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THE UNDERGROUND TRAVEL

GUIDE TO BERLIN

HERRITAGE OF BERLIN STREET ARTBERLIN GRAFFITTI

ARTWORK AND

ARTIST

BERLIN TOP SPOTS TO VISITTOP PLACES IN

BERLIN YOU HAVE

TO VISIT

FESTIVAL OF LIGHTSTHE BEAUTIFUL

FESTIVAL OF

LIGHTS IN BERLIN

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I F I E V E R H AV E TO STOP TAKING THE SUBWAY I’M G O N N A H AV E A HEART A T T A C KEDWARD NORTON

FEATUREST HIS I S SUE S F E AT URE S ON MIL A N I TA LY

URBAN HOTSPOTS IN BERLINTOP URBAN PLACES TO VISIT IN BERLIN GERMANY

T O P S T O R Y

FESTIVAL OF LIGHTSFESTIVAL OF LIGHTS IN BERLIN GERMANY

THE HERITAGE OF BERLIN STREET ART

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T HIS I S SUE S F E AT URE S ON MIL A N I TA LY

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BERLIN TRAVEL INFORMATION

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BERLIN ADVENTURESFINDING NEW ADVENTURES

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BERLIN GUIDED TOURFREE TOUR OF BERLIN

TRAVEL

EAST SIDE GALLERYBERLIN WALL ART

PERGAMONGREEK ART MUSEUM

PLACES

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TRAVEL INFORMATION

ADDRESSMühlenstrasse Friedrichshai

TRANSPORT Warschauer Strasse, Ostbahnhof

PRICING: ADMISSION FREE

PLACES

East Side Gallery is the longest, best-preserved and most in

teresting stretch of the Berlin Wall and the one to see if you

have little time. Running parallel with the Spree between Ostbahnhof

and Oberbaumbrücke, the 1300m-section was turned into the world’s

largest open-air gallery after the fall of the Wall. Dozens of international

artists translated the era’s global euphoria and optimism into a mix of

political statements, drug-induced musings and truly artistic visions.

Time, weather, taggers and tourists insisting on signing the thing

have not been kind to the murals, which were touched up in 2009.

Although a protected monument, a 40m section of the Wall was

moved so that the shiny new O2 World Arena would have direct ac

cess to the Spree River. These sections are now a bit further west

along the riverside of the Wall. Also along here are numerous beach

bars whose survival may be threatened by encroaching development.

THE

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EAST SIDE GALLERY

TTRAVEL

YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE ANY PROBLEMS GETTING AROUND BERLIN

HOW TO GET

AROUND BERLIN

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Regardless of your marathon schedule, it makes sense to use some of your free time to look around the city – al though it’s unlikely you’re going to cover much of Berlin under your own steam, purely because it’s just too big! The size of the city means it’s a good idea to take ad van tage of the extensive network system of underground lines (U -Bahn), overground railway lines (S-Bahn), buses and tramways, and any other methods of transport that are at your disposal.

An interconnected three-zone system (ABC) allows you to hop from bus to U-Bahn to S-Bahn to tram with one ticket – but for most travel purposes, using zones A and B will be sufficient.

A WORD OF ADVICE

Although there are no ticket barriers in Berlin’s under ground network, you must have a validated ticket. There’s a validating machine next to the ticket machine – you should stamp your ticket here before starting your journey. Spot checks are often carried out and being caught can cost you a fine of around 40 euro. There is an English translation on ticket vending machines at each station, so there is really no excuse. Some of the most common and suitable ways to get around are explained below:

TRAINS

The U-Bahn (subway) is a very simple to find your way around, but obviously you’re not going to see much while you’re travelling underground! The U-Bahn trains are very fast and efficient, and each train’s direction of travel is de termined by sensors along the lines. All U-Bahn stations are very simple to spot with their big ‘U’ signs and have electronic displays that give you the time of the Taking the overground S-Bahn allows you to cast your eye over many of the great sights in Berlin. For example, the route between the Zoologischer Garten and Alexanderplatz sta tions passes by Tiergarten Park, which contains the Sie

gessäule (Victory Column) and the Reichstag, as well as many important federal buildings. Alternatively, a ride on the Ringbahn (S-Bahn-Circle) gives you the chance to get an overview of the city centre within an hour’s ride.

