Alternative Berlin

In the online world we live in today, privacy is a major issue. Though most people go through out their day without blinking an eye when presented with “Click OK to Accept Our New Privacy Policy”. Our natural instinct these days it to just “press ok” and go on living our lives. But when we dig deeper and actually read the new privacy policies of most of these social networking/online platforms, we see that our rights as as users are slowly depleting. (See: Instagram’s New Private Policyhttp://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-16/business/36384825_1_instagram-function-photos-new-terms) Google is one of the main culprits in this conversation. Not only are they logging every single search you do but also taking pictures of people without their knowledge or permission and using them on their website. Google Street View is a very popular tool that gives you a birds eye view of an address you are looking for with great detail. There is no denying that Google really did something great here but when the Google van comes around, it takes pictures of whatever/whomever is in the view, without their permission.

Street Ghost is a project by Paolo Cirio. As Paolo states on the website: “In this project, I exposed the specters of Google’s eternal realm of private, misappropriated data: the bodies of people captured by Google’s Street View cameras, whose ghostly, virtual presence I marked in Street Art fashion at the precise spot in the real world where they were photographed”

Street Ghosts places low resolution posters of people taken from Google Street View and places them right at the exact place where the photo was taken. Paolo uses the photo, with the Google watermark on them, and puts them in a lot of “Street Art Hall of Fames” in Berlin, NYC, London just to name a few.

Since Berlin is a hub of Street Art and Graffiti, a typical Berliner would probably not blink an eye at this type of paste up, especially were Paolo put this work. All along Dircksenstrasse in Berlin Mitte, you can see works for hundreds of different street artists and graffiti artists so seeing another paste up would probably not matter to most people but this project is very topical and very different.

With Berlin’s history, people having their photos taken without their permission is always a sensitive topic. And rightfully so. Less that 25 years ago, Berliners living in the East were spied on relentlessly by friends, neighbors, and even family members. (See: Stasi; Secret Police of the East - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi). So it is very appropriate that Paolo brings his idea to a city that has this type of privacy history. In 2011, Germany brought a halt to Google Street View (See:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/11/google_street_view_germany/) But all the images taken prior to this ruling are still up. Google just will not expand or update any of the images. It begs to ask the question: Who is taking your picture without you knowing and what are they doing with this data?

You can follow Paolo’s fantastic, eery project here: http://streetghosts.net

I have many photos of the Eastside gallery before the make over and touching up it recieved in 2010 more importantly the “Other”  backside or Westside of the Eastside Gallery of the wall were some amazing pieces by KACOA77, 156 crew, Poet, Sear  from GFA crew, Loomit and hordes of other guys. With the touch up they (Berlin city) completely buffed the wall white on the Westside removing pieces that had been there for years in exchange for a plain, dull looking tourist friendly piece of white shit. It truly was one of the most impressive examples of Berlin´s world famous graffiti scene but the city decided to ignore this art history and make this wall , this symbol of separation and division an example of what they believe or want people to believe what is art and what is not.

The brainwashing till this day still continues in many ways with the white washing and beautification of such an icon. Tourists pose infront of the wall, the wall sells on postcards, t-shirts. The Berlin city marketing campaign has us believe the Eastside gallery section of the wall is a magnificent exhibtion, bright, colourful and uplifting. The wall is indeed very marketable and sells very well. Most people are unfortuantely oblivous to the history of it or what it stood for, lives lost because of it and those who profit from it.

But what happened to the rest of this so-called “Anti Fascist barrier” ?  Over 168 km´s wasn´t just chopped up and sold on postcards or ended up in the German history museum or in the backyards of Germans wanting a personal souvenoir. So after doing some research on the missing wall, some very interesting and strange locations were unearthed for the final resting places of this ominous and frightening structure that for so many years wrapped around the head of the GDR like a concrete blindfold.

Some places that house parts of the wall such as The Allied museum in Berlin ,  The EU Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France and The Esplanade of the 9th of November 1989, Porte de Versailles, Paris, France make perfect sense to me  but how the hell did the Berlin wall end up in the the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts in Bangladesh, The Centre de Commerce mondial de Montréal, Québec, Canada, The St George’s Mall in Capetown, South Africa and the Vatican of all places ???

