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BISTRO SPUMANTE – VACATION FEELING IN THE MIDDLE OF KREUZBERG
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BISTRO SPUMANTE – VACATION FEELING IN THE MIDDLE OF KREUZBERG

Has it been too long since your last trip to the Mediterranean – or are you dreaming of one? No problem! Perhaps the solution is a visit to Bistro Spumante in Kreuzberg. Opened by sisters Helene and Emma in March 2023, the bistro immediately makes you feel like a passenger on the ferry to the Mediterranean. Because everything is just right: from the white Monobloc chairs and the azure-blue painted floor, to the warmly glowing fairy lights, to the seaside snacks served in red baskets. The mood is one of relaxed chatter, accompanied by pleasant Italo-pop music. The fellow travelers to the bistro are friends of the family business, neighbors from the neighborhood, the curious, and vacationers like me. The destination of the trip might not be clear: Italy, Portugal or Greece? But at Bistro Spumante you don’t have to decide. There are rotating drinks and corresponding dishes from the different countries around the Mediterranean. Sometimes there is Strangolapreti (spinach dumplings with sage butter and parmesan) on the menu, sometimes Parmigiana or Tosta Mista (ham and cheese toast) – right underneath the onion bread. Or would you prefer fresh, salty olives, a portion of French fries or calamari with aioli? I just tried a little bit of everything, because I could quickly switch to vacation mode.

The decision on drinks is easy, as the menu is full of vacation gems. I start my getaway with a personal favorite: sparkling wine on tap – yes, that’s right! – Spumante on tap, delightful. Along with Mediterranean classics like Campari, Ouzo and Pastis, there’s Cynar Spritz, Averna Sour and Frangelico. The vacation mood is picking up. Those who prefer non-alcoholic drinks will be delighted with lemonades, Chinotto Spritz or Peroni 0.0%. Inspired by the warm atmosphere, my ferry heads for Mallorca and I order a Cortado leche y leche, a Spanish espresso variation with condensed milk. And as it usually does, this successful vacation goes by far too quickly. This one only lasted a few hours, but I’m not sad, because I know: I can always come back on deck at Bistro Spumante when my longing for a Mediterranean escape becomes too great. The ferry Spumante leaves on time every day – you only have to be patient on Mondays. Ahoy & a presto!

Hanna Jensen is an architect and a native of South Baden. Berlin has been her home since 2020. She especially loves the summer months, when the days never want to end.

Text: Hanna Jensen / Photos: Sophie Döring

Bistro Spumante, Reichenberger Str.73, 10999 Berlin–Kreuzberg; map
Tue-Wed 12–23h, Thu 16–23h, Fri 16–02h, Sat 13–02h, Sun 13–20h

@bistro.spumante

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DREAM WORLDS AND MYTHICAL CREATURES: LEIKO IKEMURA AT THE FEUERLE COLLECTION — RECOMMENDED BY NOELIA GAITE
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DREAM WORLDS AND MYTHICAL CREATURES: LEIKO IKEMURA AT THE FEUERLE COLLECTION — RECOMMENDED BY NOELIA GAITE

Berlin loves art in bunkers. The Feuerle Collection, for example, has found its public home in a former telecommunications bunker. And this home now houses the solo show “When Animals become Art” by Leiko Ikemura, curated by Désiré Feuerle himself, until January 2024. This is an exhibition that offers the kind of art experience that sharpens the senses. Whether with a date or ridin’ solo, you can treat yourself to this Berlin Kunstbunker experience, which is similar to the club experience so typical of the city: 1. it’s dark, 2. cell phone cameras aren’t taped off, but photography is still prohibited, and 3. the visit is probably a bit shorter than at the club, but it doesn’t have to be any less ecstatic. The first eye-catcher is a dramatically lit installation in the middle of the gloomy exhibition space (bunkers aren’t big on natural light, as we know).

