BERLIN
Galleries/Museums
The Shuttered Society – Art Photography in the GDR 1949 – 1989
Focusing on trends, traditions, and shifting idioms in the medium, while offering a view of life in East Germany, a new exhibition at the Berlinische Galerie presents the largest collection of GDR art photography ever displayed. Images range from posed portraits to gray cityscapes, thoughtful still-lifes, and interesting street scenes. Go gaze at the trove, representing four decades of art photographs from the German Democratic Republic, when it’s unveiled at the exhibition opening Thursday.
Price: €8
Location: Berlinische Galerie, Alte Jakobstrasse 124-128
Times: Thursday, October 4, 7pm (Opening); Wednesday – Monday, 10am-6pm; October 5 – January 28, 2013 (Regular Hours)
Phone: 030-789 02-600
More Information: www.berlinischegalerie.de
Asa Elzen – Mary Wollstonecraft’s Scandinavian Journey 1795 Re-Traced
Back in the 18th century the notion of feminism wasn’t much more than an unusual philosophy floundering around in the minds of a few intelligent women. One of these learned ladies was Mary Wollstonecraft, a British writer who is said to be the originator of feminist text and who also happens to be the subject of an artwork by Swedish artist Asa Elzen currently on view in Berlin. Examine Elzen’s multifaceted response to Wollstonecraft’s journey through Scandinavia at Uqbar.
Price: Free
Location: Uqbar, Schwedenstrasse 16
Times: Friday and Saturday, 2-7pm; through November 17
Phone: 030 4606 9107
More Information: www.projectspace.uqbar-ev.de
Film
The Red Shoes
Ballet is a powerful thing. It drives the human spirit to do the unthinkable. Or so it goes in the movies anyway. Powell and Pressburger’s 1948 film The Red Shoes is one of cinema’s most adored dance movies. British ballerina Moira Shearer famously played the starring role of love torn dancer Vicky Page. Watch the technicolour drama unfold at the Jewish Museum’s Monday night film series this week.
Price: €5 (Museum Admission)
Location: Jewish Museum Berlin, Lindenstrasse 9-14
Times: Monday, October 8, 7:30pm
Reservations: 030 259 93 488
More Information: www.jmberlin.de
COLOGNE
Galleries/Museums
Co-Mix – Art Spiegelman: A Retrospective of Comics, Graphics, and Scraps
If you collected Garbage Pail Kids, or read the New Yorker between 1992 and 2001 you’ve encountered Art Spiegelman. One of the most important cartoonists of our time, the Pulitzer Prize winning comic book author is the subject of a new exhibition at Museum Ludwig. The retrospective includes sketches, illustrations, cover drawings, and a major exhibit featuring Maus, his graphic novel which tells the story of how his parents survived the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps. Go Thursday when the museum stays open late.
Price: €10
Location: Museum Ludwig, Heinrich-Böll-Platz
Times: Tuesday – Sunday, 10am-6pm; Thursday, October 4, 10am-10pm; through January 6, 2013
Phone: 0221 221 26165
More Information: www.museum-ludwig.de
Music/Concerts
Irish Chamber Orchestra With Pekka Kuusisto
Works by the great Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara join violin concertos by Bach, and Bartok’s Divertimento for String Orchestra on the Irish Chamber Orchestra’s Sunday afternoon program. The celebrated Finnish virtuoso Pekka Kuusisto accompanies the ensemble in a vibrant concert where the violin is king. Order your tickets for this very special performance by one of Ireland’s most acclaimed musical groups.
Price: €10-32
Location: Kölner Philharmonie, Bischofsgartenstrasse 1
Times: Sunday, October 7, 4pm
Hotline: 0221 280 280
More Information: www.irishchamberorchestra.com
DÜSSELDORF
Music/Concerts
Vive le Jazz
France and Germany have had some relationship issues in the past, but one thing they can always agree on is that music is the language of life. This week, jazz musicians from the land of baguettes join their bratwurst noshing counterparts in a series of concerts in venues around Cologne. Pianist Hans Ludermann and bassist Sebastien Boisseau kick off the program Thursday night followed by a set from the Christine Corvisier Quintet. Check the schedule and take your pick from an excellent array of performers.
Price: Various
Location: Various
Times: Thursday, October 4 – Friday, October 12
More Information: www.vivelejazz.eu
FRANKFURT
Theatre
Relatively Speaking
Craving a little English theatre? Head to Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium Monday night when New Triad Theatre London performs Alan Ayckbourn’s Relatively Speaking. The hilarious tale of a love triangle gone out of control premiered in 1967, and it’s as comedically relevant today as it was back then.
Price: €15
Location: Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium, Sonnemannstrasse 16
Times: Monday, October 8, 7pm
Phone: 069 212 38 384
More Information: www.vhs.frankfurt.de
Dance
Arab Contemporary
Witnessing bodies in motion is a beautiful way to ponder the questions – Who am I? Who are we? Who are they? Mousonturm’s Arab Contemporary dance series features artists from Tunisia, Morocco, and France who incorporate themes of identity into their work and grapple with the relationship between the customs of their homelands and the practices of western artists. Four different performances run through Sunday.
Price: €12 – 17
Location: Mousonturn, Waldschmidtstrasse 4
Times: Wednesday, October 3 – Sunday, October 7
Phone: 069 40 58 95 20
More Information: www.mousonturm.de
HAMBURG
Events
Rippple Books 2012 Book Launch
Focusing on books by expat writers living in Germany, Rippple Books publishes two books each year. On Thursday, the company celebrates the release of its latest pair of novels, MacKenzie Stilton’s The Label Maker, and Campbell Jeffery’s Hunter. Go and congratulate the anglophone authors between sets of live music and a literary performance.
Price: Free
Location: Oberstübchen, Sankt Pauli Fischmarkt 27
Times: Thursday, October 4, 7:30pm
More Information: www.rippplebooks.com
MUNICH
Film
Underdox – Festival for Documentary and Experimental Film
The Dutch artist and independent filmmaker Manon de Boer is the “artist in focus” at this year’s Underdox festival. Some of her more recent films about musicians and dancers join Greek shorts, and a film about a sadomasochist with cystic fibrosis on the programme of strange and fascinating films from around the world.
Price: €6; €25 (5-pack)
Location: Various
Times: Thursday, October 4 – Thursday, October 11
More Information: www.underdox-festival.de
Events
Get the Picture – A Personal History of Photojournalism
John G. Morris has had a lot of influence on Western media over the last century or so. At 95, the photo editor has had an incomparable career, listing everything from Life to the Ladies’ Home Journal, to The New York Times on his resume. He selected the images that the world would see of some of history’s most important events from the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach to Apollo 11’s landing on the moon. See the great man speak at Munich’s America House Friday.
Price: Free
Location: Amerika Haus, Karolinenplatz 3
Times: Friday, October 5, 6pm
Phone: 089 55 25 370
More Information: www.amerikahaus.de