BUSES

Buses are frequent and a great way to get around the city. Routes 100 and 200 are particular favourites for a spot of sightseeing since they take in many of the notable landmarks. The good thing is, multiple-ride tickets bought for the railways are valid on the buses too – but if you are setting out on the bus first, the driver will be unable to sell you a multiple-ride ticket, although they can be bought at some vending machines at bus stops. Correct change is advisable when buying tickets. There are also some night buses operating between 1am and 4am.

TRAMS

The trams operate largely in eastern Berlin and ticketing works on the same basis as ticketing for the buses. Trams are a convenient method of transport as you can hop on and off as you see fit, provided you have a multiple-ride ticket.

BICYCLE

Berlin has very few steep hills but does have heavy traf fic, and that may be reason enough for deciding to opt against taking to the roads on a bike. In the city and sub urbs, it is best to confine your cycling to cycle zones, which are marked out with solid red lines. Your best option may be to take a bike to explore some of the city’s outlying parks and forests. Both the U-Bahn and S-Bahn provide specific compartments for bicycles for a small extra charge, although transport of bicycles on trains is not permitted during rush hour. A 24-hour bicycle rental costs in the re gion of 20 euro.

You shouldn’t have many problems getting

around: Berlin, despite its size, with its integrat

ed public trans port system of railways, buses

and tramways allows you to reach every loca

tion and sight in town in a safe and convenient.

Art critic Emilie Trice has called Berlin “the graffiti Mecca of the urban art world.” While few people would argue with her, the Berlin street scene is not as radical as her statement suggests. Street art in Berlin is a big industry. It’s not exactly legal, but the city’s title of UNESCO’s City of Design has kept local authorities from doing much to change what observers call the most “bombed” city in Europe. From the authorities’ point of view, the graffiti attracts tourists, and the tourists bring money to a city deep in debt.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BERLIN GRAFFITI

After the few East Germans who crossed the Berlin Wall in the ’80s blinked and pinched themselves, what do you think was the first thing they saw?

They saw big bubbly letters, spelling out words in German, English and French. They saw political slogans, either carved indelibly into the concrete or sprayed temporarily onto surfac es, commenting not only on the situation in Germany, but on the whole political world: “God Ble$$,” “Concrete Makes You Happy,” “Death to Tyrants.” As far as they could see, covering every inch of wall, was layer upon layer of zest, life and color.

If they’d crossed in the ’60s, however, they’d have been tempted to jump straight back. Abandoned buildings, derelict streets, piles of rubble — the immediate areas around the wall were reminiscent of World War II, and it would take another 10 years for the first communities to settle there.

Simon ArmsJuly 13 2011

Th e H eritage Of Berli n Street Art

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Even then, those early settlers weren’t “real” Berliners, but outsiders: draft resisters, anarchist punks and Turkish migrants. They either opened businesses or formed squats and, with no resistance from the West German government, began turning walls into monuments to their own thoughts and beliefs.

By the end of the ’70s, a new wave of graffiti artists, arriving with innovations such as stencils and spray cans, were contributing genuine works of art. Our East German friends would have been staring not just at the defacement of Communist property, but at what graffiti artists had by then claimed as their Mecca.

AFTER THE WALL

After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the graffiti artists marched straight into East Germany. Mitte, Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg — all of the areas that the military had occupied became a new playground for the Western artists and became a new world for the Eastern artists who joined them. Few doubted that the East Germans’ work was weightier. It wasn’t that they were better artists, but that they could express — with authority — the one concept close to the hearts of all people now living in the city: what it meant to be free.

