February is not the sexiest month Berlin has to offer but it is certainly not without it’s treats. We have picked out a few (indoor) activities for you this month.
Berlin Graphic Days
When: 5th-6th February
Where: Urbanspree, Revaler Strasse. 99 (S +U Bahn Warschauer Str)
Admission: €3
Berlin Graphic Days is a mini art festival set in the graffiti-ridden Urbanspree, an arts event space in the heart of old east Berlin. The event includes live painting and music as well as an art market. During the festival around 60 national and international graphic artists, illustrators and street artists come together to create and display their art. The market gives these artists a chance to share their work.
Available on sale will be everything from silkscreen prints, t-shirts and bags, as well as unique pieces of graphic art. Urbanspree prides itself on creating a space where fans of art can bear witness to the creative process, whilst also supporting local artists. As with all of their events there will be booze and music, making this half party-half exhibition.
Berlinale International Film Festival
When: 11th-21st February
Where: Various cinemas around the city
Website: Berlinale.de
Berlinale is one of the city’s most revered events of the year. The international film festival attracts the elite of the film industry as well as fans from over 120 countries. Around 400 films are shown in various locations in the city, many of which are actually world premières.
The Berlinale sells over 300,000 tickets each year, making it host to the largest audience of any film festival in the world. It is internationally considered one of the most important festivals in the film industry’s calendar and injects a big fat dose of glamour in to the otherwise pretty chilled city.
Around 19,000 film professionals, critics and fans descend on the city, so if you struggled to book a hotel during this time, that would be why. The festival is not just film screening and celebrity spotting, there are also workshops and panel discussions to be had. As well as exclusive Berlinale parties. Check out their website for the program and book as soon as you can, as you can imagine tickets sell out quickly.
Exhibition: Art from the Holocaust. 100 Works from the Yad Vashem Collection
When: 26th Jan until 3rd March
Where: Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum), Unter den Linden 2 (S+U Bahn Alexanderplatz)
Admission: Regular €8, Students/Pensioners €4
For just over one month the German Historical Museum will be exhibiting 100 art works from Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. This is the first time these works are being shown in Germany and the exhibition is to commemorate 50 years since the establishment of German-Isreali diplomatic relations.
The pieces of art were created by Jewish inmates of concentration camps, labour camps and ghettos in the utmost secrecy. Of the 50 artists featured, 24 were murdered by the Nazi’s. These creative acts of resistance attest to the power of the human spirit in the face of death. Some of the works vividly depict the atrocities and humiliations being endured at the time, whilst others seek to focus on the abstract spiritual life.
