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It’s Nora who explains the Korean concept of In-Yun — meaning providence or fate — to her husband in the film Past Lives: “If two strangers pass each other on the street and their clothes happen to touch, it’s because of the 8,000 layers of In-Yun.” What Nora says, half-jokingly, unknowingly captures the essence of her connection with her childhood friend Hae Sung. The two lost touch when Nora moved from South Korea to Canada as a teenager, but neither of them ever forgot the other. In their early twenties, they found each other again on Facebook and began Skyping. Then, another twelve years passed. Nora is now married and living in New York when they finally meet again. Filmmaker Celine Song captures this fateful connection with quiet, unforgettable images — moving from the streets of Seoul to a ferry on the Hudson River. It’s a love that was never quite spoken, a what-if that lingers bittersweetly.
Or, in the words of Nora’s husband: “What a good story this is. Childhood friends who find each other again twenty years later and realize that they were meant to be together”. Greta Lee and Teo Yoo play Nora and Hae Sung with such deep longing and gentle searching, you can’t help but reflect on all the lives you might have lived. Actress Jane Chirwa feels the same and recommends the film on Mubi, where it’s now available to stream. In keeping with her daydreams of an alternate life in Seoul, Jane shares one more tip in Berlin: the restaurant Choi, where you can reflect on the idea of In-Yun over a six-course meal — dumplings, seaweed rice cracker rolls, kumquat. And who knows, on your way home, you just might brush shoulders with a soul from a past life.
Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Sophie Doering / Stills: Studio Canal
“Past Lives” is now available to stream on Mubi. You can try Mubi free for 30 days via this link.
Choi, Fehrbelliner Str.4, 10119 Berlin–Prenzlauer Berg, map
@restaurantchoi
@mubideutschland
Some things are well hidden, but if you’re out and about in Berlin over the holidays, there’s plenty to discover. And we’ve got the clues. What would Easter be without chocolate? And what would chocolate be without a moment of reflection? With their Easter special, Pars ensures the holiday is not just sweet, but also meaningful. For every set sold, €10 goes to Doctors Without Borders. Four fine varieties — like woodruff from the Schorfheide and elderflower with verjus — are handmade and lovingly packaged. If you order by Saturday (19.04.2025), you can pick up your chocolate box in person from their store on Grolmanstraße. Maybe make it part of a short Easter walk? And if you stroll a little further south, you’ll come across the vernissage You Left This / Geh nicht by Aubrey Theobald, opening Thursday (17.04.). On intimate terrain, the artist explores closeness and distance, longing and boundaries, blending the familiar with the unfamiliar. Through sculpture, installation, and video, she interweaves what is often contradictory — or silently coexisting. Until Easter Monday (21.04.), her works will be on view at Backhaus Projects, waiting to be discovered. Also until Monday (17.04.–21.04.), Bar Brass is serving up springtime dishes. While their usual lunch menu takes a holiday break, the restaurant inside the Bronzegießerei am Spreebord is offering an Easter five-course menu with extra flair: compositions of Jerusalem artichoke, morels, black truffle, and purslane that read like poetry. Fresh wines from Weinservice Berlin are poured by the glass.
Prefer fine frequencies to fine food? You’ll find what you’re looking for on Good Friday at Refuge Worldwide. At Oona Bar, the radio station is hosting a B2B marathon — a day full of musical encounters and spontaneous DJ pairings. Through Saturday, around two dozen artists (including Mehmet Aslan and Femdelic) will share the decks, challenging and inspiring each other in real time. The format is open, admission is free — and as always at Refuge, the shared moment takes center stage: collective, curious, in motion. And for anyone ready to swap paper grass for petals, how about making your own Easter bouquet this year? At the Flower Arranging Workshop by Happy Plants and Rhi Dancey on Saturday (19.04.), a small group will gather to bind, pin, and celebrate what’s growing right now: seasonal flowers, blossoming branches, and textured greens in vibrant hues. A spring bouquet takes shape — not according to rules, but to intuition. Whoever attends, leaves with flowers in hand. Enough floral dreaming, back to the feast: If you can’t wait for the Easter hunt, just follow your nose down Skalitzer Straße. You’ll find what you’re looking for at dia’Z, where their Easter pop-up is happening on Saturday (19.04.). Expect wild, creative street food: tacos (classic and vegan), cocktails, and natural wines. Come hungry — your soul and stomach will thank you. Whether you’re walking, dancing, or feasting, this Easter weekend is waiting to be discovered.
