Since opening in 2014, OHM has functioned as a sort of living room for revelers with adventurous ears. When I moved here almost ten years ago, the intimate club and its carefully curated resident parties were formative in developing my musical palette and defining my vision of becoming a music journalist. Located in the battery room of a former power station right next to Tresor on Köpenicker Straße, OHM connects the dots between Berlin and global scenes. Its intimate space has welcomed the likes of progressive Polish collective Brutaz, Lisbon’s singular Principe Discos, Blackest Ever Black – whose stalwart artist Ossia has brought a steady stream of Bristolian DJs to the club – and Version, who hosted legendary UK bass labels like Hyperdub and Hessle Audio. Like Tresor, the techno titan right next door, OHM has fostered close connections to Detroit, with DJ Stingray 313, Juan Atkins and Moodyman coming together in a rare back-to-back for Tresor’s 25th anniversary in 2016. It’s moments like these that underpin the club’s vital place in this city and why its reopening on 03.06.2022 signals a promising era for Berlin nightlife.

Text: Caroline Whiteley / Photos: Ohm & Adi Putra

Caroline Whiteley is a New York-born journalist who writes about electronic music. Previously an editor at Electronic Beats, she now hosts a monthly show on Munich internet station Radio 80000.

OHM, Köpenicker Str.70, 10179 Berlin–Mitte; map
Check out the upcoming line-up online.

@ohmberlin

If you want to swap the hustle and bustle of inner city Berlin for some quietly captivating photography, then let yourself drift down to Dahlem this weekend. There, at a new location in the south-western suburb, Bastian Gallery is showing 16 photographic works by British architect John Pawson. The gallery building is itself the work of Pawson, who also carved the Feuerle Collection’s underground space out of a wartime bunker. Pawson is a master of minimalism and staging, with a way of seeing that makes you perceive the medium of light anew. John Pawson – Looking for Light shows photographs taken between 2019 and 2021 at the artist’s family home in rural Oxfordshire. Pawson deliberately reduces the spatial character of the photographs, leaving light at the forefront and turning materials and surfaces into media themselves. Charged with the power of the light, you perceive the narratives directly. Art, architecture, place and picture all merge into a compositional exhibition that captures both the permanent and the passing. It’s an experience that makes you forget the confines of the inner city and move into the far distance. 

Text: Ida Steffen / Photos: Max Gleeson / Credit: John Pawson – Looking for Light (2022) Courtesy: BASTIAN Berlin/London

Ida Steffen found her way to architecture via the performing and visual arts and is inspired by the common ground they share. She moved to Berlin nine years ago and lives in Prenzlauer Berg. 

Bastian Gallery, Taylorstr.1, 14195 Berlin–Dahlem; map 

John Pawson – Looking for Light, until 01.05.2022 11–18h by appointment (limited slots).

@bastian.gallery
@johnpawson