Berlin Hamburgers

Very late post about this. Should have really arrived on your virtual doorstep a couple of months ago.  So please enjoy this late offering about Berlin Hamburgers.

Or as it's more commonly known, the Hamburger Bahnhof, a modern art museum in Berlin. This particular post is about the 'A-Z The Marzona Collection' exhibition. As the name would suggest, it's an exhibition that charts this collection from A to Z over the course of 2 years. During April, MNO was on display. The presentation is changed every quarter year in keeping with the sequence of the alphabet. Which makes this exhibition a little more interesting than normal, as you can re-visit the same exhibition within the space of a couple of months and be guaranteed to seeing something different.

This exhibition is a celebration of the conceptual art of the 1960s and 70s and illustrates the contemporary relevance of the works from this era. Now, although the display of the exhibition itself was something that wasn't particularly exciting or new, there was one thing about this exhibition that was particularly interesting.

This room here! What I'm just going to call the archive room. All the past letters and exhibitions are archived for you as the viewer to go and explore. You can sit at the table and search through the folders. There's even a photocopier to copy what you find interesting to keep. It's a really nice way of involving any letters (like ABC for example) you may have missed. Also allows you to still be part of the discussion conceptually if you weren't there physically at the time. Which I feel is the best way for the exhibition to exist past, present and future. (Because they have purposefully left empty shelves for the coming display. I feel this adds to the anticipation of the ever-changing show.)

I would definitely recommend you going to see this if you are in Berlin or just visiting like me. The only slight down side about this exhibition is that you do have to pay to get in and see it. Normally, I don't have an issue with this, but I feel like it is a little bit cheeky to demand that you have to re-buy a ticket every time that you go and see the new set of letters that are currently on display. I feel like they should have a special ticket or allow a discount of the production of your past ticket. Something to add the incentive to go and see this exhibition more than once, because I think that's the aim of this interesting new display.

And in any case the Hamburger Bahnhof is worth a ticket on its own (the ticket price does include the rest of the collection on offer.) So go on, treat yourself to some Berlin Hamburgers.

#perfectstrangers

This is just a quick little note/shout out to a lovely magazine that does lovely things. They are called 'Oh Comely' and you can find them here.  They do lovely things that remind you of the loveliness of people and the everyday. 

The above photograph is a collection of the things I was sent from America as part of the perfect stranger parcel exchange. You send a parcel. And you hopefully receive one back! You decide whether or not you want to send one over seas or simply within your own country. If they end up doing this project again in the future, you can find that particular website here.

A little reminder of the kindness of strangers and the pleasure of snail mail.

Persephone Books

This is just a little note about a lovely independent book shop in London. As the title suggests, the book shop is called 'Persephone Books' that reprints forgotten fiction and non-fiction usually written by women from the 20th century. The photo above is the swag that me and my flatmate ended up walking out with.

Their books are a little pricey (£12 each, or at the time we went 3 for £30 making them a tenner each), however you can forgive them for this for the beautiful versions they publish of these stories. (Also that, and the fact that they ain't no Waterstones, and need to survive somehow.) Each book has a beautiful grey cover, with a special painterly pattern inside, that somehow relates to the story. When you buy a book, you can pick up a free corresponding bookmark. They also have a free bi-annual catalogue that you can pick up in store which definitely helps with the decision making, as there are so many to choose from!

So if you're in the Bloomsbury area, have a little mooch around. I'm sure they'll be something you'd like the sniff of.

Review: Everyman (PLAY)

So I had the luck of seeing this play at the beginning of last month. (Like, right at the beginning. I think I saw this on the 1st.) And it only cost me £15. (A bargain.) Now at this price, I thought that I would be sat quite far back (in fact, I thought I would be sat right at the back) but as it turns out, I was right at the front. In fact, I was so close to the sat that I could have spat at the actors (as my mother would say.) My seat was A25 and that's where it was at I have to tell you! Somehow, a lot of the stage direction was pointed towards the area of this seat. So those numbers are worth booking!

Onto the play itself. The main thing that attracted me to this story that I had never heard of before was that is was a rewrite by Carol Ann Duffy. Got to love the Duffster. She reworked a 15th century play originally entitled: 'The Somonyng of Everyman'.

Here is a brief summary from the National Theatre website:

Everyman is successful, popular and riding high when Death comes calling. He is forced to abandon the life he has built and embark on a last, frantic search to recruit a friend, anyone, to speak in his defence. But Death is close behind, and time is running out.

It really is quite a journey that you're taken through. Visually and verbally. Duffy manages to balance her fantastic ear for the modern day voice with the original morals of the play. It felt as if she had rewritten this with a Shakespearean twist. And the mix of those two things worked fantastically well.

It's a fantastically choreographed moral spectacle, that leaves you thinking about it's themes long after the curtains have closed. (These being metaphorical curtains, as there were none.)

However, if you aren't lucky enough to be able to get into London to check this out (don't get me started on the London-centrism for culture that we have in the UK) but the National Theatre have this fantastic scheme in place. They broadcast live certain performances in cinemas across the UK. This particular play, 'Everyman' is going to be shared live on 16th July so check out your nearest cinema to see if they are showing it. I've already seen two other performances via this live streaming service in the cinema, 'A View From The Bridge' and 'Man + Superman'. And they were really enjoyable that you didn't feel like you were missing out too much at not being there. So definitely recommended!