I understand some crafty businessminded folks might have quickly realized that the Wall is  a very attractive souvenoir or tourist attraction but I must wonder who controls this or allows this trade of the Berlin wall ? Surely these traders pay tax no ? Or is the wall the sort of rich artistic commodity that increases in value in time or according to who has previously owned it ? I mean surely a piece of the wall from The Ronald Reagan Peace Garden at Eureka College in Illinois, USA is worth a tad more than a piece from the Harmonie German Club in Canberra, Australia or the 10 segments of the wall that were delivered on Valentine’s Day 2008 to the town of Spilamberto, Spain have a bit more romanticism than the piece at the Samilgyo bridge in Seoul, South Korea ?

If the Ampelman traffic light symbol has been patented and the owner reputedly has made a fortune out of it then surely there is enough parts of the wall or shares of the Berlin wall to indeed turn it into shares or float the wall on Wall street. As I mentioned before some amazing art adorns the Eastside gallery (The most famous stretch of the wall) and formerly some super graffiti. The famous image of Thiery Noir´s minimal cartoon like face is still on display at The Eastside gallery, Potsdamerplatz and numerous pieces sold around the world. Thiery was one of the original wall painters, crawling through, under, above the wall to paint it while it stood, avoiding border guards and various hazards to make political statements about this ridiculous wall separating families, a nation and the Eastern and Western worlds. Him and his partner Chistopher Bouchet clearly had an emotional attachment to the wall even after the wall fell when they battled in court to recieve some of the profits from the sale of the wall which contained their art. They possibly did not have the same emotional attachment as the Swedish woman who in 1979 married the Berlin wall , legally !  This is another story altogether but begs the question does this mean this woman also has a claim to ownership of her husbands assets, The body of The Berlin wall? I´d really like to see such a ridiculous situation like a custody or inheritance battle land in the European courts like some sort of real life Phil Donahue show. That would be some pretty amazing publicity for quirky Berlin thats for sure.

Some parts of the wall still remain at large or unknown like the pieces that went missing after an exhibition in Basel, Switzerland and  New York City. Some pieces have found homes at Army bases and Forts in America and England. Others have found pride of place at Global business empires such as Microsoft in Redmond, Washington to some unknown reason to inspire employees. While the wall has made it´s way to South America, Asia and Nova Scotia, Canada it good to see Germany also still owns some pieces in Bremen and also Berlin at the Freedom Park, Brunnenstrasse and some pieces hidden away from sight awaiting the next wave of buyers of this most unusual of collectors items.

Click here for a list of  Wikipedia´s known destinations for The Berlin Wall

When people say that Berlin has an explosive underground, they aren’t just referring to its radical nightlife and its alternative scenes.  The city’s soil itself is liberally peppered with unexploded WWII explosives.  This is a city where everyday activities like digging a vegetable patch, building a house or even taking a boat ride could potentially bring you face-to-face with a grenade or bomb.  In other words, you don’t have to be radical to feel like you’re living life on the edge!

Unexploded bombs are just one part of Berlin’s legacy as an ex-Nazi stronghold that is still felt by its modern residents.  In the days leading up to Hitler’s downfall, more than 465,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped on Berlin and about one eighth of those bombs never exploded.  They lie rusting below the city’s calm fields and in its river banks like so many overripe seeds, ready to explode at a moment’s notice into a fiery bloom.

A year doesn’t go by in this city without at least a couple of these bombs putting in an cameo appearance, bobbing up from the bed of the river Spree or nestled in an old building foundation, like sinister time capsules.  Now that Tegel airport is due to be transformed into an alternative cultural and entertainment park, the unexploded bomb issue has resurfaced with a vengeance.  A few bombs were found at the airport, both during its construction and after its opening.  No doubt the demolition crews will have to tread lightly too, as will future visitors.  That should add a shot of adrenalin to the activities of artists and dissidents who end up using the space!

So it’s easy to understand why Berlin has such an edgy reputation: the entire city is walking on tenterhooks.  But don’t worry.  If you’re taking a tour with Alternative Berlin you can always take comfort from the fact that we’re  insured for bomb explosions!

