Like new leaves, spring is unfurling in Berlin. And while it felt perfectly okay to limit our radius of movement to work, sofa and late-night bars in winter, it doesn’t anymore. We can all feel it: the tingling in our bodies, the desire for new experiences. If you’re not southward-bound this Easter but still fancy a breath of fresh air, why not explore the city in a whole new way? “Ab ins B!” by Berlin Discovery Days is an opportunity to do just that. From 30.03. to 14.04.2024 over 250 different events are waiting to be explored across ten districts — all outside the Ring. Looking at the program, there’s so much to check out it’s hard not to get FOMO. Easter bonfires in the Britzer Garten in Neukölln, discounts at the boat rental in Treptow-Köpenick on the Müggelspree, or secret views of Berlin at a height of over 70 meters in Marzahn-Hellersdorf are just a few stand-outs on the program. Are you more interested in architecture? No problem, how about Hans Scharoun in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, a guided tour of Bruno Taut’s Waldsiedlung in Steglitz-Zehlendorf, or a tour of industrial history in Siemensstadt?

Or is art more your thing? Then I recommend the textile wonders of Sofie Dawos in Dahlem, Carol Rhodes and Jenna Bliss in the Zehlendorfer Haus am Waldsee, or the guided tours in the Liebermann Villa in Wannsee. Want to get into summer vacation mode? Visit the indoor surf wave on Landsberger Allee. Have you been to the Köpenicker Strandbad Wendenschloss? Still too cold to go for a swim? Then let’s go to the sauna in Spandau. I don’t know about you, but I’m struggling to decide what I’ll be attending, everything sounds so good. A look at the full program only makes deciding harder. From forest bathing and scavenger hunts to bondage courses and literary tours in the footsteps of Rainer Maria Rilke, there’s something for everyone. Spring in Berlin is finally here, so off to the B with you. The whole program is available here.

Text: Rosa Herbel / Photos: Hendrik Wolter, Reederei Lüdicke & CanvaPro

Ab ins B! 30.03.–14.04.2024

@ab.ins.b

After January comes February, and February is followed by Berlin’s MaerzMusik. Organized by the Berliner Festspiele for 22 years as the successor to the Musik-Biennale Berlin, the festival for experimental music has firmly established itself internationally. From 15.–24.04.2024, concerts, performances and artistic interventions will grace the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and other venues around Berlin. Installations, music theater and discourse formats invite exploration and discovery of the art and theory surrounding the multimodality of hearing. The program is so jam-packed and diverse that you’ll want to attend every single event. Audrey Chen and Hugo Esquinca, explore the limits of physical expression and technological manipulation of human sounds with their new work “Your Mouth Limb Dismembered, The Gradual Tongue Dissected” in the “Topographies of Hearing” series. Simon Steen-Andersen and Les Percussions de Strasbourg reinterpret Karlheinz Stockhausen’s astonishing composition “Musik im Bauch” for six percussionists and twelve music boxes. Erwan Keravec dedicates his concert to the aesthetic potential of the bagpipes, featuring pieces by Heiner Goebbels and Éliane Radigue, complemented by Philip Glass’s “Two Pages”. And these are just a few highlights from this year’s program.

The festival is complemented by various contexts, exhibitions and, of course, music. You can explore the entire program here. And if there’s one thing you shouldn’t miss, it’s the second part of the research project “Contemplations into the Radical Others” about the work of intermedia composer Lucia Dlugoszewski, who passed away in 2000. This follows last year’s presentation, opening historical, contemporary and future perspectives on the work of an impressive artist whose life was as contemporary and diverse as this year’s festival edition itself.

Text: Hilka Dirks / Photos: Christina Kubisch, Camille Blake & Christophe Urbain

MaerzMusik will take place from 15-24.03.2024 at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and other locations in Berlin. Tickets and further information are available online.

@berlinerfestspiele