One East Berliner to make an impact during this period was “Tower.” With his name printed in a variety of colors and fonts on what looked like car stickers, people must have initially mistaken his work for advertising. But the more they saw it — on lamp posts, on post boxes, on trash cans, on fences — the more they understood what he was trying to communicate: Tower, as in the communist TV tower; Tower, as in the skyscrapers that dominated the skyline of almost every major city — built not for the people who lived there, but for the egos of the people who ran them. Tower’s aim was to reclaim the word as a symbol of strength and, in doing so, proclaim that the majority, not the minority, should be shaping the public space.

In the summer of 2003, posters of a boy bemoaning the loss of his ex-girlfriend, Linda, began to appear on walls and fences in the Friedrichshain district. Some

times he looked like a boy ready to kill him self; sometimes he looked like a man ready to kill. Whichever way the artist drew him, his sad eyes always asked passersby the same question: “Where’s Linda?” At first, people either ignored the posters or were mildly curious. But as both the pictures and messages increased in intensity, they had no choice but to take notice. On one poster, Linda’s ex told his estranged lover that he would be waiting to speak to her at a certain bar every Saturday and Tuesday night. People were starting to believe that his suffering was real. And if his suffering was real, then they did not doubt that he needed help.

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THEGRAFFITI MECCA OF THE URBAN ART WORLD.

DIFFERENT ARTIST HAVE A SPECIFIC TRADEMARK

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THEGRAFFITI MECCA OF THE URBAN ART WORLD.

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her apart is her beauty. The artist highlights this by always spraying her image on the grayest and ugliest of concrete walls, amidst the most innocuous of graffiti scrawls. Like the pretty girl sitting alone in a bar, passersby rarely walk past without giving her a second glance.

Overall, XOOOOX’s images show an artist with a genuine appreciation of conventional beauty. In a scene that likes to subvert conventions, this must make XOOOOX the most unconventional artist working on Berlin’s streets today.

MOVING INTO MAINSTREAM

Visitors to Berlin tend to ask the same question: is the street art legal? It is a difficult question for Berliners to answer. In central parts of the city at least, there is variously so much and so little criticism directed at it that no one quite knows. Head of the anti-graffiti team, Chief Detective Marko Moritz, insists, however, that the city views graffiti as a crime.

In an interview with The Local newspaper, he states that his team’s main goal is to catch the tagging crews whose work has its roots not in art, but in gang culture. In what he calls bombings, crews will spray whole trains and sometimes build ings with their signatures and colors. But Moritz is concerned not only with the defacement of public property; some crews, he claims, are starting to carry firearms.

Their behavior, while disturbing, is a byproduct of the au thorities’ attempt to turn the street art scene into an indus try. When UNESCO named Berlin as a City of Design, few people doubted that the thriving street art scene was partly responsible. Local businesses and even local authorities hired artists to paint murals on the fronts of their buildings. Most fa mously, on a wall in Kreuzberg, the artist Blu painted two men trying to rip each other’s masks off — symbolizing, he claims, Berlin’s struggles during its first few years of reunification.

Today, such work has made the street art a tourist attraction. Kunsthaus Tacheles, once an artists’ squat and still a focal point of the scene, holds disco nights downstairs and sells urban art books upstairs — its bar is as expensive as anywhere in the city. Artists such as XOOOOX, Mein Lieber Prost and Alias have started to exhibit and sell in galleries. They still work on the street, but they are no longer impoverished art ists — if they ever were. They can afford to travel and work in countries across the world.

While these artists believe that street art needs to appeal to a wider audience, the local, more traditional artists, such as the tagging crews, disagree. They argue that street art derives its power from being on the margins of society; only from the outside can they address problems within it. That difference of opinion is opening a space in the scene that can be filled only by the mainstream. In the next few years, street art has the potential to become a social movement as inclusive as anything from the ’50s and ’60s.

