Art show in Berlin

The instructor of my German class, Christoff Hilkerbaumer, is also an artist. He invited the class to attend a showing of one of his works in Berlin. This was quite the cultural experience.

Let me set the scene for you: We enter the grounds of a rather worn set of apartment blocks in East Berlin by passing a gatehouse - inside the gatehouse is lit only by candles. We give our names to the man inside and, as we are on the list, are admitted. We go inside one of the apartment buildings, climb up to the second (third, by US counting) floor, and enter an apartment by pulling aside the black curtain which hangs in the doorway.

The scene inside is, shall we say, uber-hip. The only light is from dozens (100?) candles on all surfaces possible. A bar is serving cheap beer from bottles and fruit juice mixed with rum. A couple is playing LPs on two turntables. There are perhaps 75 people crowded into the room, everyone wearing black and a scarf. [Good thing I have the scarf Iva made me!]

In another room, one can purchase a bowl of soup or rice from a kitchen which is hard to describe - shall we say it looks "helter-skelter"? The whole affair, I'm assuming, is "unofficial".

Finally, there is a room where Christoff's work is being displayed. Here it is:

The picture is actually sideways, but you get the idea. The scale on the picture is 2m by 3m. Apparently, the "next step" is a 3-dimensional version...

All in all, however, it was quite the adventure and very fun to see another side of Berlin.