We exercise our body, but why not our facial muscles, too? That’s what Holistic Berlin health coach Daniela Mellis, who trained in New York and Los Angeles, is all about: doing ourselves some good with online face training and skin coaching. In just ten minutes, according to Daniela, you can activate and tighten your facial muscles by breathing and stretching, and simultaneously increase collagen production to reduce – or even prevent – the appearance of wrinkles. By combining this with different beauty tools from ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine, you can really rejuvenate your skin. My personal favorite is the handy heart-shaped Gua Sha stone made of black obsidian, which can be used on almost any part of the body. But there are countless other types of beauty stone, such as the round mushrooms for the eye area, or the rectangular Gua Sha for the neck, forehead or décolleté.
For the Gua Sha to work its magic, it must work with the lymphatic flow of the face and neck. In her monthly online workshops, Daniela shows you how to get the best benefits out of your skincare routine and helps you find the best Gua Sha for your skin. Best of all, the techniques can be incorporated into your daily routine, for some me time that doesn’t take up all your time.
Text: Alison Musch / Photos: Robyn Steffen
Holistic Berlin – information about memberships here.
What awaits us after the end of the world? Tomorrow evening (03.02.2023) the exhibition DIS – Everything But the World opens at the Schinkel Pavillon. Under the direction of Nina Pohl, the art venue has become known for great opening parties, exceptional contemporary programming and intricate, yet always impressive, exhibition design. And this time, too, it does not disappoint, succeeding in embedding art within a distinctive venue. Amid Prussianesque glass architecture is the exhibition: a genre- and format-bending science fiction documentary about humankind – a species completely alienated from a world of flawed linear thinking, small-minded approaches to progress and repeated exploitation. The video installation is the brainchild of the collaborative New York-based project DIS, founded by Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, and David Toro, who drew attention in 2016 for their curation of an outstanding Berlin Biennial.
The collective has gone on to attract international attention for its interdisciplinary, collaborative approach across various platforms including DIS Magazine, DIS images, streaming platform DISart and merchandise platform DISown (which sells Angela Merkel & Condoleezza Rice Silk Scarves by Anna Sophie Berger). It is, in short, the perfect rabbit hole to get lost in as you slump down on the mattresses which Schinkel Pavillon has provided for your comfort.
Text: Hilka Dirks / Stills: DIS
Schinkel Pavillon, Oberwallstr.32, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
DIS — Everything but the World, 03–26.02.2023, Thu & Fri 14–19h, Sat & Sun 11–19h, Opening: 03.02.2023 from 18h.
@schinkelpavillon
If you’re ready to dust off your dancing shoes after a January spent laying low, Treptow’s Zenner has a midnight queue worth joining. Since relaunching in 2021 as a beer garden, the venue has established a program of club nights featuring some of the most respected names on the Berlin scene. Tomorrow (03.02.2023) it’s the turn of legendary Friday party Get Perlonized to take over Zenner’s clean-cut indoor space. The monthly club night has built a solid reputation for no-nonsense house since starting at Panorama Bar in 2004, and this night will be no different. The classic line-up includes founders Zip and Sammy Dee who join label resident Vera and UK house stalwart A Guy Called Gerald for 12 hours of time-honored dance music. Fast forward to next Saturday (18.02) and Zenner will be welcoming another distinguished player: African Acid is the Future, the label and club night run by Berlin DJ Maryama Luccioni.
Free from genre constraints, the AAITF collective is known for its innovative blending of Afro rhythms and electronic sounds. Maryama heads up a music program that includes label regular Dauwd, London-based producer Nkisi and La Chatte, a performance trio who will be serving up an electro-zouk-punk live set. Skipping from afro to techno, it’s a quality line-up that will get you right back into your party groove.
Text: Benji Haughton / Photos: Camille Blake & Iga Drobisz
Zenner, Alt-Treptow 15, 12435 Berlin–Treptow; map
You can view the club night program and buy tickets online.
