LOLA Issue Three by LOLA Magazine

ISSUE 03

SPRING 2017

LOLAMAG.DE

+ Black Cracker examines identity, exploitation, and music Birdwatching and how it gives the city a new perspective Bruce LaBruce on cult filmmaking and tearing down safe spaces Berlinstagram Seydo Uzun Britta Thie Eylül Aslan Gurr Trump’s America Cher Nobyl

BOYS NOIZE BANGING THE DRUM FOR BERLIN

FREE

SERPENTWITHFEET 05.04. Berlin, Grüner Salon

DJ PREMIER

GLASS ANIMALS

25.03. Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzberg

27.04. Berlin, Astra Kulturhaus

DRUGDEALER

JOE GODDARD (LIVE)

05.04. Berlin, Urban Spree

28.04. Berlin, Prince Charles

TEMPLES

SYLVAN ESSO

10.04. Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzberg

02.05. Berlin, SchwuZ

CLOCK OPERA

MIGHTY OAKS

11.04. Berlin, Kantine am Berghain

03.05. Berlin, Astra Kulturhaus

CANCER

THE JAPANESE HOUSE

AHZUMJOT & CHIMA EDE

SPLASHH

12.04. Berlin, Kantine am Berghain

14.04. Berlin, St. Georg

ISAIAH RASHAD 16.04. Berlin, Lido

ROOSEVELT

03.05. Berlin, Privatclub

04.05. Berlin, Urban Spree

CAMP CLAUDE

07.05. Berlin, Kantine am Berghain

ÁSGEIR

20.04. Berlin, Kesselhaus

09.05. Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzberg

PUMAROSA

GANG OF YOUTHS

NICK HAKIM

STORMZY

24.04. Berlin, Badehaus

12.05. Berlin, Auster Club

25.04. Berlin, Kantine am Berghain

16.05. Berlin, Yaam

LGOONY

HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR (LIVE)

27.04. Berlin, Gretchen

18.05. Berlin, SchwuZ

Spring 2017

Editorial

‘BREATHE IN. BREATHE OUT. BERLIN.’

his is only my third year in Berlin, but I’m becoming steadily more attuned to the different rhythms and cycles that the city goes through annually. The most pronounced of these rhythms is the change in seasons. You have the very obvious physical signs – the fresh green of the leaves in April turning into an autumnal brown in October – but there’s a more esoteric rhythm that has really struck me: the fluctuations of people. When winter hits, it’s as if the whole city takes a deep breath and braces itself. Everything feels tighter, hunkered down. The streets become sparsely populated as everyone tries to navigate them as quickly as possible, hunched against the cold. Then, as the sun comes out and the temperature creeps up, the city exhales, but it’s not breath being let out. It’s life. The parks fill, and the streets start to teem with people. The atmosphere of the city totally changes. Maybe it’s the collective feeling that we have

all made it through another winter together, as if we’ve all been wearing a pair of shoes that are a size too small, and together we feel the relief of taking them off. Now that spring is finally here, we’re looking forward to all the chance encounters that we’ll experience and all the people we’ll meet during this next exhalation. In this issue, we’d like to introduce you to a few that might be new to you; a Späti owner with a moving story, the photographer challenging her subjects’ perceptions of their own beauty, or the electronic star steeped in Berlin. Outside in the sun when the parks are filling up, you can see the rich tapestry of Berlin unfolding before your eyes. People from every walk of life mingle once again, and everything becomes a little more riotous. You realise that it is the people that make the city feel truly alive, and they are what make it so dynamic and vibrant. Jonny

Publisher & Editor In Chief Jonny Tiernan

PR & Events Emma Taggart

Executive Editor Marc Yates Associate Editor Alison Rhoades Sub Editor Linda Toocaram

Photographers Justine Olivia Tellier Marili Persson Roman Petruniak Viktor Richardsson Robert Rieger Writers Dan Cole Alexander Darkish Maggie Devlin Anna Gyulai Gaal Jack Mahoney Alexander Rennie Jessica Reyes Sondgeroth Emma Robertson

Special Thanks Erika Clugston Jan Schueler The Agora Collective at Rollberg for providing the cover story photoshoot location

LOLA Magazine Blogfabrik Oranienstraße 185 10999 Berlin For business enquiries jonny@lolamag.de For editorial enquiries marc@lolamag.de For PR & event enquiries emma@lolamag.de

Published by Magic Bullet Media Cover photo by Viktor Richardsson Printed in Berlin by Oktoberdruck AG – oktoberdruck.de Spring 2017

Issue Three

Photo by Viktor Richardsson

Contents without being distracted by capitalism or what society wants from you.”

04. berlin through the lens

Berlinstagram “Berlin was Germany’s first city with a proper Instagram community and everybody knew each other.”