Work in RAW Tempel by street artist Italian 'Alice'

Berlin´s street art scene can never be accused of being stagnant, inactive, lazy or boring. The sheer volume of local artists and international visitors ensures that the scene moves and develops at a frantic pace. But like most creative disciplines, it goes through peaks and troughs. There are times when the level of excitement seems to reach fever pitch; for instance, when the likes of Viktor Ash, Vhils and Blu suddenly appeared in the city’s urban precincts a few years ago. In recent months, there have been visits from other street art heavyweights,  as well as lesser-known newcomers.  All seem to be stopping passers-by in their tracks with clever, imaginative works.  Like gallery enthusiasts buzzing about new exhibitions in the city’s more chic creative spaces, everyday Berliners proudly point out and comment upon these ever changing street art works in their vibrant, colourful neighbourhoods.  Below are the works of three artists who have been making regular contributions to Berlin’s street art buzz.

Jimmy C
Last week three stunning new pieces appeared at venues in Mitte and Friedrichshain by street artist Jimmy C.  He was able to lay down these three murals with the help of location scout Enar, who also works at Alternative Berlin as a guide and artist.  Jimmy C hails from Adelaide, Australia.  In the 1990’s Jimmy became known for his aerosol murals in urban and regional communities across Australia.  Later, Jimmy played a part in developing in South Australia’s graffiti scene. By coordinating numerous community arts projects, he gave street art a broader acceptance in the community while teaching street art techniques to young fans of the art form. Jimmy C has exhibited his art all over the world: Sydney, London, Japan and London.  Some of his most familiar works can be seen on the city streets he quietly visits. Wandering around the streets of these cities, one occasionally spots incredible murals like the one below, at Haus Schwarzenberg.

Jimmy C is best known for his drip painting style. The Drip painting technique is a form of abstract art perfected by mid-twentieth century artist Jackson Pollock.  Paint is dripped or poured onto the canvas using unconventional tools like sticks, hardened brushes and even blasting syringes, creating energetic abstract works.  Mexican muralists painters such as David Alfaro Siqueiros specialize in this technique but Jimmy C has transformed it through the use of aerosols and brushes.

Zipper.
With a colourful assembly of spaceships and outer-worldly characters, street artist Zipper is rocketing to a high position in Berlin’s streetart scene. His cleverly-placed “D.A.D.’s” (as he calls them) can be seen above cafes, on traffic lights, city walls and even passing trams, where they put a smile on the faces of anyone looking to the skies for inspiration. There are literally hundreds of these rockets lighting up the streets of Berlin and Hamburg.

Zipper production line

Zipper’s rocketships are produced in secret, possibly in Hamburg, where he resides.  Some are simply cut and painted on foam and others are intricately designed.  Most feature spaceships and space characters like ‘Rock´n Roll Man’ and ‘The Street fighter’.
One gets the feeling there are perhaps a few cleverly hidden messages in the works. Some are accompanied by the caption, ‘WE NEED SPACE’.  To me this suggests that all of us in the urban environment are becoming an endangered species… but I recommend that you get out there, find all the pieces of Zipper’s puzzle, and piece together their meanings for yourself. Feel free to post your interpretations here!  You can check out some more of Zipper’s rippers on his Facebook page.

AliCè.
Alice Pasquini is a visual artist, illustrator, painter and set designer from Rome, Italy.  She specializes in animation for cinema and television at the ARS ANIMACION school. Her artwork, which features a distinctive teal or aqua hue and beautifully-drawn illustrations, can be seen on the streets of London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and now Berlin too. Her work quite often features strong, empowered women displaying acts of love, hope, and affection.  While other public art features themes such as despair, homelessness,  anger, frustration and political angst, Alice´s art brings a more uplifting, romantic quality to the streets.

Following Alice’s career on the streets of Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, one gets the sense of watching an imaginary character’s life unfold. Hopes, memories, dreams, fantasies, friendship and even pets feature in her beautiful, illustrative works. Sometimes her works take the form of huge murals, as in Rome and London, while others are so tiny you could pass them every day and not spare a thought for the imaginary beings they depict. Alice’s works can be seen on Schliesches Strasse , Kottbusser damm, RAW Tempel.  She often works alongside the equally-talented stencil artist C215.

Alice says she creates art about people and their relationships.  “I’m interested in representing human feelings and exploring different points of view.  I am often annoyed by female stereotypes proposed by artists [..] I am seduced instead by real women and hope that, by proposing a different female universe in the street, I will help build a new image of women.”  It would be almost impossible to convey the scope of her work in this blog entry, it’s so diverse.  Instead, I urge you to take a deep dive here.