THE NEW ARTIST

Linda’s Ex was successful because he communicated with and responded to his audience almost every day. If he had stopped, even for a month, the public has a personal interest would have dissipated.

The critiques below examine the artwork of three Berlin street artists working today — maybe at this very moment. Like Linda’s Ex, XOOOX, Alias and Mein Lieber Prost make certain that their work remains in the public eye, constantly.

To most people, the letters xoooox represent hugs and kisses. To XOOOOX, they represent symmetry and strength, for no matter how much he rearranges them, they remain a powerful signature that could belong to no one but him.

This tells XOOOOX’s public as much about him as they need to know: what you see is what you get. For instance, many people would like to believe that his black and white stencils are an ironic, anti-capitalist statement. But as the artist claims himself, they are a straight homage to the fashion world.

His fascination with fashion began when he discovered a pile of his parent’s old fashion magazines in the cellar. He would cut out parts of the pictures, mix them up and stick them on the walls of his room.

Collage still fascinates him, but he says that on the street, stencils are far more practical. At home, he creates a sten cil from one of his fashion magazines — including everything from Harper’s to Vogue — and then, armed with his spray paint and stencil, he replicates the image on the streets.

ANALYSIS OF XOOOOX’S WORK

People enjoy XOOOOX’s approach because of his objective treatment of his subjects, presenting each model as neither happy nor sad, neither warm nor cold. He even draws one model urinating on the ground; while some might interpret the piece as a sign of arrogance, XOOOOX’s signature, flow ing from her head like a thought bubble, persuades sensitive observers to judge her on a more humane level. What sets

GOLDEN TRASH

To anyone walking the streets of Berlin, it’s no secret that the city’s artists have traded in their paint brushes for spray cans, exchanging their platitudinous canvases for three-dimensional sidewalks, fire hydrants and brick walls. Call it a playful paradox, but some of Berlin’s most prolific artists are steeped in ephemeral art.

“While both use the street as the same me dium, there is a significant difference between graffiti and street art,” said Johann Haehling Von Lanzenauer, director of CircleCulture Gal lery in Mitte. “Graffiti is the culture of words, in which the word, typically void of mean ing, is the vessel. Street art is more figura

tive, using posters, stencils or even armies of kids equipped with stickers—it’s an urban in tervention.” Despite the dizzying amount of neon-bright “tags” and wheat-paste posters coloring the boroughs of Mitte and Friedrich shain-Kreuzberg, graffiti and street art are, by definition, illegal art forms.

ANTI GRAFFITI LAWS

Despite the consequences, the 1 Up crew has made a somewhat of a mockery out of the city’s anti-graffiti laws and set the bar for other graffiti “bombers” in Berlin. Also known by the name of One United Power, 1 Up has developed an air-tight method of evading the polizei: Clad in ski masks and hoodies, the group runs into a train station and pulls the emergency break, stopping the train and, subsequently, locking its doors. Passengers watch as their windows become clouded with silver and black spray paint, and the 1 Up crew hustles to complete their tag within a span of two or three minutes (before law enforcement arrives). Further, the entire event is recorded for YouTube, making the 1 Up crew local he roes of the “underground” and helping to in spire the 2011 documentary, “Unlike U – Train Writing in Berlin.”

“Outsiders usually can’t understand why we do what we do,” said one of the masked graf fiti writers featured in the documentary film. “We don’t get any money … and the police chase us. In the end, it is only the love [for] the art—and that’s it.”

Albeit a train car or a shop front, the more valuable the property with which the artist chooses to work, the greater the risk. Con

sequently, when graffiti writers breathe new life into dilapidated buildings in some of the seedier parts of the city, people tend to look the other way. At Friedrichshain’s RAW Tem pel complex, a former train depot-turned-cul tural space, urban art runs rampant. Night clubs blasting electronic music occupy its decaying warehouses, which are coated with layer after layer of paint, posters and ink, each artist trying to outdo the last. “Graffiti has its borders,” explained David Baumgarten, a former graffiti artist, who currently studies visual communications atBerlin University of the Arts. “Everyone steals from each other. It’s as if you can’t invent a style that is com pletely new.”

