Art and cocktails

Well just as I was sitting around moping at my horrible misfortune at living in such a lovely place and not feeling as great as I wanted to feel about everything, I suddenly end up having a really fantastic few days!

Sooo well firstly, on Friday evening I went with a friend to the opening of an architectural exhibition. The free vino always makes these events go with a swing! :)

As per usual I arrived horribly late and only heard the tail end of the architect's talk - apparently there were a few talks and they were all very interesting! There was a huge crowd there - more than was expected judging by the fact that the wine kept running out and they had to keep running out for more.

It was actually two exhibitions in one - the first being a mixed exhibit about several prestigious buildings like the New York Times building and the Scottish houses of parliament. It was quite interesting to see all the little scribbles and diagrams by the architects. Apparently the main speaking room in the Scottish houses of parliament is designed so that the light exactly hits everyone in their chairs in exactly the right place - all very interesting!

The other exhibit was about a new plan to build a community area by the Brandenburger Tor round the other side of Pariser Platz. Right now it's pretty much just a traffic island and Pariser Platz is basically a bunch of banks and embassies with a Starbucks thrown in for good measure. Well judging by the fact that this is one of Berlin's biggest tourist pulls, I'd say a 'people place' sounds like a great idea! They are going to build seating areas etc which sounds good...

Anyway, after that we went to a really cute little cocktail bar. I can't remember the name but I think it was pretty close to Senefelder Platz - possibly on Kollwitzstraße. One thing I really like about Berlin is the way that 20 years on, the GDR has become a really sexy phenomenon. Suddenly it's COOL (in caps!) to have a sexy GDR stamp in your passport (you can get this done as a tourist attraction by the Brandenburg Tour) or to go to a GDR disco or bars that look like old GDR living rooms - the fogey old 70s furniture and patterned wallpaper. I happen to love this look! So needless to say I loved this cocktail bar. My friend and I were just cooing about everything. Even a after a trip to the toilet we were like, wow, that was soooo nice! Crazy right!? lol

After our cocktail we went to another exhibition by an artist who takes pictures of light shows. It was also the opening night and was a pretty cool event. For starters it was housed in an old swimming pool - with pictures displayed in old lockers and candles everywhere - really cozy (the health and safety moguls in the UK would have had a field day! ;) ... So they turned all the lights out an this guy starts waving around florescent Star Wars stylie wands and taking pics with a really low shutter speed to capture the full effect.

We didn't get to see much of this as there were too many people in front of us. But the general ambience made this well worth the visit anyway. My friend was a bit disappointed that the exhibition wasn't in the actual swimming pool. I guess even the German health and safety folks have their limits... It would have been nice though!