On the floor, a small zoo of stuffed animals is placed on a black blanket. Those who are a little familiar with the artist’s work will immediately recognize the reference to the animal mythical creatures recurring in it and at the same time think to themselves: Yes, of course, close, but surely this is not a work by Leiko Ikemura? The remaining exhibits provide an exemplary insight into the materials and techniques typically used by Ikemura. Sculptures made of opaque cast glass lie on floor cushions draped around the center of the room, elegantly playing with the limited, punctuated light. We see poetic landscape paintings on coarsely woven jute hanging on the far wall, giving spatial context to the dream world one has just entered. In front, an imposing bronze sculpture, a chimera: the Queen Rabbit, who seems to watch over the parallel world and its small inhabitants.

Noelia Gaite’s life revolves around art, art, art: she curates, contemplates and analyzes. And when it all gets to be too much, she takes long walks through the city with music in her ears. On bridges, she likes to linger a little longer.

Credit: Leiko Ikemura, The Feuerle Collection / Photos: Wai Kung & Nicolas Boettger

The Feuerle Collection, Hallesches Ufer 70, 10963 Berlin–Kreuzberg; map
Fri 14–18h & Sat–Sun 11–19h. The guided tour must be booked in advance.

@thefeuerlecollection

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FRAGMENTS OF FADED MEMORIES: BASTIAN GEBAUER AT HOTO — RECOMMENDED BY LAURA CATANIA
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FRAGMENTS OF FADED MEMORIES: BASTIAN GEBAUER AT HOTO — RECOMMENDED BY LAURA CATANIA

Bastian Gehbauer‘s artistic interests are rooted in places and their stories. The Berlin-based artist and photographer does not necessarily have to have seen these places himself. In “Memories of a place I have never been… Part II,” opening at Hoto Berlin (25.08.2023), he presents found material from photo archives, connected into a narrative. The series “Phantasma” (2022), for example, focuses on the German-Jewish architect Harry Rosenthal and the studio house he designed specifically for the writer Arnold Zweig. The modernist building, like many of his realized designs, was altered beyond recognition during the Nazi era (by Heinrich Kleiner in 1938). Bastian Gebauer’s series gives the site in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf a ghostly character, affected by erasure and oblivion.

In addition, fragmented architectural drawings by the Jewish architect Martin Punitzer are shown. Like Rosenthal, he also managed to flee Germany in the 1930s. His plans for the Roxy Palast cinema were exiled with him, and after his death in Chile in 1949, most of them were destroyed in a fire. The individual works are connected by an expansive installation consisting of building elements of the so-called Boulevard Café, which was opened on Karl-Marx-Allee on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the GDR. Another is the so-called Pinguin Café from the Dresden Zoo, a steel scaffolding structure that opened in 1972 and was stowed away in the city’s Lapidarium a few years ago. From there, some pieces have now made the journey (on a short visit) back to Berlin, so as not to be forgotten. The architects and architectures selected by Bastian Gehbauer stand as paradigms for biographies and works of art that fell victim to social oblivion. The exhibition impressively shows what changing political circumstances do to places and brings the legibility of the stories anchored in the buildings back into the present. If you want to evoke the memory of these and other interesting places, you can do so until 03.10.2023 in the Kreuzberg gallery, which, incidentally, is located in a former cinema.

Laura Catania is a graphic designer with a research-based focus on visual art and music. Her work in the contemporary art scene also finds expression in the curation of concert formats, such as the “Bar Palermo” series. She is co-founder of the music label “Heaven”.