Wot? No Fish!!

A sneaky little exhibition that is currently hiding under a passage way that's part of the Southbank Centre.

Wot? No Fish!! is an exhibition that displays the doodles by Ab Solomons drawn on his wage packet given to his wife, Celie. (Who was often the subject matter of these mini artworks.)

This beautiful, quiet, unassuming exhibition charts the relationship between two people. The good and the bad. Everything is displayed very simply, to allow easy digestion of this very human story. It is definitely worth a peek, particularly as it is free!

Review: Decision (EXHIBITION)

Today I went to see the current exhibition on at the Hayward Gallery in London. It's a solo show featuring the work of Carsten Holler (imagine the umlaut) who is probably most remembered in London for his slide installation at Tate Modern some time ago. (I'm not going to lie, the slide that you see in the photo above was the main swung it for me.)

The exhibition is a little pricey (even with the student discount) unless you are an Art Fund Member. (I may write a post about this a different time.) With this discount it only cost a cool £6.75 to get in (otherwise it is £15 for a full paying adult.)

Now I came out of this exhibition thinking on thing: this is an art exhibition for people that don't like art. And that's because a lot of it didn't feel like art, because the form the artworks take can be interpreted as closer to objects of play than the preconceived notion of 'art'. So not necessarily a bad comment, or a good one to be fair. Some of the time it felt as if this work was just offering itself up the public, in a desperate attempt to be liked. This attitude towards making art is definitely one I enjoy, however, it can easily feel gimmicky and cheap. And occasionally, I felt like some of the pieces did this. At times it felt like more of an amusement park, than pieces of art. 

However, there were two stand out pieces for me. The first, was the very first piece you were confronted with. And confronted is completely the right word. 'Decision Corridors' basically does what it says on the tin. Immediately, after stepping foot into the exhibition you are in a corridor. A metal corridor that very quickly turns pitch black. You are given instructions before you enter. Walk slowly. Keep one hand on the wall at all time. I felt like I was in some sort of Greek Myth. Anyway, you slowly negotiated your way around this one way in one way out maze, until it spat you out into the florescent lighting of the gallery onto the next part of the exhibition.

The second, is, you've guessed it, the slides. 'Isometric Slides' are big. And fun. And reminiscent of fair grounds. Once you decide to go on these, there is no going back. These are the point of no return. Basically, it's how you leave the exhibition. And what a way to do so. Leaving in style. (Who cares about arriving anyway.) What I'm trying to get at, is make sure you've seen all the other parts of the exhibit before you slide on down. I found myself giggling/squealing as I went down (it was much more bumpy than I thought it would be) and it was much fun. I didn't really think about much though apart from how I can kind of see bits of London as I slide down this thing, and of course the bump thought and wondering what I sounded like to other people. It was kind of cool to think that I was the sliding down person that someone saw, just as I did before I went inside. (As a participant of the slide, you do essentially become the spectacle.)

All in all, I'm glad I went. However, I'm not sure I would have paid £15 to see it. (I do understand the reasoning for this cost - it's purely because of the amount of invigilators needed for each artwork, due to health and safety I imagine, because they are very participatory and things could easily go wrong if someone wasn't there to ensure the smooth running of the exhibition and the protection of the artworks.) But if you like art disguising itself in something else, or appearing to be something its not, this might be the exhibition for you.

Review: The Audience (PLAY)

After a brief absence we are back in business with an onslaught of posts! The first being a play that I saw on Monday. The Audience starring Kristin Scott Thomas in its second rival on the West End.

We paid the princely sum of £25 for a seat in the Grand Circle (a.k.a the Balcony as there is no higher level) and the view was really good! I was worried that we might find it difficult to seeing properly but for the price we paid I was very impressed! Unfortunately, most of the closer seats soon shot up in price to £50 and higher. (If you're interested, we were in Row E, with the seats closest to the aisle.)

Now I need to move away from my chat on seating otherwise I'll never stop. The play itself was very interesting. I have never thought about the relationship between the monarchy and elected politicians before. Although I am not a fan of the monarchy, the Queen has been the stable pillar for the past 63 years in between a revolving door of politicians. 12 to be exact. From Churchill to Cameron. And from the looks of it, she simply listens and nods to what they say. It was interesting to see these imagined audiences between the Queen and her Prime Minister. And much more amusing than I thought it would be. The tone of the play really was impressive as it balanced poignant moments with a handful of laugh-out-loud ones. It gives you insight to what it must be like to have a certain path forced upon you (in this case, to become the reigning sovereign.) Additionally, in a way, the play also acts as a history lesson.

And that's how it ends. The Queen, standing in front of what she calls 'her dirty dozen'. It is quite spooky to see these famous figures, leaders of the United Kingdom standing in one group together, solemnly looking out onto us, the real audience, as the curtain falls.

Definitely worth a ticket if you can grab one. On until 25th June 2015.