Alternative Berlin runs a a dedicated Street Art Tour and Workshop which explores the city’s street art landmarks, both the classics and the newest, buzz-generating pieces in town.  Book a tour here and we’ll show you the big picture (pardon the pun)!

Bedrohung, Zwangsversteigerung, Rettung, Evakuierung, Umzäunung, Protest, Hungerstreik, Stürmung, Auszug, Rückkehr – das Tacheles hat seit 1909 sicherlich viel erlebt doch in den letzten Monaten überschlagen sich die Meldungen und versucht man von den Künstlern im Haus zu erfahren wie es weiter geht bleibt unter´m Strich die Meinung: Nichts Genaues weiß man nicht aber wir bleiben hier und kämpfen.

Seit Beginn unserer alternativen Touren besuchen wir das Tacheles, unterschreiben Petitionen, gehen zu Demonstrationen und bangen um die Existenz des Gebäudes und der Ateliers, Shops und Werkstätten der Künstler. Nach Monaten der Sorge und Frage: Was passiert, wenn die Investoren gewinnen und das Kunsthaus stirbt haben wir letzte Woche gesehen wie die Zukunft aussehen könnte.

Laut Vereinsatzung ist der Zweck des Tacheles die Förderung von Kunst und Kultur und das Bestreben mit Veranstaltungen und Workshops zur Verständigung zwischen den Völkern beizutragen, die Gründungsidee: Freiräume für alternative Kunst und Kultur schaffen. Sie verschwinden zwar zunehmends doch sind immer noch hier: Freiräume für Kreativität, Subkultur und alles wofür wir Berlin so lieben und Pro Art Tacheles schickt seit Samstag die Skulpturen aus dem Tacheles auf Reise. Das Projekt M.A.P. Mobile Art Project startete im Plus Hostel Berlin.

Im Innenhof haben die Skulpturen endlich wieder einen Platz gefunden und auch eine Werkstatt für neue Kreationen sowie ein Ausstellungsraum sind entstanden. In ungewohnt zeitgenössischer Architektur zwischen Anzügen finden sich die Künstler, Punks und das übliche Publikum. Zuerst etwas merkwürdig dann aber sehr inspirierend und zukunftsweisend. Über die Ausstellung hinaus organisiert der Verein Art Pro Tacheles in den Räumen des Hotels wechselnde Exhibits und stellt Wohnräume und Ateliers für internationale Künstler zu Verfügung.

Die Vernissage war der Startschuss für Das Mobile Art Project (M.A.P.) und setzt sich als Ziel die Gründungs-Idee des Tacheles in Berlin zu verbreiten und Freiräume für Künstler, offene Ateliers für Besucher zu schaffen und Kurse und Workshops anzubieten.

Parallel zu der neuen Metallwerkstatt an der Warschauer Brücke ist in den vergangenen Wochen auch ein anderes neues Künstlerhaus in Kreuzberg entstanden, welches sich ebenso zum Ziel setzt kreativen Menschen bezahlbare Räume zur Verfügung zu stellen. In der alten Post in der Skalitzer öffnete das WYE zum ersten Mal seine Türen für Besucher des Vodoo Marktes und die 2 von 4 geöffneten Geschosse machen Hoffnung auf kulturellen Freiraum, tolle Events, offene Ateliers und Workshops.

Was die Hoffnung auf das Überleben des Tacheles seit April aufrecht erhält, auch wenn das Gebäude zu schwinden scheint ist Treptopolis

. Gegründet von Kemal Cantürk, der bereits 1990 bei der Besetzung des Tacheles anwesend war, bietet der alter Supermarkt in Treptow alles was das subkulturelle Herz begehrt: Kino, Theatherbühne, Metall Skulpturen und bald ein Cafe im Hof.

Die Gedanken sind frei und so ist die Kunst – Vielen Dank für die neuen Gebäude und Initiativen, wir haben wieder Hoffnung dass die Idee des kreativen Freiraums bestehen bleibt auch wenn die HSH die Oranienburger Straße verschlingt. Vielleicht kann Privatisierung und Zerstörung auch ein Neubeginn sein auch wenn der Kampf um den Erhalt des Tacheles bei allen an oberster Stelle steht.

