Berlin: C/O Gallery (Christer Strömholm and Ulrich Seidl), COA, Kulturforum, Shopping

C/O Gallery

C/O Gallery (as it was until now) closed down on Friday March 8 in the evening - it was one of the most famous Berlin Galleries, so I really wanted to go take a look there before I loose the chance for a long long time. I think it's needless to say the whole Berlin had the same idea - it was crowded. Well I understand why they're closing it down - the building might look really pretty from the outside, but inside, it looked kinda like an abandoned former squat.

The last exhibition was called Post Scriptum and showed photos taken by Christer Strömholm, who I suppose must be really famous, but I'd never heard about him before I went to the gallery. Then again, all I know about photography is that it's the thing that Asinx and Marketa do that allows me to look prettier and thinner than I do IRL.

Anyway, my impression was that nowadays, the photos themselves aren't special at all - most of them could have been taken by anyone who has a camera and can hold it at least slightly straight. But Mr. Strömholm's photographs have a socio-cultural dimension I think - he took pictures of French transsexuals in Paris at the time when they certainly didn't have it easy and no decent person would even talk to them, he also photographed survivors in Hiroshima etc. 

I read the paper with explanations about his photogrpahy, but I just didn't see it - how all of them are actually a kind of self-portraits, or how he used light. But I guess someone more familiar with art theory and the artist's life would discover more details. I suggest you google-serach his name, you'll get tons of his photos I'd rather not steal and post here.

Then there were also photos from a competition of young photographers and frankly, I didn't like and understand most of them. The theme was supposed to be something like "suspense" or "tension", which is pretty vague, but even when I read what exactly the authors were trying to portrait, I didn't really like the way they chose to do it. 

And last, there were also details from the film festival - I liked one series capturing the festival by photographing the potboys, but the rest didn't really capture ma attention.

I'd never heard about Ulrich Seidl before, but there was also a room dedicated to snapshots from his trilogy Love/Faith/Hope. These movies describe the (love) life of three women - if I'm not mistaken, it's a mother, her daughter and sister (the girl's aunt). In general, the idea sounds pretty interesting, but if the snapshots were representative of how the films look like - too many naked bodies for my taste. I blushed just by walking round the gallery, it was really too much for the conservative prude I am. In short, the mother goes for a ladies' only trip to Africa and pays young African gigolos to do what I suppose gigolos do. Her sister is a conservative catholic who wishes to turn Austria to God again, but her husband is Muslim and has a slightly different idea of what she should do. And the daughter is an obese teenager sent to a slimming camp where she tries to seduce one of the supervisors who could be either her father or her grandpa.

In any case, I broadened my horizons.

Kulturforum

Cuisine of Asia

Website

Cuisine of Asia is one of my favorite restaurants in Berlin. It's located pretty much at the Potsdamer Platz and therefore it's a good place to eat before your bus leaves. They serve various asian foods, this year I got a small pot of Pho, a selection of dumplings and green tea. I was going to get matcha ice cream, but while the waiters were super fast during the first half an hour, the moment I finished eating, they didn't appear for the next hour or more, so I gave up on the dessert. I wouldn't say it's cheap, but compared to non-fast food restaurants, it's certainly on the more affordable side within Berlin center.

My outfit (Yes, I wore my ugly glasses for the whole time in Berlin because being nearly blind in a gallery is slightly troublesome)

My purchases and freebies from ITB

The tights were 0,5 E in Müller at Potsdamer Platz, the scarves only 2 E each in Colosseum in Arkaden

Cooking books from a huge bookstore at Friedrichstrasse, Korean kitchen book from ITB, magazine with candy making supplies from a store at Potsdamer Platz

Mags from a shop near Alexplatz

Yours truly

Vita