1975) is a dutch inventor-artist, now living in berlin and maastricht. he studied industrial design at the UdK berlin.

now he designs goods for daily use - like ties or moneybags. interesting thereby is that he uses special materials like mr. bend (a flexible handle for utility goods, which can be adjusted by hand, which can be used for many devices, including toothbrushes, dentist mirrors, ...) and recycled firehoses in a really delicate way! and in addition koenig makes sounds, where he invents innovative "instruments" like soundbikes (creating acoustic extensions for the bicycle sounds). the soundbike workshop by kaspar koenig was some weeks ago at the Udk berlin.

furthermore he composes soundpieces for (dance) theatres and recently he also started working as a lecturer at the cafa beijing.

it's such a great variety of things he's doing - so visit his website and listen to his fancy sounds, check up the actual workshop-dates or maybe order some unique goods, ...

ugh ugh! muddy baltic sea

yesterday I read in the newspaper
der tagesspiegel following article:

WWF: ANNUALLY 100 MILLION FLUSHES OF SHIPS END UP IN THE OSTSEE

according to surveys of the environment-foundation WWF (world wide fund for nature), every year about 100 million flushes of ships end up in the „Ostsee“. in addition - according to surveys at shipping companies of „Ostsee“-cruisers and ferries - about 1,6 billions liter of wastewater from showers and cleaning buckets.

not even a quarter of those ships disposes its wastewater to land, so annually about 450 tons nitrate and 150 tons phosphats run into the „Ostsee“.

„the broth works like dung. the plants grow intensified and deprive the water the oxygen“, said the leader of WWF-„Ostsee“, jochen lamp. those nutrients contributes that this inland lake again and again is obsessed by the algae pest. because of 60.000 ship-passages and 90 millions passengers the "ostsee" is one of the most cruised seas in the world.


harbours have to raise up their disposal-capacities


according to the WWF, just nine shipping companies agree for a voluntary self-commitment to stop 2007 the discharge of their excrements – also „Hurtigruten“ and „Peter Deilmann“, two providers from germany.

up to now there is no explicit disposal-prohibition of excrements outside the twelve-seamile-zone in the „Ostsee“ - but „such a obligatory regulation should be desirable!“, says jochen lamp. the shipping company -aida cruises- reportedly notifies to assent to a self-commitment next year.

beside shipping companies, according to jochen lamp, in future also the harbours should have the necessary capacities, to make it possible for ferries to dispose their wastewater environment-friendly.

„no passenger is interested to shovel on a cloaca“, said jochen lamp





translated from german into english:angi.

GITMO.TV premiere at platoon

next saturday the premiere of GITMO.TV takes place at platoon - presented by kolonialfilm and gitmo.tv.




saturday, june 16 / 22:00 h
PLATOON / weinmeisterstr. 3 / 10178 berlin-mitte
(corner rosenthaler str. 52)

the premiere of the video-documentation of prisoner-collecting-points will be at the PLATOON garden in front of an old abridgement house, which was used until one year ago as a transit camp of the NATO.









in may 2006 gitmo.tv arragend in this abridgement house an inspectation-tour by use of visual and fine arts.

now this film shows how gitmo.tv confronts the visitors of this inspectation-tour 2006 with the topics stock, right-free rooms and accordingly political-social posititions.











very interesting should be the presence of walter gitmo. he discovers the prisoner-collecting-point and arranged also those guided inspectation-tours through the former CIA prison. walter gitmo informs about his experiences one year ago and also the actual existing prisoner-collecting-points in germany.

defenitely this location establishes a reference to the reality of this extensive documentation-material ...


FREE ENTRY!!

art goes heiligendamm

raumlabor-berlin, built in a smaller standard, the exclusive meeting place for the G8 summit - named "silver pearl". a grandious fake of the original. it was, to the wide diffenrence, opened for all people. the big room inside the historical bath-house is for theater, music, talks with artists a.s.o. in the next big hall you can watch some videos and installations.







adrienne goehler had a new idea for an art intervention to the G8-summit. in rostock she curated an art-area on the harbour and some exhibitions in public-buildings and also installations on places in the city. some international artists followed her invitation. it was a mixture of very serious and humorous works.





































but thats not all. you could also sleep there in small rooms with good covers, fresh air and a fantastic view to the river mouth.




































































































perhaps its a new and a good way to include fine arts in political protests on stage. my congratulation to adrienne goehler for her engagement and realisation.

but i was very angry and sad in rostock. I fear that we are all string puppets. the G8 states fuck us. they allow our protest with all excesses. it doesn't matter. we are alibis for the free world. so I think we must touch the sore spot of our regime: the economy and their money. i dream of a general strike first 5 minutes ... thats the only language they understand.

the lifeguard in action

yeah, the weather is amazing, berlin is heating up...

PLATOON.lifeguard marcello is now ready for guests to come around, so again, this is an invitation for you to come and swim:

you are very welcome - enjoy the sunny weather at platoon and come to chill - inside or outside the water!

we don't have offical opening hours. most of the days between 11 am and 20 pm the pool is open. just call in front to make sure somebody will open the door: 28882160

mini tofu #17

our hong kong based friend benoit dupuis launched a new issue of his online-magazin mini-tofu. it is a work of ai weiwei called "Fairy-tale" which will be presented at documenta 12. realy nice to watch the 1001 participants in this performance! good issue! it's worth downloading the 16 mb flash-file..

see also the artist blog in chinese!

reynard the fox

what´s that???? all platoonies run to the window: we don´t believe it - a fox visit the platoon area on hell midday.












but after a while, he goes his way. what he does in the midtown? we'll never know...

exhibition "HOPE | HOFFNUNG" by tina winkhaus

tina winkhaus is one of the first members of platoon. her contamporary photographs have a touch of extravanganza and those photographs are a great variety from the muscled, lipsticked posing found elsewhere.

HOPE | HOFFNUNG
june 13 - june 19

galerie tristesse
karl marx alle 137, 10249 berlin

opening on june 13 (19h - 22h)
finissage on june 19 (18h - 21h)

tina winkhaus serves her photographs with a method of traditional methaphara of painting, but tough she transforms those pics in todays everyday life, hopeless, beauty and concurrently in cruelty. tina winkhaus’ pictures are full of merciless kids, humorous animals and vessels of ambiguous content. thereby she creats something special, which is really rarely: from traditional pieces develop a unique new artificial language and at the same time a representation of nowadays possible values.

"HOPE | HOFFNUNG" invites to a journey, with the target to notice that our modern and urban melancholy not makes us blind.

tina winkhaus' photographs are not made for the faint-hearted but for those who dare to get an experience of todays life in a new point of view.