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PHOTOGRAPHY BY HASHEM SHAKERI AT KANTGARAGEN — RECOMMENDED BY AVA HOUSHMAND

PHOTOGRAPHY BY HASHEM SHAKERI AT KANTGARAGEN — RECOMMENDED BY AVA HOUSHMAND

As part of European Month of Photography Berlin the exhibition Cast out of Heaven // رانده شدهها از بهشت from Iranian photographer Hashem Shakeri is being presented by Anahita Contemporary. The location for the show is KantGaragen, a rough concrete former parking garage in Charlottenburg. For me, it’s the perfect place for Anahita Sadighi and co-curator Lilja-Ruben Vowe to share these powerful works. The juxtaposition of the raw background and the apocalyptic photographs triggers a sense of unease. Looking at the works, your eye is drawn to everyday life in Iran through pastel focal points. I find myself wondering how such poetic beauty survives in this bleak context. The answer: resilience. Hashem Shakeri tells the story of Iranian society’s resilience with skill and symbolism. It’s a resilience that is repeatedly challenged – be it by climate change, covid or, most recently, the feminist protest movement. You can share in and celebrate the works at the Norouz event on 24.04.2023 which marks Iranian new year. A moving exhibition in a striking location, this is not one to be missed.

Text: Ava Houshmand / Credit: Hashem Shakeri Cast Out of Heaven, Anahita Contemporary

Born in Offenbach, Ava moved to Berlin in 2015. Since then, she has enjoyed exploring the city’s vibrant cultural landscape while working to make it even more diverse and inclusive through her anti-racism work.

Anahita Contemporary at stilwerk KantGaragen, Kantstr.125, 10625 Berlin–Charlottenburg; map

Cast out of Heaven, until 01.04.2023 
Tue–Fri 11–19h & Sat 11–16h. Curatorial tours: 11.03.2023 & 25.03.2023, both at 13h. Norouz New Year’s Party 24.03.23 from 19h.

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FANTASTIC PHO IN A FUN SETTING: KOTTI DANG — RECOMMENDED BY HANS KRESTEL

FANTASTIC PHO IN A FUN SETTING: KOTTI DANG — RECOMMENDED BY HANS KRESTEL

You can often find me at the Vietnamese restaurant Kotti Dang on Kottbusser Damm. The fragrant, colorful dishes from central Vietnam are delicious, homemade and fresh. The colorful neon light at the entrance showing a mountain of bowls piled on top of each other is appealing in itself (there’s another inside). When it’s crowded, you feel like you’re dining at a bustling market, in part because of the fake chickens in cages hanging from the ceiling. Diners are greeted at the entrance by the typical Than Tai (an altar to the “God of Wealth”) with offerings. Kotti Dang’s major strength is its large soups with rice noodles: Pho Dac Biet, or simply “P3,” a huge pho with tender beef and homemade meatballs, is one of their most popular dishes, accompanied by a bouquet of fresh herbs and fresh chili, limes and pickled onions – practically a side salad. You should definitely try Bò Kho, a spicy beef goulash with noodles, served with a pot of pandan leaf tea – perfect for late winter days. There are also 12 vegan dishes on the menu.

Owner Phuong Dang, who always wears colorful glitter nails, is the first to open in the morning and the last to close at night. Phuong, who has lived in Berlin since 2010, arrived with her husband and nothing but a backpack and has been running the restaurant since 2018. She enjoys being a hostess, and it shows. Her husband and other family members help out in the kitchen, but she is the charming face of the team. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, she has also been helping refugees from Ukraine and letting them stay with her. Every other Tuesday, you should eat here and then walk to the Neues Off Kino, 10 minutes away, where they show East Asian films. Coupled with the great food at Kotti Dang, it makes for the perfect Tuesday night out.

Text: Hans Krestel / Photos: Robyn Steffen

Hans Krestel works in communications for cultural institutions. He is currently caught up in Berlinale fever, reviewing films as part of the reader jury for the Tagesspiegel newspaper.

Kotti Dang, Kottbusser Damm 73, 12047 Berlin–Neukölln; map
Thu–Tue 11h30–23h

@kotti.dang
@inthemood.berlin

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ECLECTIC ENGINEERING — A PODCAST FOR CONVERSATIONS ABOUT PHILOSOPHY, ART AND MORE

ECLECTIC ENGINEERING — A PODCAST FOR CONVERSATIONS ABOUT PHILOSOPHY, ART AND MORE

Two academics begin a collaboration that turns out to be more fruitful and rewarding than almost any other in their field – but it’s a partnership that attracts jealousy. This scenario doesn’t take place in an open-plan office, but among three 20th century philosophers. The story is spotlighted in the latest episode of the Eclectic Engineering podcast. In it, artist and theorist Marie von Heyl examines philosopher Alain Badiou’s relationship with Gilles Deleuze and the jealousy Félix Guattari has towards this undeniably special collaboration. Eclectic Engineering manages to let the themes of philosophy, art, feminism and psychoanalysis come together in an intuitive way. The show is neither an exclusive medium for initiated experts nor a beginners guide. Marie von Heyl places the conversation, and the potential for collaboration, in the foreground. In doing so, she prompts questions that can only arise when the answers are not already predefined.

