More Berlin

Some more Tacheles...the door to an artist's gallery.

At first I really didn't get this... especially that there was no question mark at the end of what I thought to be a question. It was just one of those things that I knew had enough value to merit a picture, but I just wasn't feeling the deeper meaning at the moment that I clicked the shutter button. Than I a wrote a poem for a prompt from 3WW (empty, highway & ignored) and found myself contemplating my present situation Today and asking 'how long is now?' and I got it. Now luckily I have the Berlin pic!

The Reichstag Parliment building. We waited on a two hour line to enter this building on a frigid day...I'm convinced it was the moment my resistance dropped beyond current repair!! Apparently, you haven't visited Berlin if you don't go to the Reichstag. I saw old postcard images of the fire that ravaged this building and its old dome. What you see now is a contemporary resurrection.











Here is a view of the Berlin wall you may not see often - A CHEWING GUM MOntage!!!
The last pic is part of the Berlin wall located at the East Side Gallery. I loved that car busting through the wall!

Street Art in Berlin, Tacheles & Andras Bartos

Gregg making a rubbing of a manhole in Berlin. You may think why? Well, that rubbing is an excellent image for us to make our OWN silk-screen in order to make our OWN Berlin t-shirts, instead of buying mass produced touristy ones! Once we have our t-shirts made - I'll post them here for you all to see.

Some of the best gummy bears I have ever eaten in my whole life were from Potsdam, Berlin. They actually tasted as though they were made with real fruit juice - not to mention they were mammoth in size.

Berlin's mascot/national-animal is the bear - hence we saw lots of artist renditions of the form. Like these! Since these particular bears were in the lobby of our hotel - they 'embody' paintings of all the popular tourist attractions in the area.

Now for another kind of street art...see that building- that is the Kunsthaus Tacheles. If you look closely you can see the name of the building written on it.
Tacheles is not so simple to describe, although the tourist's books try to do it justice. It is a counter-culture artist space. A former department store, it now looks like an abandoned building that has been taken over by a self-organized collective of artists. There are studio spaces, a cafe, cinema, performance space, workshops and exhibition space. In the evening it is a night club. The grounds, hallways and ever architectural feature has had an artistic mark placed on it. There are stunning sculptures out back, in addition to surrounding buildings used as canvases. I was so enthralled I took so many pics. SAdly, we saw many petitions out while we there and upon returning have learned that the lease runs out this year - it seems that the future of this space is yet to be determined. For the 'creatives' out there that read my blog, this is sure to be a treat.

Here I am out in back of Tacheles in their sculpture garden. I love charging bulls so when I saw this I knew I had to have a pic with it! There were quite a few welded- sculptures out back that were beautiful in their execution. There was also a train, automobile and helicopter covered in graffiti.

Here is Gregg out back in front of the helicopter

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This is Gregg in the Tacheles hallway. Now you see what I mean about every iota of the space having a mark on it.

The surrounding buildings are used like mammoth canvases. This soccer mural below is mind-blowing. Click on the thumbnail to see the soccer image up close.

Gregg and I discovered these small paintings by painter and graphic designer Andras Bartos and we bought one! His paintings are whimsical and also somber takes on humanity. While walking around the neighborhood we also saw his studio.

Well, I have more images but I think is this enough for today. I hope I haven't drowned you all in visual noise!!

Berlin!

The remnants of the Berlin Wall and an old watch tower on top of what is now a hotel/casino.

In my opinion Berlin must be the graffiti capitol of the world. As an artist, I was mesmerized by the sheer passion of expression. How anyone can say that they don't see art in these images is beyond me. I will let the images speak for themselves.

A clothing boutique. Imagine this kind of sign-age.

Paris, Munich and Berlin!!

Back from Europe and Breaking a 102 degree Fever!!

Unfortunately, I'm back without the ability to swallow painlessly. Twenty four hours after stepping foot on North American soil my body physically collapsed. I spent most of this weekend burning up and Sunday morning in the emergency room. Don't know if it was being around 53 Spring-Break-therefore-sleepless-high-schooler's on a boot-camp-style regimen of museums and tours in less than favorable weather (snow, rain, hail and ice cold wind), let alone that some of those 53 were complaining about 'Strep' throat and other mysterious ailments. Well, some antibiotic-filled-hours since, I'm finally able to face the keyboard and share SOME of the 750 photos that I took with you all! Mind you my aesthetic sensibilities lend for some alternate type of photos. It was my third time in Paris, second time to Munich and first time to Berlin so as we travelled through those cities expect to see not only some of the typical tourist images, but some of my quirky, graffiti, dessert and color-filled images. Since I can't possibly share it all at once expect this to be the subject of choice through out the next few posts. I hope you enjoy the images and words!!!

Blogging from Paris

The shot above is one of my pics of the Eiffel Tower & of the peace monument that is located at the end of the Parc du Champs de Mars. The glass walls of the monument have the word "peace" written/etched onto the glass in many of the world's languages. The monument is called Le Mur de la Paix (The Peace Wall). It was made by Clara Halter, the wife of famous writer/painter/philosopher Marek Halter and officially erected in 2000.

The image to the right is of Gregg as he looks through one of the glass panes of the peace monument.

Don't ask me who named this cafe- but I think its brilliant. Most definitely one of the places I would love my fictional characters to have an impromptu romantic meeting - the problem- readers would not find a little cafe called 'You and Me in Suede' believable!!!

Rent-a-Bike and leave it where you like! Why, oh why? can't every city in the US have these?? Well, I can tell you why NYC can't have them - the parts would be sold off instantaneously...or maybe not - I'm done being the Ye-of-little-faith-person I want to believe its possible!!

Can you tell what's wrong with this pic? No, the building is not melting.

In most European cities when they are doing construction on a building they cover it with a sheeting that has imagery on it - like mega-banners. The images are usually of a building itself to disguise that construction is even happening. Sometimes there will be something quirky happening in the image like in the building windows or there will be elegant large scale advertisements on the sheets. This time they took a Salvador Dali cue and distorted the image of the building. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Me in the Marriott Rive Gauche/Paris Lobby (click to see larger)
So let me know what you think and stop back by in a few days to see some more of Euro & Me!!!