In the very same week that Tacheles is threatened, a new art squat makes the  scene by hosting an exhibition of 28 independent artists.  The amount  of people willing to make the trek out to suburban Weisensee for an exhibition opening on a Thursday night probably speaks to the social skills of the artists  involved in Things Fall Apart but it also symbolized the void that  Tacheles’  virtual closure has left in Berlin’s non-commercial arts  scenes.

The facebook page for Things Fall Apart reads, “The artists of the show were inspired to breathe new life into these forgotten spaces and interpret what it means to fall apart.”   American ex-pat and Alternative Berlin guide Benjamin Spalding interpreted this theme through an altar room made up of discarded and found personal possesions.  The result was a darkly cool space lit with melted candles massed on every surface, their light reflecting off the high ceilings.  It was like stepping inside of a Christian-pagan chapel from a freer time in history.

Ben, left: “I always imagine myself hacking through a very deep, dark, purple  forest and coming across different signs and decoding them.”

Ben was one of four artists at the exhibition who moonlights as a tour guide for Alternative Berlin.  Or perhaps it would be better to say that they ‘daylight’ as guides for Alternative Berlin because lately their nights have been preoccupied with conceiving and developping this exhibition.  By day they’ve been giving tourists and travellers the inside scoop on Berlin’s underground scenes but by night, they have been hard at work creating portraits, politically surreal installations and scrap altars for this exhibition  You can see some of the results of their works below.

Below: Army tent installation by Penny Rafferty

The exhibition has been so popular that it will be kept open for another two weeks and visitors may well find themselves rubbing shoulders with Mayor Klaus Wowereit, since he’s expressed an interest in checking it out.

Before the advent of ECC Atelierhaus, the exhibition space, Weissensee was an overlooked neighbourhood but Things Fall Apart has helped to put it on the map for Berlin’s alternative arts scene.

Events like Things Fall Apart shouldn’t really be called exhibitions at all because actually, they are convergence points for the living, breathing community that is Berlin’s non-commercial arts scene.   To the outside observer, a gallery like Weisensee might seem to have sprung up out of nowhere.  Some might even be tempted to conclude that places like this are transient or built on hype – a cultural flash-in-the-pan.  In reality, the Berlin art scene’s ability to disassemble and then re-assemble itself anywhere at relatively short notice is a testament to its cohesiveness as a community. We at Alternative Berlin are proud that our own guides can be a part of that.

Right: Portrait by Alana Richards

Berlin’s an easy place to blend in to.  You just throw on some big shades and a bright scarf, team them with a pair of drain-pipe jeans and Docs, maybe some legwarmers too. If you’re a girl you tousle up your hair for that bed head-look and if you’re a boy, you cut some Emo bangs into your hair.  Being a local in Berlin can be all about copping a certain style: eighties style.  Hip locals drink Champagne (Sekt) and cocktails in bars with brash names like Cocaine Cowboys and Flamingo while flipping through magazines with names like Neon.

Berlin’s love of all things 1980s isn’t just skin-deep though – the retro revival in this city also exists on a deeper level. What? I hear you ask, the eighties had a deeper level? I know, it’s easy to think of the Decade of Decadence as a shallow time. And it was shallow, at least on the surface it was. But as the Goliath of capitalism gorged itself it became more bloated and sluggish, while the Davids of the underground multiplied and grew nimble from taking aim at it. Animal rights, graffiti & stencil art, recycling, culture jamming, fanzines, scrap art, hardcore punk, feminism: all of these dissenting subcultures and countercultures became more meaningful in the 80s, because they offered a refuge from the overwhelming social ills of corruption, waste and vanity.

Berlin’s famous street art scene can be traced back to the hip hop and culture-jamming scenes of the eighties, as well as protest stencils like those done by Crass. Combinations of all three street art forms can be found on virtually every Berlin wall; in this city, street artists like Alias and El Bocho are taking them to the next level.  Their works are better-executed, the messages more profound and their imagery richer than that of their predecessors. They seem to be honing these once-shocking mediums to ensure that their messages still get out and sink in.

Print fanzines are making a comeback too, as are the glossier indie mags that base their style on eighties fanzine culture.  But the real revival of independent publishing is happening online.  Berlin has a vibrant blog culture which serves the purpose of reporting on alternative activities that are just too transient, elusive and widespread for any traditional paper to cover them. Then there are the old school regulars like Stressfaktor, which has been keeping Berlin’s left-wing underground connected for years.