SHOULDERS OF GIANTS

Berlin’s Alias is a prime example of an artist “standing on the shoulders of giants.” His use of propaganda-style posters in red, black, gray and white, echo the work of Shepard Fairey, who skyrocketed into stardom with his Obama “Hope” posters in 2008. Further, Alias’ manip ulation-made stencils are almost indistinguish able from those of Banksy, London’s oh so elusive guerilla artist, who is fast becoming the Picasso of the Millennial Generation.

On the contrary, Berlin-based artist, Lake, has recently come into his own. Fans of his art will note a change from his photo-realistic graffiti of the early 1990s, executed exclusively with spray paint, to the large-scale acrylic murals that he paints today. Much of his work has been exhibited in galleries, and he now owns a gigantic rock-climbing tower within the RAW-Tempel complex.

Galleries around town, including Mitte’s CicleCulture, as well as local street art fes tivals and events have helped legitimize ur ban art, especially over the past few years. Of these celebrations of urban subcultures, the Backjumps Live Issue festivals have left a mark on the city—quite literally. Subversive murals created by internationally-renowned guest artists, Victor Ash and Blu, during these legal street art festivals still stand tall over Kreuzberg’s residential areas.

Another urban art festival will make its foray into the Berlin art scene this fall. From Oct. 14-17, the Stroke.ArtFair promises an exhibi tion of not only street art and graffiti but all related art forms birthed out of subcultural

ONE MAN’S GARBAGE IS TRULY ANOTHER MAN’S TREASURE.

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urban movements, including tattoos, digital art, illustration and comic art. The exhibition will take place at Berlin’s recently restored Postbahnhof, a former postal train station that now serves as an event space for concerts, banquets and parties.

GO LEGIT

A growing trend to “go legit” is undoubedly developing in the capital city. Kreuzberg’s in famous 36 Boys even appear to be on the straight and narrow. The former gang, made up of mostly Turkish immigrants, has alleg edly retired from the violence and vandalism (including graffiti writing) of their past—but their legacy lives on. Former member, Sinan Tosun, has capitalized on the mystique of the 36 Boys, and operates a shop near Kottbusser Tor that sells urban-inspired clothing and ac cessories branded with the gang’s logo.

URBAN LIVING

Likewise, local artist Mr. 6, also known as 4rtist.com, is taking advantage of Berliners’ cravings for tangible representations of urban living. The difference? He’s not charging a cent. The artist garnered attention from 2003-2004 for tagging thousands of items on the streets of Berlin with the number “6,” which is report edly the easiest motion for him to make whilst simultaneously riding his bike. At present, he focuses on tagging abandoned, removable items (i.e. trash) so that passersby will remove the branded objects from the streets.

STREET ART FOUND IN THE EAST GALLERYBERLIN

Visitors interested in finding some golden gar bage of their own can do so with the help of a trained eye. For approximately $420, out of tow ers can spend a half day patrolling the streets with an English-speaking guide from art agency, GoArt! Berlin. Guides are well versed in urban art and are likely practitioners themselves.

URBAN ART MOVEMENT

Berlin, however, isn’t the only high-profile city capitalizing on the urban art movement. In 2008, London’s Tate Modern commissioned six interna tional street artists—including JR from Paris and Sixeart from Barcelona—to use the building’s iconic river façade as a canvas.This year, within a period of less than four months, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) attract ed more than 200,000 visitors with its “Art in the Streets” exhibit, marking the highest exhibition attendance in the museum’s history. Tradition alists beware—urban art is not going away any time soon. And so it seems, in some of the most progressive cities across the globe, one man’s garbage is truly another man’s treasure.

