Spatial designer Vanessa Heepen has a flair for interiors – whether she’s staging extraordinary sets and environments for clients like MCM or Nike or developing artistic strategies at the intersection of architecture, interior design and communication. Now you can get an even better picture of her eye for the extraordinary: today Vanessa is opening Forma Gallery, where art and design go hand in hand. “This is my first work as a curator. It’s given me great pleasure and I think it won’t be the last time,” she says about the process. She has found a temporary home for the gallery right on the Spree, near Ostbahnhof. With a spectacular view of the water, it brings together contemporary objects and selected pieces from the 20th century. The exhibition The Room I Walk The Line is as interested in the inner life of the exhibits as in their symbiosis within the four walls. In addition to ceramist Veronika Janovec, the list of artists also includes the Pegasus Product collective, known for their delightfully zany repurposing of banal everyday objects into auratic sculptures.

Freia Achenbach and June Fàbregas, who appear together as the design duo “anima ona”, showcase furniture that emphasizes materiality and haptics. The contemporary designs are complemented by pieces from the Berlin vintage dealer Moho, including a sofa by Kurt Beier from the nineties. In this eclectic interplay, Vanessa demonstrates how poetically art and design can intertwine – and gives both disciplines enough space to unfold. 

Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Matthias Leidinger

Forma Gallery, Mühlenstr.63 on the river bank, 10243 Berlin–Friedrichshain; map

The Room I Walk The Line until 15.07.2023. Opening: 15.06.2023 17–22h

@anessaheepen
@forma__gallery
@animaona
@veronikajanovec
@pegasus.product
@bymoho

On summer nights, when the heat still lingers in the streets and I can’t sleep, I head to the cinema. It doesn’t matter what’s playing, because for me, the best way to follow up a day at the swimming pool is to descend into a dark movie theater and head into another world. But when I want to be sure that the show will reliably take me somewhere new, I buy a ticket for the In the Mood series at Neues Off. Every second Tuesday, films by East Asian directors are screened in their original versions. In addition to classics by Wong Kar-Wai, whose beautiful love film “In the Mood for Love” lends its name to the series, there are screenings of new titles. Besides screenings of “Burning,” Lee Chang-dong’s adaptation of a short story by cult Japanese author Haruki Murakami, you should mark your calendars for “Past Lives” in August. The feature debut by Korean-born playwright Celine Song, the film follows a boy and girl who grow up in Seoul, become friends and fall in love – until the girl moves to Toronto with her family. After years of radio silence, the two meet again in New York in their mid-thirties.

In the film, Song interweaves her own migration experience with the Korean concept of in-yun: the idea that people who were connected in a past life find each other again. Past Lives is a quiet film that conveys the notion of missed love without cheesiness or clichés. The dialogue is clever and honest, and Greta Lee – known from the series “Russian Doll” – is impressive in her first leading role. You could watch her all day as she sits between her husband and her childhood sweetheart, pondering “what-ifs.” In her narrative, Celine Song demonstrates what “in the mood” has at its core: an attempt to find that which connects worlds and determines fate while respecting cultural subtleties. The line-up features some of the most beautiful non-love films of the year. But there’s no doubt that it is a declaration of love for cinema.

Text: Laura Storfner / Credit: Past Lives & Yorck

In the mood at Neues Off, Hermannstr.20, 12049 Berlin–Neukölln; map
Every other Tuesday at 21h.

Burning 20.06.2023
Past Lives 01.08.2023

@inthemood.berlin