The city is saturated with art and culture as evident from the demographic of our household; a student playwright, a rapper, a burgeoning fashion designer, a photographer-come-skate boarder and a dentist with a love for Greek film. Together they created the artsy household of the 'Happy Veygay' and were in the middle of organising a photoshoot of the flatmates. The end result to be hung between the skull and bones, the masking tape jelly fish and Wallace and Gromit moon loungers. Art is everywhere.
Escape the house, hit the U-bahn. On the journey get harassed by a German interpretation of 'Hit the Road Jack' en route to the Berlinische Galerie to view German art from 1880 - 1980. From Impressionism through to Dadism , Abstraction and recent artistic practice. The drastic change in artistic discourse as a result of a turbulent social and political history is incredible and it is hard to believe that it was in the space of only 100 years.
Berlinische gallery isn't too big, you won't have gallery feet yet, so beeline straight to the renovated Hamburger Bahnhof. This gallery currently houses early work of Joseph Beuys and later documentation of his visit to Japan. Tomas Saraceno has an impressive installation on in the main hall, he addresses science, nature and the fragile spheres that we live in. Around the corner the Architecktonika exhibit deals with sculpture, spatial constructions and pictorial spaces borrowed from architectural forms. It reflects on practices in building design and the creation of urban spaces. The artists shown include Sol LeWitt, Gordon Matta-Clark, Carl Andre and Bruce Nauman, to name a handful.
If the contemporary art is taking up too much of your head space, grab a kebab, the food source invented in Berlin 40 years ago this year! Historical and delicious. And if you want something older than that visit the beautiful Pergamon (not to be confused with Pokemon) altar. The detail of the sculpture is phenomenal and in stark contrast with the overall size of the altar. It is massive. Each arm embraces you and encourages you to sit, relax and stare. Making you all too aware that the Germans had their thinking caps on when they invested in Classical art and architecture.
It's Sunday. You're likely to be hungover. Most shops are closed and you couldn't handle another museum or kebab even if you wanted to. Bypass 'Who killed bambi?' on Eberswalder Strasse (but miss your flight on Monday and go back for great clothes) and head for Mauerpark. It is a market which provides everything, clothes, food, bicycles, cameras, furniture, bags and violins haggled from €75 down to €45. When you have purchased everything you probably have no need for, sit in your €10 1960's mustard yellow bucket chair and watch the poi, juggling and the outdoor open mike karaoke (apparently invented by an Irish guy, why isn't there one here!?).
Stroll home, chair in tow, aware that you haven't even scratched the artistic surface of Berlin. Made evermore apparent when you have the art chats with the artsy flat mates. Print off your boarding pass and appreciate that it's with Aer Lingus and not with that dreaded yellow airline.