Seydo Uzun “Some come back with money and want to pay for what they’ve stolen earlier, but a gift is a gift.”

12. Britta Thie

26. Eylül Aslan

“They were opening up about such private issues and there I was, taking photos of their half-naked bodies!”

08. local hero

40.

dispatches

Trump’s America “The streets were not very crowded, there were no chants or obvious excitement – people were mostly just hoping it wouldn’t rain.”

44. the last word 30. Black Cracker

“At any point in time, we can collectively engage in a love affair.”

Cher Nobyl “German people don’t shout at me, they whisper.”

34. Bruce LaBruce

“Our lives are so over-edited, like there’s truth, recreated truth, posttruth, nostalgia for our past truths…”

“It’s not like I’m just this gung-ho porn person who was just passively presenting porn as something simplistically good.”

16. Birdwatching in Berlin

“It’s really enriched my life here and made me more positive.” 20.

Boys Noize “When you live here for a little bit you realise that you can have a good life cover story

38. tour diary

Gurr “We slept in the most comfortable apartment because they turned up the heating to the max everywhere, so the hole in the roof didn’t matter anymore.” Spring 2017

Berlin Through The Lens

Berlinstagram

BERLIN THROUGH THE LENS

BERLINSTAGRAM: AN UNOFFICIAL AMBASSADOR IN FOCUS

Issue Three

Berlinstagram

words by

Marc Yates

Michael Schulz – better known by his digital moniker Berlinstagram – has been a “Berliner by choice,” as he puts it, for 14 years. For the last six of those, he’s been making a name for himself as one of the city’s best-loved Instagrammers. His followers are now approaching half a million in number – an audience hungry for more of his colourful perspective of our city.

Left: Cyclist at Planufer. Below: Self-portrait.

Berlin Through the Lens

ichael’s passion for taking and sharing photographs took him from a career in advertising to independent content creation, working on Instagram campaigns for noted international brands including Levi’s, Lufthansa and Mercedes-Benz. Nowadays, he follows his lens across the globe chasing adventure and compelling images, but even after the longest trips – such as his recent four-month-long journey through Southeast Asia – he always returns to shoot his home city with fresh eyes. How long have you been taking photos? Six years ago – in October 2010 – I started to use Instagram, just two weeks after the app was officially released. That’s basically how long I’ve been taking photos! I started with a different username, though. To combine ‘Berlin’ and ‘Instagram’ was a sudden inspiration that came a couple of months later. In the beginning, I was mostly experimenting with snapshots and editing them in mobile photo apps. I think that’s what made it so attractive for many people in the early days of mobile photography – you suddenly had a camera with you wherever you went, and you could literally shoot everything you stumbled upon in your daily routine – kind of a trial-and-error approach, but with feedback loops through social media.

« I’D LIKE TO VISIT EVERY BERLIN COURTYARD – IT’S A HIDDEN CITY WITHIN THE CITY. » Has anything surprised you about how the channel has grown? Sure, it came totally unexpectedly; it was never my plan to become a ‘popular’ Instagrammer. Nobody could have even guessed that Instagram would become such a big social network and that people could even make a living out if it. I was lucky enough that local and international media featured me quite early, which helped me gain many new followers. There are always some people that are lucky enough to be the first ones at something, and in this case I was one of them. What are your hopes for it? That I will always find inspiration and stay motivated to keep my Instagram channel running. Personally, I can easily lose interest in something if it doesn’t inspire me anymore. My motivation was always to capture a unique moment or to find a new perspective – after six years it gets quite hard to find those shots. You also gain experience in which type of motifs will create a lot of likes and engagement. So I could easily post a small selection of motifs over and over again but to me, that’s betraying myself and my followers, so I try to be less repetitive. What is it about social media that attracts you as a photographer? You have a direct feedback loop Spring 2017

Berlin Through the Lens

Berlinstagram

– whether that’s good or bad, it’s for sure addictive. It’s also crazy how many followers are spread over the whole world. In almost every country and city I visited, I had people writing to tell me that they live there and had been following me for a long time. What equipment do you use? The first four years I was just shooting on iPhones. For two years I’ve also used ‘real’ cameras – at the moment the Sony a7R II and a Fujifilm X100T. About 20% of my photos are still shot on smartphones though – a Huawei P9 and iPhone 7 Plus – because, “the best camera is the one you have with you.” Your photography explores a lot of things: architecture, travel photography, street photography, and more. Is there an area that particularly interests you? I personally like to shoot street photography the most, but that type of photography doesn’t work on Instagram that well. I try to embed street photography in travel, urban and architecture shots, and embed a unique moment into the whole picture.

« THERE ARE ALWAYS SOME PEOPLE THAT ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE THE FIRST ONES AT SOMETHING, AND IN THIS CASE I WAS ONE OF THEM. »

Above: A shapely courtyard, Charlottenstraße. Left: Neon on Rosenthaler Straße.