Scrap art is also big in Berlin.  The style really became cool in the 1980s when it was adopted by edgy underground collectives like Mutoid Waste Co., who infamously recreated Stonehenge with Panzer tanks in Potsdamer Platz. Arresting metal sculptures may not steal the limelight quite as brazenly as they did back then, but they still define the city’s aesthetic: Eschloraque, Monster Kabinett, Peristal Singum at Wilden Renate and Majak Theatre are some of the underground institutions that embody Berlin’s industrial soul.

Two of Berlin’s most fashionable boroughs, Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg, also came to international fame in the 80s because they acted as havens for squatters, punks, immigrants and anybody else who got a rude reception from the materialist mainstream. These areas may be swarming with trend-setters today but their unrepentant independence can still be seen in shops like Who Killed Bambi? which proudly flaunts its ’100% Corporation Free’ status. Other independent shops worth checking out are X-Trax (goth), Depot Zwei (hip hop) and Coretex (hardcore).

To gauge the popularity of gender-bending one needs look no further than Christopher Street Day (CSD) and Transgeniale CSD street parties, a.k.a. the German Gay Pride demonstrations. Transgender CSD emphatically blurs the boundaries between the genders to make a quasi-political point about categorization and stereotyping, where as the original CSD is more populist and quickly becoming ‘the new Love Parade’, according to some people. What’s uplifting is the amount of people from all across society who go to both events.  Clearly, Berliners are happy to keep people guessing about their gender and sexuality. Boy George would be proud!

Most of these underground, counter-cultural trends also existed in the 60s and 70s but it was the consumerism of the eighties that really brought them to the surface, particularly in cities like London and New York.  Berlin’s underground may not have a monopoly over the Mitte, Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain these days but, by placing it next to modern capitalism, its value has become even clearer.  It’s analysis of the mainstream has only become sharper in contrast.  The next few years will be a turning point for this city, just as the 1980s were a turning point for New York and London. And since Berlin has only ever marched to the beat of its own drummer, there is a good chance that it will pick a different path than London and New York did.

A few weeks ago I mentioned an exhibition by Ben de Biel, a multi-talented photographer who recorded Berlin’s post-Wall years, when much of the city was still an unreconstructed melee.  And when I say unreconstructed, what I really mean is that it was natural.   The city then really was a concrete jungle: bricks escaping from the confines of their walls, girders sagging and twisting like vines, wood being warped by the elements into elegant mis-shapes.  It was as if the elements had escaped the linear confines of the man-made environment.  Naturally, this encouraged Berlin’s residents to do the same.

As a result, the urban environment became a place where creativity and evolution flowed as seamlessly as the traffic in other major cities did.  Some of the city’s best legendary nightclubs have showcased the results – the best surviving example today being Kater Holzig.  Some people may be surprised to learn that this exclusive club is located on a site with a long legacy of underground activity.  Before the current residents moved in, the old factory had housed at least two underground clubs and a queer wagon community (Schwarzer Kanal).  The traces of old occupants could still be seen until recently: mannequin-cum-scupltures beckoned from the windows, colourful wagons parked in the yard and elaborated graffiti covering the walls.

The Turkish House in Kreuzberg is another example of how the city has merged with nature.   In 1983 a recently-arrived Turkish immigrant claimed an unused stretch of land beside the Berlin Wall to plant fruits and vegetables for his family.  Though Mr Kalin met with initial resistance from the border guards, he soon made peace with them and he has been using the site for 29 years now.   Over time it has expanded to include a makeshift house which incorporates a living tree growing alongside, and within, it.  Some of the nature that sprouted up in Berlin’s years of dereliction has also found a permanent home in guerrilla gardens, like Princess Gardens, Moritzplatz.

It was not only plants that took root in Berlin’s fertile, derelict territories; people’s imaginations also used the opportunity to grow. RAW Tempel, an old train depot in Friedrichshain, is a good example of how.  The depot was bombed heavily in WWII and remained filled with rubble until 1998, when some creative, resourceful locals who were tired of looking at its depressing view, single-handedly cleared the site.  Today, the depot is a thriving cultural hotspot with a theatre, several clubs and live music venues, a skate park and climbing tower.  The ethos of restoration and creativity has become the defining feature of the culture that has arisen around both the RAW and in the rest of Berlin.

