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Culture

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  • Past Projects
    • Bauhaus 100
    • Berlin Wall 30
    • Dynamics of Air
    • Urban Subcultures
Urban Subcultures @Anno Dittmer

Urban Subcultures

Subcultures can have a significant impact on visually and culturally shaping a city. This dossier aims to examine subcultures in urban spaces in Germany and Australia.

John Murray’s eccentric emu mural outside Lightning Ridge’s petrol station. © Gina Robilliard

Outdoor installations
Rural Murals and Local Bush Legends

The construction of cultural identity through art is having a revival in rural communities across Australia. Communities are coming together to create works of art celebrating unique aspects of rural Australian life in the form of large scale outdoor installations on grain silos, water towers, blank walls and even on the side of the highway.

Bush Doof. © Shaan R. Ali Photography / www.shaanrali.com

Bush Doofs
A Post-Rave Dance Music Movement

Picture a scene where a fine, red dust rises and cloaks a pulsing crowd in a haze, as they stomp the ground rhythmically to ethereal electronic music. They are dancing on a clearing of land in the middle of the picturesque Australian bush, surrounded by scribbly gums, red soil and mountain ranges.

Ballerinas by Lister. © Ramona Bialowons

Street art of Sydney's Inner West
Art from the tin can

Sydney and street art go hand in hand. Colourful, large murals give Sydney's Inner West its own charm. Our intern Ramona joined a street art tour around Sydney and now knows where to find the best artworks.

Above the clouds, Klunkerkranich has created an urban oasis above Neukölln Arcaden. © Felix Dupuy

Nightlife Sydney & Berlin
Nocturnal Surf and Turf

What is evident in comparing Sydney and Berlin nightlife, is that the respective night time economies hinge on two wildly different philosophical and political approaches to youth, creativity and self-expression.

The Street Art Artist Mandy Schöne-Salter in front of her work ‘Imagine‘ (2015). This is a stencil and paste-up artwork created for the Avalon Art Carnival 2015. The work envisages the imaginary worlds children enter during playtime. © Mandy Schöne-Salter

Street Artist Mandy Schöne-Salter
“There is no right or wrong in art”

German-Australian street artist Mandy Schöne-Salter is a woman in a discipline still dominated by men. An ardent lover of photography, she only started creating art on walls about five years ago. A portrait.

Hall of Fame, Mauerpark – different artists Photo (detail): © Karo Krämer

Graffiti and Street Art
Berlin Not for Sale

Multi-coloured lettering on high-rise buildings, gigantic figures painted over in black out of protest, advertising with wall paintings – graffiti in Berlin has many faces. Goethe.de invites you on a special walk through the city.

Truth Corroded in Adelaide © Michael Lüders

Australian Underground Metal
The Dark Side of Australia?

Is there such a thing as a Metal Underground in Australia? Who is part of it and what characterises it? How important is the underground for Australian metal? Members of the scene provide insights.

Natascha Stellmach, Agent Provocateur: Hannah wearing Varookamcsalt (2012) Photo (detail): © Natascha Stellmach, Galerie Wagner + Partner

Tattoo Art in Germany
A feeling of freedom on your skin

For a long time a tattoo was a stigma, today it is an expression of individuality and a fashionable accessory. Over the last few years a multifaceted tattoo scene has emerged in Germany, and even the world of art seems to have overcome its reservations.

Barber shop Benicky & Sons in Sydney. © Gina Robilliard

Barber Shops
Sculpting a modern Gentleman

Offering premium service and old-worldly charm, the modern day barber shop offers an escape for men from the pressures of a fast paced urban landscape, carrying on a masculine tradition that’s rich in cultural significance all over the world.

Rhys Gordon tattooing a client © Emma Salmon

Tattoo art in Australia
Art That Gets
Under Your Skin

Body modification has a long tradition in Australia. As early as the 19th century, convicts tattooed each other in the then-penal colony of Tasmania. Over time, methods as well as clientele and motifs have changed fundamentally.

Adam Kassar AKA Dear Bobby © Gino Nalini Photography

Boylesque
This Charming Man

Burlesque has always existed to transgress social boundaries and fixed notions that shape our everyday life. Its latest frontier aims to challenge our understanding of what it is to be a man in today’s Australia.

A street artist in Melbourne's famous Hosier Lane © Christine Haas

Street Art Melbourne
The City is a Gallery

Melbourne is one of the world's most diverse street art locations. Enormous graffiti and intricate paste-ups characterise the cityscape. A visual stroll.
 

Cosplayer Vanessa Retief © Wesley Nel

Sydney Cosplay
Between Fantasy and Reality

Cosplay, a form of performance art, has found its niche in Sydney. Our author Gina Robilliard has met with cosplayer Vanessa Retief to learn more about the Japanese inspired costume play.  

Gudrun Gut © Gudrun Gut | Malte Ludwigs

Gudrun Gut
An Artist is not just an Artist

Gudrun Gut comes across as a woman without pretense. She has been an integral part of Berlin‘s music scene for over thirty years. In this interview she speaks candidly about her creative processes, the multitude of aspects in her profession and the role of women in the music industry.

Sven Marquardt © Ole Westermann

Sven Marquardt
I have always been a man who polarised people

Every city has its individuals who could be classified as cultural icons. In Berlin, one such individual is the excentric and well-known photograhper, Sven Marquardt.
 

Born to be wild Photo (detail): © Jonas Lindstroem

The 80’s
A Wild Decade is Back

Oversized coats, sparkly brooches, miniskirts and belt bags – the 80’s are back! At least some key pieces are to be seen once again on catwalks and above all on the sidewalks of major German cities.

Dr. Motte © Marie Staggat

The Love Parade
And then we just did it

Dr. Motte was born in Spandau, Berlin as Matthias Roeingh. In the early 1980s he was a member of various bands with colourful names such as Deutsch-Polnische Aggression (DPA). It was during this time with DPA that he co-authored the book Geniale Dilletanten.
 

Robert Henke © Andreas Gockel

Monolake
A very strong urge from deep within

Monolake – real name Robert Henke – is one of the key icons of contemporary electronic club music in Berlin. As one of the main creators of the hugely successful music software Ableton Live, he has had an integral part in redefining performance practice in electronic music worldwide.

Diedrich Diederichsen attending re:publica 2013 Photo (detail): Tony Sojka/re:publica 2013 (flickr) CC BY-SA 2.0

Brilliant Dilletantes
When No-skill Was Productive

The phenomenon of the Brilliant Dilletantes: pop theorist Diedrich Diederichsen in an interview on amateurism and self-organization in the West German subculture of the 1980s.

Automat © Martin Walz

AUTOMAT
We don't practice, we record

In his interview with Jochen Gutsch, Jochen Arbeit talks about his new, instrumental dub-rock trio Automat and Berlin's subculture movement of the 1980s.

Hauschka
The Closeness between Music and Art

The German pianist und artist Hauschka is touring Australia for the first time. In our interview he opens up about his musical style which combines eclectronic with classical tunes.

Antenna Festival © Antenna Festival

Berlinale & Antenna
There is no recipe

German film expert Wieland Speck opens up to our cultural program coordinator Jochen Gutsch about the Berlinale, the Antenna Festival, Geniale Dilletanten and Marlene Dietrich.

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