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Spotlight on Berlin: Festival of LightsKaty Dutile

ays of l ight will cover historical land

marks, including the Berlin Wall during

the seventh annual Festival of Lights.

Beams of bright colors and all shapes illuminate monuments and in stallations throughout Berlin as part of the seventh annual Festival of Lights.

Every fall, for twelve days famous landmarks are transformed into shin ing works of art. The year’s festival lasts from Oct. 12 to 23. The longer autumn nights are the best time to put the city in the spotlight. The open-air gallery will start every night at 7 p.m. and last until midnight.

The main stage for this year’s festival will be located at the public square, Quartier Potsdamer Platz. As dusk falls in the center, more than 20 impressive illuminations will be seen within the inner-city.

All attention, however, will be on the last remaining piece of the Berlin Wall. It remains as a memorial to those that died during the Wall’s 28 -year duration. Ben Wagin, a Berlin based artist, created a piece called the Parliament of Trees, which will illuminate the Wall to continue to honor those who have passed. The piece will include projected trees, memorial stones, and images of the original wall.

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FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

Every year since 2005 for 12 days Berlin is transformed into a magical illuminated city. A breathtaking array of colours will light up the German capital giving it a romantic allure to rival the likes of Paris and Rome.

Marvel as buildings and surroundings are viv idly and beautifully brought to life with bright colours, images projected onto facades and open spaces, laser beams shooting to the skies and light shows dance, as if by magic, through the air.

The impressive light installations are on dis play daily from October 10th through the 21st, from 7:00 PM – 12 Midnight, and you won’t have to pay a single cent to see them.

While the event is on visitors will be able to get all the latest and relevant info at the Fes tival Information Center, located in the Pots damer Platz Arkaden (mall).

Although some of the schedule and partici pants for the Festival of Lights have yet to be finalised we can give you an idea of what this year´s fantastic program of events will offer. You can check back here later or visit the of ficial festival of lights website.

OPENING CEREMONY

The festival’s opening ceremony always pro vides a fantastic and memorable start. Pots

damer Platz on October 10th at 7:30 PM will see patrons of the festival, together with oth er celebrities, switch on the light installations to the sounds and delight of the crowd.

OPEN CITY

On October 13th The “OpenCity” (mean time: 19:00 – 24:00 o’clock) will give visitors an opportunity to take a look behind awe some illuminated façades. Enjoy different guided backstage tours.

JAZZ IN DEN MINISTERGÄRTEN

Get ready for some great jazz as once again the Festival of Lights will include Jazz in den Ministergärten! In the course of this event the Representations of the States along the street “In den Ministergärten” will be tran-formed into amazing illumination works. Among them are Brandenburg, Hesse, Meck lenburg- Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Rhine land-Palatinate, Saarland and Schleswig-Hol stein.

The festival takes place in the five above mentioned houses of the Representations of the States. The ticket is valid for the atten dance of all the concerts on the condition that there are seats available. The number of tickets is limited so please use the online ticketing!

YOU’RE IN FOR A MAGICAL AND MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

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There are a multitude of tours available, of fering you a completely different vantage point for the Festival. We want to present you with a few options for Lightseeing Tours.

Whether you choose to go by limo, bus, on foot or over water, the range of tours is seemingly endless. Simply choose the one which interests you the most from the official site of the Festival Photo safaris, which allow you – with the help of experts – to find those perfect photo motives, will also be offered.

For all true romantics, there are, of course, carriage rides. You can curl up under thick blankets and simply enjoy the view. Book ings and information available at Berlin Car riage Rides.

Unique views can also be found on board a ship, along Berlin’s numerous waterways. The Rederei Riedel offers a fantastic combi nation bus and boat tour.

Last but not least, special sightseeing walks will also be on offer. Berlin Sehenswert has put together a tailor-made program, espe cially for the Festival of Lights.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Whether you choose to experience the Festival of Lights in Berlin on your own, or through one of many guided tours, you’re in

for a magical and mystical experience. We’re already counting down the days, and also plan to take part in the festivities, on behalf of our readers.