What makes Berlin such a good subject for photographs? It’s a big city and most districts are unique. It has tons of street art, and many people dream of living here, so photos of the city also transport an image. Oh, and it has the TV Tower! Is there an area of Berlin you’d like to photograph more? Yes, the hidden places! I’d like to visit every Berlin courtyard – it’s a hidden city within the city. How do you feel about you and your Instagram account having an ambassadorial role for the city? I think it’s awesome to be identified with a city – my username made it quite easy though. These days, every big city is connected with at least a handful of Instagrammers, and they are all ambassadors of their cities with an unmoderated view. It’s something that the official tourism accounts can’t provide. Many people comment on Berlin’s particular kind of ugliness, or its stark grey beauty. How do you feel about that? I read somewhere in a newspaper article years ago: “If you come to Berlin, you have to get a different definition of what is beautiful,” and that summed it up quite well, in my opinion. Even though Berlin in winter can be horrible, it’s the price we have to pay for the Berlin summer, which is short but awesome! 6

Issue Three

Below Left: Blossom in Prenzlauer Berg. Below: Time for chocolate, Zossener Straße.

Berlinstagram

Berlin Through the Lens

How do you think the city has changed since you started taking photos of it? A lot! I have so many photos of empty places that don’t exist anymore. In recent years, the city has become way more dense. So many international people keep moving here and the city is constantly growing, everything is more crowded. It has also become less exciting to me, even though it’s still a great city. Personally, I think Berlin needs to grow up as well, and it needs to be careful not to celebrate an image of itself that doesn’t exist anymore. I’m curious to see what the city will be like in ten years. Have you met many other successful Instagrammers in Berlin? Berlin was Germany’s first city with a proper Instagram community and everybody knew each other. Since then, many new generations of passionate Instagrammers showed up and it’s always great to see people developing their own style of photography or engaging in the community. I’ve met great people through Instagram, in Berlin and worldwide. What do you have planned next? The past two years were really crazy; I’ve been travelling so much for Instagram jobs and events. It can get really addictive but is also very time consuming. For 2017, I plan to slow down on travelling a bit and would like to work on a book and print shop with the best shots of the last six years.

If you’re not already following Michael on Instagram, do it right now. You can find him at instagram.com/berlinstagram

Top: Stop in the name of love, Schönhauser Allee. Above Left: Typography in the wild, Oranienstraße. Above Right: In transit, near Sonnenburger Straße.

Left: Waiting patiently, Alexanderplatz. Right: Colourful hostel front on Stuttgarter Platz. Spring 2017

Local Hero

Seydo Uzun

LOCAL HERO

SEYDO UZUN THE PAPA OF KOTTI

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Seydo Uzun

Local Hero

He’s just doing his job: serving people from behind the counter of his small shop at Kottbusser Tor. He knows his core customers by name, and tries his best to help those in need. Meet Seydo Uzun, the ‘Papa’ of Kotti. s you exit the U8 on the corner of Reichenberger Straße and Dresdener Straße, you almost inevitably bump into Kiosk am Kotti, one of the small Spätis of the area. Yet for many, Kiosk am Kotti is so much more. The owner, Seydo Uzun, stands behind the counter, peering over the top of his glasses that are pushed down to the end of his nose. While the colour of his hair may reveal that he’s just turned 70, the sparkle in his eyes and his half smile give him an almost boyish look. Speaking with him, one is reminded of the value in even the smallest interactions, and how exchanging simple pleasantries when buying a newspaper offers you the chance to connect with someone remarkable. Seydo Uzun was born and raised in Malatya, Turkey, the biggest apricot-producing region of the country. At home, he spoke Kurdish with his family; he only learned Turkish once he went to school. “We were told that in order to achieve something, we need to speak Turkish, just as the children of migrants in Germany need to learn German! It’s extremely important. Their native tongues won’t disappear if they keep speaking at home, but to study the language of the country we live in is crucial!” he says. That’s why he thought it was important for him and his family to learn German when they arrived in the country in 1972. Seydo first worked for a railway company, but about 11 years ago he felt like it was time for a change. He was growing older, and “living on Hartz IV is not my style, so it wasn’t an option.” So, he decided to open a kiosk. It was easier to get a shop space back then, and in 2006 Kiosk am Kotti opened its doors to customers. The neighbourhood was always very controversial, Seydo tells us, but the crowds have changed several times through the years. Many customers greet Seydo as ‘Papa’ when they walk through the door, and often spend quite a while talking to him, drinking their €1 filter coffee, or getting some beer, tobacco, a small vodka, a newspaper. He is friend and counsellor to many troubled people around the station – the calm father figure that they are perhaps missing in their own lives.

