Exhibition junkie

Well, what else are you going to do in this town, when you've got time to kill and money to burn? It's the last month of my Great German Adventure and, not a moment too soon, it dawned on me that there are enough art exhibitions, theatre productions, movies and concerts going on here to keep me careering round the city at break-neck speed for the next four weeks. Marks are out from uni, and now that I'm confidently able to say that my days of an interminable law degree are behind me, I'm in the mood for celebrating. Which for me tends to take the form of sleep, books, a wander through a park/gallery/shopping centre and a couple of festive vinos. Luckily for me, Berlin's got all those bases covered.

One of my first September excursions saw me at Sony Centre, where I got lazy with my German skills and watched a film in English, Woody Allen's 'Midnight in Paris'. Loooovely, funny, sweet film, and almost enough to banish the horrific memory of August's Sony Centre experience,  specifically 'Bad Teacher' - I'm still having nightmares about Diaz' and Timberlake's dry hump scene, but that's another story. The delights of 'Midnight in Paris' were followed up on Saturday night by a visit to the splendid outdoor cinema in Volkspark, Friedrichshain and 'Almanya', a laugh (and bawl your eyes)-out-loud German 'road movie' about a family of Turkish immigrants. Never having been to an outdoor cinema before, I'd equipped myself with a blanket, towel and bottle of beer just in case only to find warm temperatures, wooden benches, and a steady supply of red and white wine available at the candy bar to sip under the stars. Very civilised.

Are you still with me? I'll make the rest quick, or if not quick, hopefully entertaining. Another highlight of the last few days has included the Chicks on Speed exhibition opening, which, with its boozy, hipster-esque atmosphere and artsy chit-chat bore some resemblance to my first experience with Berlin exhibitions (see previous entry: Hanging with Hipsters). Upon arrival, I had the distinct urge to run home and grab a pair of over-sized, black framed glasses and an ill-fitting button-down shirt. Daniel was already rolling his eyes and discussing secret signals to leave before we'd even stepped inside but I was determined to go in, plus, we were supporting a friend of a friend who was the trainee exhibition curator.

Once inside, we wandered off course and ended up in a skateboarding exhibition. Someone had amassed a collection of various objects - skate shoes, boards - and filmed skaters at skate parks as a tribute to life as a skater. It kinda looked like my brother's wardrobe from days gone by. I was initially confused, wondering where the Chicks were, before realising that was a whole separate exhibition. Our detour did however cause us to stumble across the best artwork of the whole night - a restored Banksy piece, Every Picture Tells a Lie, adorning an inner wall of the Bethanien Kirche in Kreuzberg since 2003. A few more twists through the hallways and we finally found the Chicks Exhibition - six or seven rooms housing short films, high heels turned into guitars, and Chanel as never seen before - and  exploring society's obsession with fashion and the idolatry of the 'perfect' female body. I spent most of the evening with my head cocked to the side, attempting to make sense of the naked, colourful and sometimes grotesque images of females, wondering if I'd missed something. Aesthetically pleasing it was not and the shock factor quickly wore off. I found myself wishing I could sit down to chat with one of the chicks and ask HOW on earth these ideas i.e. crazy dancing, piles of naked bodies, and high heels in places no one should ever see high heels, were born. I prayed no one was actually going to ask my opinion on any of it (it's hard to be diplomatic in German, and the exhibition could not be conveniently described as "nett" or "schoen") , and that we could get outta there before someone overheard Daniel's exasperated comments that he'd had enough of menopausal women's naked butts for one night.

A little more conventional than Chicks on Speed, at least in terms of the setting, was the exhibition I attended solo today at the Berlin Guggenheim, Once Upon a Time. I was apprehensive about going, as the website seemed to suggest a visit might entail a lot of propaganda about one of Germany's leading banks (clearly, an overwhelmingly proud sponsor) but for 3 Euros, you can't really go wrong. I spent a pleasant hour watching videos about people's dreams told in a fairy tale style with minimal bank advertising and I won't bother going into any more details because if you're interested, the website's really got it covered.

Please note: following paragraph was amended subsequent to initial posting.

Personal favourite over the last few days is by far the DDR Museum, a compact museum dedicated to depicting life in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), during the days of communism and a divided Berlin. A persistent controversy dogs this museum - namely, that it was created by West Germans about East Germany and may fail to capture the brutalities of a dictatorial regime, in other words, the museum is too cute. You can wander through the museum at your leisure, sit in and even pretend to start up a Trabbi, plunge your hands into coffee beans consumed during the regime, poke around an East German lounge room and even be interviewed by the Stasi. I struggled to understand the controversy, finding that the interactive activities paying heed to the good and lamenting the bad in the regime made the info stick in the mind much better, but then, I'm just an "Ossie" of a very different kind.

I could spend another paragraph describing for you my pick of this week's venues for wine, or Turkish food, or marvelling about the fact that after 6 months in Berlin I've finally found a place where you can get a very acceptable slice of cake and coffee (thanks Maike) but I can sense your attention span waning. So I will leave you now with assurances of at least another entry or two before my return, if that's the kinda thing you're into, and if not, ah well, I'm writing this for me as well as for you, so they will be featured right here anyway.