Text: Laura Catania / Photos: Lukas Städler / Credit: HOTO & Bastian Gehbauer

Hoto Berlin, Bergmannstr.109, 10961 Berlin–Kreuzberg; map
Bastian Gehbauer – Memories of a place I have never been… Part II 26.08.–03.10.2023. Opening Fri 25.08. 18–21h

@bastiangehbauer
@hoto_gallery
@l.catania

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REFRESHING AND INSPIRING SUMMER READS — RECOMMENDED BY STEPHANIE MCQUADE
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REFRESHING AND INSPIRING SUMMER READS — RECOMMENDED BY STEPHANIE MCQUADE

It’s (still) summer swimming season, which means it’s time to go find that bathing suit in the back of your closet and hope that you still have your swimming goggles lying around from last year. If you’re still working up the courage to dive into the cold water or explore a new lake, here are two books I’ve read that gave me that extra motivation to take the plunge. After reading these I found myself yearning for the open water, freestyling my way up and down the pool lanes while planning my next seaside getaway. I even went as far as booking a swim trek, but we’ll leave that for another time. Whether you’re an avid swimmer or someone who has yet to dip their toes, these books are bound to captivate your imagination and leave you yearning for the open water. In Berlin, you can swim all year round, rain or shine – an activity which Turning, a beautifully written memoir by Jessica Lee, will guide you through with its tales of swimming in all four seasons. This book is for everyone who loves swimming, who wishes they could overcome their fears and know what it is to simply float. For true swimming enthusiasts, Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui will compel you to take to the water and experience the joy for yourself. Tsui shows us that whether we swim for pleasure, exercise or emotional and physical healing, we all have a swimming story to tell. These two books will leave you feeling motivated and seduced by the water, calling you back again and again.

Text: Stephanie Mcquade / Photos: Rebecca Schatz & Robyn Steffen

Originally from San Diego, Stephanie Mcquade lives in Berlin. She is a lifelong swimmer and resident baker at the Cee Cee space and also works in marketing.

Turning by Jessica Lee (Penguin, 2020)

Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui (Macmillan, 2021). Click here for the Literal profile.

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SHAYNE OLIVER AT THE SCHINKEL PAVILLON — RECOMMENDED BY ANDRÉ SCHLECHTRIEM
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SHAYNE OLIVER AT THE SCHINKEL PAVILLON — RECOMMENDED BY ANDRÉ SCHLECHTRIEM

Ever since I lived in New York, I’ve been a fan of American shopping malls, such as the Mall of America with its 520 stores. There is a lot of life in and around these centers: skaters, fountains, sculptures and the smell of CK One everywhere. At the huge King of Prussia Mall near Philadelphia, you could get picked up in a Mercedes Benz 600. Designer and artist Shayne Oliver looks back at this most American of shopping experiences in the immersive Schinkel Pavillion installation Mall of Anonymous (opening tomorrow 11.08.2023). Curated by Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen, the exhibition goes all the way back to 2004, when Oliver co-founded the fashion label Hood by Air and stars like A$AP Rocky and Rihanna started wearing his creations. On display will be both existing projects and those that are or will be created in collaboration with queer artists on site. Oliver was influenced by the queer community around the ballroom scene of the New York underground.

Clothing doesn’t always have to be practical and comfortable. It speaks to others. It can express deep wounds and traumas with therapeutic effect. Drag is balm for the soul. Heels make their wearer walk tall and immediately lend an elegance, a flamboyance that transforms a shy person into a persona. The moment is mine. It’s about transformation, as countless Greek sagas have shown. Shayne’s Cerberos, a cute, radioactive green Chihuahua that greets you in the Schinkel Building, also seems inspired by the classics: Cerberos is a three-headed dog that guards the gate to the underworld in Greek myth. I’m sure everyone will want to get in through this gate. Look forward to performance, fashion and music events (e.g. Leech aka Shayne Oliver with the GHE20G0TH1K sound on 18.08.2023) posted on the Schinkel Pavilion’s Instagram account. It’s new, it’s now, it’s wow! 

Text: André Schlechtriem / Photos: Shayne Oliver Group

André Schlechtriem is co-founder of the gallery Dittrich & Schlechtriem which is currently showing Heute leider nicht by artist Simon Mullan.

@schinkelpavillon 
@shayneoliver.group

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