@zenner.berlin
Malaysian-Singaporean restaurant Ma-Makan is bringing new flavors to Berlin. Although the German capital is known for its culinary diversity, traditional Malaysian dishes are hard to find. Kaylin Eu, who was born in Australia and is of Singaporean descent, has taken her roots and passion for her family’s cuisine to Berlin. Her dream was to create a sense of home through food, so she founded Ma-Makan, one of Berlin’s first kopi tiams (a type of cafe found in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia). Ma-Makan translates to “Mamma, eat.” Kaylin’s mother always said this to her grandmother before she started cooking, as a tribute to her hard work. Ma-Makan first launched in the form of smaller pop-ups in a wide variety of locations around the city. By the end of 2022, Kaylin was able to realize her dream and established her own restaurant, right on Lausitzer Platz.
The cuisine is inspired by traditional family recipes, infused with Kaylin’s own touch. My personal favorites were the Chwee Kueh, a steamed rice cake, and the Kaya Butter Toast, which is dipped in a mixture of eggs, pepper and soy sauce. Main course options include mushroom congee, lontong sayur lodeh and traditional Malaysian nasi lemak, a rice dish with fried egg and chili sambal. In addition to the food, Ma-Makan stands out for its interior: the modern space pays homage to hawker center restaurants – semi-open fast food restaurants on the streets of Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong that are known for their inexpensive meals. Above all, Kaylin wanted to capture the chaotic spirit and invite diners to immerse themselves in a different culture. She has succeeded in doing just that. Ready for a culinary getaway to South East Asia? We are.
Text: Theresa Garwing / Photos: Luna Schaffron
Ma-Makan, Lausitzerplatz 12, 10997 Berlin–Kreuzberg; map
Tue–Fri 12–16h & Sat 11–17h (the kitchen closes at 16h30)
@mamakanberlin
Contrary to what the title suggests, Helene Hegemann’s story collection Schlachtensee is not set in southwest Berlin. Her 15 stories take us to different parts of the world, to different people, all loosely connected. There’s Esther, surfing on the Atlantic coast of France and reflecting upon a lot, namely her father’s cancer. There is Ketti, trundling through the Austrian countryside by train on Christmas morning, having slept through the night. The stories lead to the Volga, to Kitzbühel, to a garden in South Carolina and to a hotel room on the Nile. Cleverly and clearly, Hegemann describes the contradictions and pain, but also the vulnerability and openness with which her characters drift through life. The protagonist in Sloane Crosley’s new novel Cult Classic is also adrift: Lola, a newly-engaged journalist in her late 30s, runs into one of her ex-boyfriends in New York’s Chinatown and doesn’t think much of it – until she meets another former love the next day, and another the day after that. That these encounters are no coincidence becomes clear by the time her former boss (previously an editor, now a self-declared health guru and millionaire) tells her that he has founded a new start-up. It’s supposed to help people get over breakups – and Lola was chosen as its first test subject.
The fact the book doesn’t resemble a bad episode of Black Mirror is due to Lola’s wit, her skepticism, and the wicked observations that take aim at everything that is hip and current. In the end, it seems, the only constant in Lola’s life is the city in which she lives. Lola shares this lostness with the characters in Hanna Bervoets’ new novel, We Had To Remove This Post. The setting here is Hexa, a fictional company that evaluates and moderates content for a major online platform. In 2017, The Guardian published an article on the criteria used by Facebook to delete online posts and the burden that this work places on moderators. This is where Bervoets’ story comes in: using impressively unfazed language, it shows a world of disturbing images, human abysses and inhumane working conditions. In the middle of it all is Kayleigh, a young woman who is not so much disturbed by the horrific videos and photos she sees, but rather the behavior of her colleagues. The boundaries of the virtual and analog worlds blur, and Kayleigh gets so lost in the moment that she doesn’t notice that she is getting carried away by conspiracy narratives.
Text: Laura Storfner / Cover: Cult Classic / Photos: Cottonbro, Tima Miroshnichenko & Francesca Meni
Schlachtensee: Stories by Helene Hegemann (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2022, 266 pages, in German)
Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley (Farrar, Straus and Giroux MCD, 2022, 304 pages)
We Had To Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets (Hanser Berlin, 112 pages)
@kiwi_verlag
@fsgbooks
@hanserberlin