It would be wrong to say that Berlin is a city where people have started thinking outside the box by choice; rather, the box was blown to bits during two world wars and a peaceful revolution. Creative “nature” helped to rebuild it in body, spirit and mind, and you can see how firsthand with Alternative Berlin on one of our Real Berlin Tours.

If you get to talking to people who have lived in Berlin for a long time, there is one name that you will probably hear again and again: Ben de Biel.  The native Hamburger (how I love using that phrase) has been living here since the early 1990s.  In those days, the trendy neighbourhoods of Friedrichshain and Mitte were basically a succession of rubble heaps with walls.  It took a lot of doing to eke the current level of street cred out of them (especially considering that the streets were often impassible) but Ben de Biel managed to contribute a fair amount to their word of mouth with his insider’s perspective of the scene.

A photographer by trade, de Biel was one of the early underground Berliners to focus his lens on the surreal street scenes created by crusties, artists, immigrants and other adventurous types as they settled into the newly-reunified city, leaving a trail of acid-washed mayhem in their wake.  From now until February 18th, the .HBC gallery in Mitte will be exhibiting de Biel’s photos from early 1990s Berlin.  His images record a topsy-turvy world of barely-there buildings, plastered with scrap art and inhabited by dreadlocked nomadic natives of no place in particular.  The urban jungle that he depicts is currently endangered and rapidly becoming extinct worldwide, like so many other wildernesses.

Another project initiated by Ben de Biel is Club Maria, a warehouse on the river Spree which served as an hedonist HQ from 1998 until 2010.  This month, Club Maria will return from the dead for the third time.   The property that the club stands on is awaiting redevelopment as part of the hugely-unpopular Mediaspree project but the cold economic climate in Europe seems to have given its corporate landlords cold feet, because they keep on pushing the club’s final eviction date back.  So on February 17th, Berlin’s clubland will once again experience a sense of deja-vu as Club Maria reopens for the third time under a new name – MAGDAlena

Yet another Ben de Biel project (this guy never seems to sleep) is working as a spokesperson for Berlin’s branch of the Pirate Party.  Founded in 2006, the Pirate Party has vowed to ensure freedom of the internet in Europe.  Naturally,  the party is also opposed to commercial developments like Mediaspree.  Germany is the first country where the Pirates have gotten into parliament and the majority of their supporters are here in Berlin.  I suspect that they also have de Biel to thank for that fact.

It’s not really that hard to see why this rubble rebel’s name comes up so often in Berlin’s underground circles: as an artist, a clubber and a left-wing politician, Ben de Biel really is the quintessential Berliner.

You can check out even more of the city’s underground art galleries by booking a private gallery tour with Alternative Berlin.  All our tours are guided by local artists who, like Mr. de Biel, can give you the low-down on the city’s underground.

All photos © Ben de Biel

If you are waiting for a train at Goerlitzer Bahnhof today, you might notice something a little unusual about the view there.  Inside of the station’s light boxes, the usual images of flawless models striking sophisticated, sexy poses have been replaced by a less-than-sweet sort of eye candy. Disfigured with sweeping streaks of solvent, these models have had their ‘come hither ‘expressions transformed into zombie like masks of horror.

This light box installation is clearly not part of any ad campaign that a corporate PR team would give the green light to.  In fact, it is the latest in a string of hit-and-run exhibitions by Vermibus, a local ad-busting artist.  Vermibus has been quoted as saying that his works are designed to “tear the masks off the advertising models and the subsequent retouching of photographers” in order to reveal “the true reality of being.”

Ad-busting is part of a long tradition of interfering with the mind-numbing volume of commercial messages to which the individual is subjected in daily urban life.  There are many more examples of it doing the rounds in Berlin at the moment: one campaign has subverted ads for Christina Aguilera’s new album by pasting images of a Photoshop interface over the pop diva’s portrait.  It seems to highlight the artificial quality of images within the pop industry, particularly those of female stars.

Recently, another group of ad-busters in Kreuzberg targeted Marlboro’s “Don’t be a Maybe” poster campaign – the results of which can be seen at the top of this entry.

Both these images have been re-blogged from the excellent ad-busting website BrandInfection.com, where more examples of Berlin art attacks can be found.

If you’re interested in learning more about ad-busting, why not check out one of Alternative Berlin’s street art tours?  Our team of guides includes experienced street artists who can show you these works as well as helping you learn how to make your own subversive stencils.