Text: Emma Zylla / Photos: Florian Reimann für Pars, Backhaus Projects, Happy Plants Berlin, Rhi Dancey, dia’Z / Grafik: World Wide Lab
Pars Pralinen, Grolmannstr.53–54, 10623 Berlin–Charlottenburg; map
Easter Special: Orders placed by 19.04.2025 can be collected in-store.
Backhaus Projects, Weserstr.168, 12045 Berlin–Neukölln; map
You left this/Geh nicht 17.04.–21.04.2025, Vernissage 17.04.2025 18h
Bar Brass, Am Spreebord 9, 10589 Berlin–Charlottenburg; map
Easter Menu: 17.04.–21.04.2025. During the holidays, the restaurant opens from 17h.
Oona Bar, Weserstr.166, 12045 Berlin–Neukölln; map
Refuge Worldwide B2B 18.04.2025 10–01h
Emdener Str.33, 10551 Berlin–Moabit; map
Flower Arranging Workshop: 19.04.2025 14–16h. Reserve your spot here.
Skalitzer Str.45, 10997 Berlin–Kreuzberg; map
dia’Z Pop-up 19.04.2025 12–22h. Kindly bring cash.
@parspralinen
@aubstheebs
@backhaus_projects
@bar_brass
@refugeworldwide
@oona.bar
@mehmetaslan_
@femdelic
@happyplantsberlin
@rhidancey
@diaz_popup
My first encounter with the Michelberger Farm didn’t happen in the Spreewald, but in Friedrichshain — at the Michelberger Hotel restaurant. Before dinner, a lavish basket of fresh produce from the farm’s market garden was passed around, lovingly grown, and later, artfully presented on the plate. A summer later, I made my way to the farm. Getting there is surprisingly easy: a short ride on the regional train, followed by a few final kilometers by bike — past old fruit trees, cow pastures, and narrow canals. Provisions? Barely needed. The team at Michelberger Farm knows how to welcome guests like few others — and the cuisine nourishes body and soul in equal measure. Since 2018, a holistic ecosystem has flourished here on a historic four-sided farmstead, nestled within one and a half hectares of land. It’s all grounded in permaculture and the principles of syntropic agriculture. For me, the lovingly created forest garden felt like a small miracle. Berry bushes grow beside root vegetables, herbs, and cabbage. Sheep’s wool blankets the soil, keeping it from drying out (and from uninvited guests). The air is fragrant, butterflies dance between the leaves, and birdsong fills the air.
The Michelberger Farm works closely with neighboring farms and the local community — their produce often appears on the seasonal menu. “Celebrating the new old normal,” is one of the farm’s guiding philosophies. And you can truly feel this spirit of togetherness — not only in what’s served but in how it’s shared. In the barn, designed by architect Sigurd Larsen, dinner is served in bowls along a long communal table. The minimalist structure hosts up to 25 guests, with nine rooms that range from cozy to loft-like. Special Easter menus are also available: fresh fish on Good Friday, and regional lamb on Easter Sunday. And if you’d like to pair the feast with a bike ride or a short hike, plan to spend the weekend at the Vierseitenhof. Spring and the holidays are best enjoyed slowly, fully, and here.
Text: Laura Iriondo / Photos: Tobias König
Michelberger Farm
@michelbergerfarm
Berlin, you eternal design — between construction fences and brilliance, between experiment and essence — there is nothing more to love than your rich offerings of art, culture, and design. For several years, and inked into the city’s cultural calendar, Berlin Design Week, from 15.05. to 18.05.2025, has transformed the city into a vibrant laboratory for ideas, materials, and visions. Anyone wandering the streets with an open mind will quickly see this isn’t just a place to exhibit, it’s a place to negotiate what will matter tomorrow. BDW is less trade fair and more manifesto. And this year’s motto? “Common Sense.” Even if it sounds simple it’s precisely in this world, that becomes more tangled each day, that we need a collective pause, a shared language for what connects us. Here, design isn’t just conceptulized, it’s felt. Whether through subtle exhibitions featuring emerging talents and major brands like A-N-D Light, SMEG, Ligne Roset, and Zieta Studio; through discursive panels or haptic experiments, this week offers a platform for all those who understand design not only as form but also as responsibility. It’s about cycles. Context. Cultural capital. “The Berlin Format” kicks off the first day of BDW — a two-day program that begins with a keynote by British designer Tom Dixon: one of those rare voices that resonates even before he speaks. And that’s exactly what sparks curiosity.
