Posts tagged germany

In Stralsund, I visited a church that had been converted into an art gallery. It was gorgeous inside, emptied of most of the ornaments, except for the art. Having the art hung inside the white walls of a church, elevates art to the level of the sacred, which is a feeling I’m perfectly comfortable with as I purely believe that a great many things — just about everything, in fact — are sacred.

“Never step into a sterile buidling
where the walls are flat and the
windows are all the same
Such houses will bring big harm to you
If you are visiting someone in such
a house: boycott it
If you are not allowed to transform it:
stay outside and ask the person
you want to visit to come out
Because it is a prisoner’s house”

— Friedensreich Hundertwasser

The exhibit was dedicated to the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian artist and architect that I’d never heard of before. His work is bright and playful, and each peace was full of movement and spirit. I instantly fell in love and spent a couple of hours just perusing and taking in his paintings. Paintings such as this one, below, called “Columbus rainy day in India”:

“When one dreams alone, it is only a dream. When many dream together, it is the beginning of a new reality.”

— Friedensreich Hundertwasser

I was fascinated by the concept of artist squats in Berlin. One artist we met (who lived in a squat), suggested that my friend buy any empty lot full of scrap for 200 Euros and invite artists to build shacks from the scrap and in this way she would have a home.

It’s an interesting concept, one that I would not take part in myself (I like my comforts), but I love that the city supports this kind of creative lifestyle. I don’t know anywhere else where this sort of living would be tolerated, and certainly not in the U.S. These artist squats are often on tours and in this case had eating areas and what looked like an area for performances.

After visiting with the artist at the squat, we checked out the reclaimed building adjacent. From the outside, you could see where half of the building had been orginally destroyed, but that walls and windows had been installed (professionally) to cover the gaps.

Inside the walls were covered with graffiti and posters and art from floor to ceiling. The floors were dirty and there was garbage in the corners. I would have been very uneasy walking into this sort of building in, say New York, but felt completely comfortable here. (In fact, I never once felt threatened the entire time I was in Berlin.)

Once you got past the staircase, however, there were genuine artists studios with some really great work on display. I was really impressed by a collage artist that I saw there, whose work was both irreverent and intelligent all at once. I even bought one of a post cards of one of his works, the sentiment of which I found most amusing.

The post card has a link to his website, but I don’t have it on me right now, so I’ll have to post a link to it later, as well as a link to the other artists who I met and whose work I liked while there.

This small square of the Berlin wall is left standing near Potzdamer Platz and both sides are decorated with street art.

Also, you can see the line of where the wall stood slicing through the square.