Unfortunately, we’ve not yet had the chance to take photos ourselves, but here’s a link to the Festival’s official photo archive, with fantastic images from past years’ festivals. If these photos can’t convince you to pay a visit to the Festival this time around, I don’t know what will!

You’re interested in sharing your impressions, photos, and videos? At the beginning of Oc tober, the organizers of the Festival of Lights will make a page on their official website

available for just that purpose. But you can also exchange information via the Festival’s official Facebook page.

Why not head here during the Festival of Lights? We still have loads of vacation rent als available for this time period. Staying in a vacation apartment in Berlin Mitte, for ex ample, will put you right in the heart of the action. You may even be able to admire the elaborate light show right from your very own window!

Berlin has long been feted for its colourful nightlife, but visitors will be in for extra noc turnal treats next month as the annual Festi val of Lights gets under way. From the Bran

denburg Gate to the Radio Tower, more than 50 of the city’s iconic landmarks will be spec tacularly illuminated. “Lightseeing” tours of the city centre by bus, boat, hot air balloon and rickshaw will run throughout the festival alongside musical performances, art installa tions and open-house events. There’s even a Light Run, enabling runners to take in the sights by night.

There is also lightsight running event which takes participants on a relaxed trot that goes past illuminated buildings along the Reich stag, the Spree River and Berlin Cathedral.

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the FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS, its partners, supporters, and sponsors, as well as the participating artists. What fasci nates me so much about Berlin are its contrasts and its unfinished nature. Which makes me all the more pleased to be allowed to illuminate one of the most popu lar and historic buildings on “Unter den Linden”, directly in the centre of town, with the WUNDERKIND fabric de signs during the FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS.

The Berlin cathedral, which is located across from the for mer “Palast der Republik” and the “Staatsoper”, will soon be dressed for the festival nights with my creations, emit ting a shining colour explosion. Not made of fabric which models and customers wear, but made out of light, and I am sure that it will clothe the cathedral just as beautifully. In the middle of a golden autumn I say, “spring break”!”

The festival will also celebrate the 125th anniversary of Kurfürstendamm, Berlin’s most famous boulevard. The bou levard is the perfect place for a nightly stroll, as shop win dows and buildings are lit with unique projections to create a gallery of lights.

There are over 10 different light-seeing tours offered through out Berlin. The city offers everything from rides on the public double-decker buses, stylish Lightlimo, or a heart-pounding Lightrun.

Tourists and Berlin locals alike can take in different light-re lated events each night from LightCocktails at the LightBar (everything is transformed into light-something) to an illu minated jazz concert at the Minster Gardens. The dazzling display drew over a million visitors last year. Check out the official Festival of Lights Web site for more information on tours and a map of where to see the lights of Berlin.

“Germany’s capital city has a worldwide reputation for its exciting cultural scene. Not only does it have a wide range of renowned theaters, world-famous museums, and three major opera houses, it also manages to surprise both Berliners and the city’s many visitors with countless spectacular events. The Festival has been one of these for many years now. It liter ally casts Berlin in a new light, illuminating and transforming historic buildings, “temples of the Muses,” and iconic land marks. The city is awash in color in many different locations, and a varied supporting program explores the theme of light with its own events.

And in this spirit, welcome to the 2012 FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS! Let yourself be captivated by this look at a sparkling, glitter ing Berlin. My sincere thanks go to everyone who helped to make this unique event possible – especially the initiators of

THE BEAUTIFUL

LIT UP CITY OF

BERLIN

BEAMS OF BRIGHT COLORS AND ALL

SHAPES ILLUMINATE MONUMENTS

AND INSTALLATIONS THROUGHOUT

BERLIN AS PART OF THE SEVENTH

ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS.

THE

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DEPART