More inspiring keynotes and standout speakers will follow. For those thinking bigger — about cities, for example — the panel “City, but better” is not to be missed. Featuring Werner Aisslinger, Martin Jasper, and Julia Pülz, the conversation explores how we can create cities worth living in: with vision, repurposing, and urban sustainability. An inspiring exchange about bold decisions and what sustainability can look like today. The halls also open up to international perspectives from Central and South America: soulful design from Guatemala, poetic expressions by Luján Cambariere — approaches that are different, and for that reason, necessary. Anyone who still thinks of design as strictly German will be pleasantly surprised. The second day holds its own. Is Berlin finally ready to be a true design capital? In the panel “Design City Berlin: Always Talent, Never Champion?”, creatives meet decision-makers. It’s open, controversial, constructive (and typically Berlin). One of the week’s central themes is materials of the future. Few speak about them with the expertise and passion of Prof. Dr. Sascha Peters — first solo, then in collaboration with Matters of Activity and Studio F.A. Porsche. If you’ve ever wondered what the circular economy means, you’ll find answers that reach far beyond the obvious. And as if that weren’t enough, on 16.05.2025, leading agencies from the WPP family — from Scholz & Friends to AKQA — will host studio sessions and an after-party under the motto “Sense the Uncommon”. Starting at 19h, panels give way to drinks, DJs, and a design crowd ready to talk well into the night. Also not to be missed: Berlin Design Night on the evening of 15.05. Studios, galleries, and universities open their doors for rare behind-the-scenes glimpses. If you’ve ever wondered what design can do today — and what it must do tomorrow — Berlin Design Week is a must. Not as a spectator, but as a participant. BDW is an invitation to join the conversation. What makes sense? What truly moves us forward, not just as consumers, but as a community? And perhaps, the best part, it doesn’t have to be loud to be powerful. Sometimes, a quiet impulse is all it takes for the world to rethink.
Text: Alina Herbel / Photos: AND & Objekte Unserer Tage
Berlin Design Week (15.–18.05.2025)
@berlindesignweek
Working in a small Berlin studio tends to entail juggling many things — creative work, tight timelines, a full calendar. What it usually doesn’t entail? A proper lunch break. With no in-house canteen and few nearby options, food becomes purely functional. Quick, convenient, forgettable. But what if lunch could add something to your day? That’s the idea behind having Yumi cook for us. She’s a private chef based in Berlin, with roots in Japan and a background shaped by time spent living and studying in Italy. She’s not classically trained — her earliest teachers were her mother and grandmother, both home economics instructors. That sense of home, of care, of slowing down and making something from scratch comes through in every dish. Yumi believes that cooking is the foundation of the art of living. She uses fresh, whole ingredients — no shortcuts, no pre-made foods — and focuses on creating meals that nourish without overcomplicating. Her style is intuitive, health-focused, and grounded in the kind of cooking that feels good and does good. We brought Yumi in to cook lunches for our team at the studio — a creative coworking space where different people cross paths in the kitchen or at the coffee machine, but rarely sit down together. Having her cook onsite changed that.
Suddenly, there’s a reason to pause. To meet. To taste. Her dishes are always a surprise — not the kind of food we’d typically make at home or find around the corner. That’s part of the charm: letting go of routine and discovering something new. For us, these lunches have become more than a meal. They’re a rhythm in the week. A moment of connection. A way to care for each other without making a big fuss of it. If you’re part of a small team or creative studio in Berlin — especially one without a kitchen crew or nearby lunch gems — inviting someone like Yumi to cook might be exactly what your team needs. She offers onsite cooking, private events, and catering, and brings with her not just food, but a feeling. You can find her on Instagram or LinkedIn — or perhaps just follow the smell of something delicious down the hallway.
Text: Nina Trippel / Photos: Robyn Steffen & Daniel Pecsi
@yumi_s_tanaka
ANMELDUNG