How can we stay calm and content in our turbulent world? A great starting point is self care and mindfulness – two practices which feature in all five of these podcasts, starting with the five-minute audio “thoughts” from Radio Headspace. These mini episodes explore a different topic every day, teaching us ways we can become more connected to others and fulfil our potential. Started by former monk Andy Puddicombe who runs the meditation app of the same name, these affirming stories are beautifully recorded and leave you feeling ready to tackle the day. If it’s pure meditation you are looking for, A Mindful Mess will fill your feed with regular themed practices (topics include “Sofort Entspannung” and “Emotionales Bewusstsein“) plus longer episodes that feature conversations with guests on the topic of personal development. Speaking to everyone from teachers to authors, host Madeleine Alizadeh discusses themes like confidence and happiness and follows each chat with a meditation to seal the learning.

Confidence is also at the heart of Fette Gedanken, the podcast launched in March 2021 that offers you a dose of audio self-love every week. Its host, “body acceptance activist” Charlotte Kuhrt, is here to tell you that you are worthy of love no matter how you look or live your life. In each episode Charlotte takes a theme – be it clothes, sex or body shame – and unpicks it, giving you tools to change how you perceive yourself and reach a more positive mental space. Finding your Happy Place is what broadcaster and author Fearne Cotton’s hit podcast is all about. In weekly episodes, Fearne gets together with inspiring artists, healers and leaders to hear how they deal with life’s hurdles. With a lineup of guests that has included Jonathan Van Ness, Hillary Clinton and Deepak Chopra, you are guaranteed to get some surprises in your feed. Finally, when you are ready to let all the day’s stress fade and drift off to sleep, Einschlafen mit Wikipedia is the twice-weekly podcast that combines the in-depth knowledge of Wikipedia with the soothing voices of Tilman Böhnke and Josefine Wozniak. In each recording, the pair read out an article from the web encyclopedia – from fast food to pigeons – that will have you snoozing in no time. And even if you don’t drift off, you can at least become an expert in all things water buffalo…

Text: Benji Haughton / Photo: Nubelson Fernandes

Radio Headspace, A Mindful Mess, Fette Gedanken, Happy Place, Einschlafen mit Wikipedia

Through light and sound installations, sculptures, paintings and video as well as interactive music pieces Here History Began. Tracing the Re/verberations of Halim El-Dabh (until 09.05.2021) revisits the work and life of Eqyptian composer, ethnomusicologist, musician, pan-Africanist and philosopher, Halim El-Dabh (1921-2017). A result of five years of research, the group exhibition is a comprehensive physical archive and embodiment of El-Dabh’s work and those he has inspired. El-Dabh was largely left out of conversations surrounding the rise of electronic music, something that this retrospective puts right, revealing his great influence and establishing his place in the history of composition. Entering the gallery, one of the first pieces to catch your eye is Leo Asemota’s neon light installation featuring the words “ideas express you”. This notion – that ideas live beyond the physical being – is one that is embodied throughout this show.

Also visible are Lorenzo Sandoval’s archive curtains, which hang from the ceiling and are covered in prints with information and context about El-Dabh and his musical history. The space is dark, creating an almost sombre atmosphere, though light can be seen emanating from a huge screen behind Asemota’s work which presents Black Quantum Futurism’s video piece “Time Travel Experiments” exploring generational paradoxes and voyages through time. The darkness continues as you venture down to Savvy Contemporary’s basement where Vivian Caccuri’s sound installation occupies the room with fleeting noises of mosquitoes flying past you. The basement also houses what used to be an old industrial fridge, a space used here for Emeka Ogboh’s immersive installation of El-Dabh works that merges video, audio and physical elements. Take your shoes off before entering, sit down and let the sounds and rhythms of Halim El-Dabh take over your mind, body and spirit…

Text: Lottie Mac / Photos: Merle Büttner

Savvy Contemporary, Reinickendorfer Str.17, 13347 Berlin–Wedding; map
Thu–Sun 14–19h

Here History Began runs until 09.05.2021
Tickets can be reserved free of charge online. Negative Covid-19 test required.

@savvycontemporary

Fancy some new scenery for your daily walk? Why not turn your next stroll into a scavenger hunt, with works of art as your prizes. Your guide is Jörg Johnen, who presents more than 100 outdoor artworks in his charming book Marmor für Alle that we featured back in 2019. The tour begins in Mitte and heads towards Tiergarten, stopping off at familiar works as well as some new additions. Our starting point is the Kolonnadenhof on the Museum Island, where a work by conceptual artist Jenny Holzer has been newly installed. Her aluminium plaque featuring the inscription “Men don’t protect you anymore” is easy to miss, but the message is all the more forceful for it. Feminist art is also notable in Austrian artist Valie Export’s work Doppelgängerin, a four-meter-tall sculpture made of intertwined scissors that stands menacingly in front of Unter den Linden’s PalaisPopulaire. Walk a few steps further onto Bebelplatz and you come across Micha Ullman’s memorial to the burning of books: a window set into the ground reveals a view down into a vault full of empty bookshelves. The work does not impose itself, but impressively highlights what has been taken, commemorating the more than 20,000 banned books that were thrown into the fire by the Nazis in this very place in 1933.
 

When you visit Ólafur Elíasson’s Windspiegelwand, at the back of the GIZ (German Corporation for International Cooperation) building near Potsdamer Platz, it’s best to choose a sunny day. In sunlight the countless stainless steel plates of the structure reflect the shimmering water of the neighboring Pianosee. Heading on over the Potsdamer Brücke, you come across Norbert Radermacher’s heavy bronze model of a lifebuoy attached to the railings. Further on, in front of the PSM gallery on Schöneberger Ufer, artist Ariel Reichman presents an interactive work that questions our sense of security: using a QR code you can make the neon installation in the garden illuminate. Finally, around the corner at Haunt on Kluckstraße are works by the Frontviews art collective. The space is due to reopen 23.03.2021; in the meantime you can view their outdoor show in the overgrown courtyard. The works demonstrate just how effective contemporary sculpture in urban nature can be.

Text: Laura Storfner / Credit: Ariel Reichman & PSM, Berlin, 2020; Philipp Modersohn; Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, Berlin, 2001 & Studio Ólafur Elíassons / Photos: Marjorie Brunet Plaza, Stephan Klee & Jens Ziehe

Jenny Holzer – Men don’t protect you anymore, Kolonnadenhof at Museum Island, 10178 Berlin–Mitte; map

Valie Export – Die Doppelgängerin, in front of PalaisPopulaire, Unter den Linden 5, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map

Micha Ullman – Empty Library memorial, Bebelplatz, Unter den Linden, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map

Olafur Eliasson – Windspiegelwand, behind the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Reichpietschufer 20, 10785 Berlin–Tiergarten; map

Ariel Reichman – This is Worse, I AM (NOT) SAFE neon installation, until 10.04.2021. PSM, Schöneberger Ufer 61, 10785 Berlin–Tiergarten; map

Outdoor exhibition for Concrete #1: RESPIRATION, until 27.03.2021 in the courtyard of Frontviews at HAUNT, Kluckstr.23A, 10785 Berlin–Tiergarten; map
Wed–Fri 14–19h

@palaispopulaire
@psmgallery
@frontviews_berlin
@haunt_berlin