If you listen carefully, you feel how these themes and questions – which so far have been discussed with more than 20 people – unfold at their own pace, run their course and reunite. If you’re curious about jealousy and lust in philosophy or just want to see where these conversations carry you, give Eclectic Engineering a listen. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts.

Text: Felix Deiters / Photos: Artem Podrez, Cottonbro & MockupMaison

Based in Wedding, visual artist Felix Deiters’ work focuses on trans bodies. His artworks vary from observations drawn on a micro scale through to expansive installations.

Eclectic Engineering is available wherever you get your podcasts.

@flx_dtrs
@marie.von.heyl

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HANNAH ROSE STEWART AT NUMBER 1 MAIN ROAD — RECOMMENDED BY FETTE SANS

HANNAH ROSE STEWART AT NUMBER 1 MAIN ROAD — RECOMMENDED BY FETTE SANS

Would you describe your Zoom fatigue as a numbness of the eyelids, a way to say I have seen too much? Or does it rather feel like being confined to a room the size of your own self? Perhaps more than a feeling, I think of it as a non-place—like a patch of grass at the end of a parking lot—a vacant, meager yet inauspicious corner lurking. The Conceptual artist and 3D designer Hannah Rose Stewart produces intricate digital and physical environments where familiar ghosts masquerading as morose (unarmed?) first-person shooters seem caught in a perpetual state of lingering. The way our hands have learned to scroll unknown territories with such ease and disregard for the world. Opening tomorrow (03.02.2023) at Number 1 Main Road, the newly founded space run by Tom Esam and Paul Ferens, is a site-specific installation by the artist entitled The Waiting Room. I imagine a palimpsest made of our collective time spent online roaming mundane and hazy spaces and all of the rooms in between we cruise for easter eggs carved with our own initials. From our bedrooms turned offices, aren’t we always simply waiting to be let in by The Host?

Text: Fette Sans / Photos: Hannah Rose Stewart

Fette Sans art meanders between concept and poetry, words and people, body politics and dystopian fantasy, the very digital and the very nostalgic. Her latest book, based on a collaborative performance with Marie von Heyl, is available here

Hannah Rose Stewart — The Waiting Room at Number 1 Main Road, Ossastr.21a, 12045 Berlin–Neukölln; map

Opening Fri 03.02.2023 18h, Sa & Sun 14–18h and by appointment.

@fettesans
@6footstranger
@number1mainroad

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EXPERIMENTAL CLASSICAL AT THE “INS OFFENE” MUSIC FESTIVAL — RECOMMENDED BY CHRISTINE SCHEUCHER

EXPERIMENTAL CLASSICAL AT THE “INS OFFENE” MUSIC FESTIVAL — RECOMMENDED BY CHRISTINE SCHEUCHER

Classical music festivals are always trying to attract younger audiences – often with mixed results. This Berlin project could have better chances: Ins Offene..! Musik Festival 2.0., a program hoping to get youngsters excited about classical music. Putting “2.0” in the title may sound hackneyed, but it’s not just an empty phrase. The program is very much switched-on, offering the likes of seminars on social media marketing. This year’s line-up also includes a master class and a symposium. The evening concerts, meanwhile, let audiences discover new musical territories: classical genre boundaries will be crossed with artists, dancers and DJs performing together. The theme is “Dreams”, and there’s a willingness to experiment and show how diverse classical music can be.

Festival director Nikolaus Rexroth has included young talents as well as a Ukrainian legend: Valentin Silvestrov, the 85-year-old artist who made a name for himself as a master of silence. Silvestrov has lived in Berlin since the outbreak of the war. A performance by Greek dancer Emmanouela Dolianiti is particularly worth seeing, as are concerts featuring Casals, Ysaye, Ginastera and Cruixent. The music continues until this Sunday (29.01.2023).

Text: Christine Scheucher / Photos: Caerus Chamber Ensemble & Claire Wells / Credit: Flavio de Marco

Christine Scheucher is a cultural journalist and podcast producer at Austrian public broadcaster ORF. She hosts numerous cultural programs and is always traveling around Europe’s cultural hotspots, including her favorites on the Côte d’Azur and in Berlin.

Kühlhaus Berlin, Luckenwalder Str.3, 10963 Berlin-Kreuzberg; map

Ins Offene..! – Musik Festival 2.0. Tickets for the festival and individual performances are available online or at the box office.

@kuehlhausberlinofficial
@ins_offene

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