This time last week we were given the keys to our little home in Berlin and what a week it has been!
We have met some great people and artists from all walks of life… Web designers, painters, photographers, gallery owners, film makers, writers, lecturers and other actors who are all excited to create work.
Today we ventured to the North of the city and found our way around the weekly flea market at Mauerpark, lots to see and plenty to buy if luggage allowances were unlimited. Most ‘bazaar’ of all was the Karaoke Stage, you can see below just how many people it attracts every week and they all bloody loved it! It really was just an amateur singing get together and the stage was open to everyone who put their hand up. Someone told us before we arrived in Berlin that the Germans take their fun seriously, they weren’t wrong…
Our week of getting to know the city and find opportunities and inspiration is over, of course we’ll find inspiration in everything we go on to do but it’s time to get our hands dirty.
Tomorrow we attend Heike Ernst’s lecture on the redevelopment of Schoeneweide along with business students, architects, designers to name a few. This should be an interesting project to work on… We’ll fill you in on the finer details tomorrow.
This coming week we also start work with the other residents of the institut on the small project entitled ‘Doubles’.
Over the last week it’s become clear that passers by are intrigued by what they see in our shopfront space, we haven’t even put together an installation as such, they just seem interested in our daily movements. So, Tuesday is the day when we collate our findings and stimulus from the last week and begin to put something together in the space for the public to be part of and enjoy from inside as well as out. We are looking at ideas of the city and its residents and what they find important about where they live, work and play… We’d love to get passersby to come in and tell us what they consider to be important in their city, over time building ‘the perfect city’ in these four walls.
Last night we seemed to attract the attention of more people than ever… They loved looking in at us watching a horror film from our solitary couch. They seemed to enjoy our reactions, especially seeing us jump at noticing them staring from the other side of the computer screen! There’s something interesting in the concept of people watching people watching. Tonight we’ll do the same again, it was a good laugh after all.
Thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in our residency so far, we look forward to telling you more as the next week unfolds.
For now, danke und gute nacht!
OB & DM
windowtoberlin 