Kunst/Art

After refreshments in his flat, we set out along three floors of corridors making up the building. About half the occupants are artists and hire rooms in which to create their art. Some also live there. The owners are repairing and modernising the building. As a result more students are moving in.

Many are non-Germans so you hear a number of languages. The common lingua franca seems to be English. When I visit and we meet occupants, or go to the cafe/restaurant/meeting place for all residents, I invariably have to speak English with all, except German residents. 

Even so, the younger, non-German speakers are busy learning German, or improving it, and moving to higher language levels. When I toured the exhibits with Marcel, I used both in conversation with the artists. In some cases I asked for contact details to pass onto the AWO in Lichtenberg, which has lots of walls and is always looking for new works to exhibit. The artists happily gave me this information when I explained why!

One such artist is Dario Puggioni. Yes, with a name like that you know he hails from Italy. Both Marcel and I were very impressed with one of his pictures. He readily agreed to pose next to it. I couldn't resist posing next to a sculpture of what can only be an image of primitive man - it doesn't look like a women!

Marcel was interested in one large portrait of what looks like a women being silenced. Women's liberation still has a long way to go!

I was fascinated by a statue of what looks like soldiers from 1920/30, in a square form and with pink bendy rifles. We pondered over the meaning of this for some time and came up with many possibilities. The artist wasn't around to ask. Pity!

This is just one small example of the many things happening each evening in Berlin. Should you ever visit you will have no reason to say there was nothing to do or see :-)