few words with almost everyone that steps into his kiosk. With some he speaks in Turkish about the increase in cigarette prices, with others about the coffee or – with a gentleman he introduces as an author – about the headline news of the day: Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s election as the new president of Germany. He nods and smiles as the author talks about why Steinmeier was a good choice, but says nothing. It’s a rule, it turns out: Seydo doesn’t like to discuss politics or religion with his customers. That would only create problems. “I have a good relationship with the people here. I like Cuban people a lot. I’ve met a few now and they are sunny and friendly people. I like the diversity of this neighbourhood,” he reflects. “I’m not getting much trouble, and I have rules, you know. If I see someone stealing from me, I ask them not to do it again. For that one time, I tell them it’s a gift but the next time they have to pay. Some come back with money and want to pay for what they’ve stolen earlier, but a gift is a gift. I never call the police in such a situation because that would just ruin my relationship with the people here. They don’t steal from me again, but they come back, often just to talk. I also ask people to leave if they start discussing their drug business. For such things, my store is not open,” he says. However, Seydo thinks the situation at Kotti has definitely improved in the past few months. The police are a lot more present and there are fewer dealers around the train station. Of course, they don’t just disappear, he debates; they have probably found less crowded side streets, or perhaps will return once the weather is a bit warmer.

words by

Anna Gyulai Gaal photos by

Viktor Richardsson

“A lot has happened here in the past years of course, but I believe that most of the people fighting with addictions are actually just affected people. I want to emphasise that: these people are affected by our society. They are the victims of a system where even if they get caught and go to prison or rehabilitation therapies, there is nothing that awaits them once they are out. No help, no jobs, no reintegration possibilities. They return to the only thing they know: this pool of people and drugs.” As he talks to us, the shopkeeper keeps serving customers, exchanging a Spring 2017

Local LocalHero Hero

Seydo Uzun

According to Seydo, the exaggerated media reports on Kotti being a “no-go zone” are not helpful at all; on the contrary, it scares people away and businesses suffer. He thinks it’s extremely important to stay positive. In Seydo’s opinion, the solution is not to criminalise addicts, but rather for the government to start programmes where businesses can receive tax allowances for employing a person fresh out of rehab: “Just like in the case of employing people with special needs, a lot of businesses do that and actually have to do that – and we need to understand that these affected people are becoming people with special needs. They need to be occupied in order to stay clean. If one goes back to the same places and same crowds, the same habits quickly sneak back too!” And the Papa of Kotti is not just saying this because he’s being interviewed. He often tries to talk to these “affected” people about their futures. He cares especially about the young, because he wants to keep them away from trouble, and every once in a while his words turn somebody in the right direction: “It was a few years ago, I saw a group of young guys standing around next to the shop, blocking the way of the alley and behaving very shadily. I sent them away. One of them came back. He turned out to be an Indian boy, an orphan who was brought to Germany and was adopted. He had a nor-

Issue Three

mal upbringing – he was schooled, he played soccer – but he was lonely, misunderstood and an outsider in his own life. This led to addiction. He got into the wrong group, but you could see he wasn’t happy, he wanted out. So we talked a few times. Then one day he disappeared for a while and only months later he came again. He said that he had managed to turn his life around, went to rehab. He goes to college now and he is clean. I told him to never come back again, don’t ever start hanging around here again! Only if he wants to say ‘hello’ to me!” He smiles. Above his head hang three pictures: one of the Brandenburger Tor, one of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, and in the middle, one of the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, the bridge between east and west. Seydo Uzun talks about his family with a great deal of joy: his wife, who has knee problems and cannot leave their apartment; his daughter and three grandchildren; his hope for the eldest to take over the business in a couple of years so he can finally rest; and his two granddaughters aged 11 and 12, who are doing great in school. But there is also a great deal of sorrow in Seydo’s life, because no matter how many troubled people he managed to help, he couldn’t save his own son, successful actor Eralp Uzun. Known for his appearances in TV shows such as Cobra 11 and

« IF I SEE SOMEONE STEALING FROM ME, I ASK THEM NOT TO DO IT AGAIN. FOR THAT ONE TIME, I TELL THEM IT WAS A GIFT BUT THE NEXT TIME THEY HAVE TO PAY. »

Alle Lieben Jimmy, Eralp also fought drug problems and eventually took his own life in 2013. Seydo’s eyes fill with tears as he pulls out a picture of Eralp from his drawer. “I tried so many things but it didn’t work. He was talented and successful. But the drugs…” he trails off, his voice going quiet. It becomes painfully clear that Seydo’s mission to help and motivate the people struggling with addiction in his neighbourhood is deeply personal. Every day in the Späti offers a new opportunity to make someone smile, help someone out, or maybe even change someone’s life. As we’re talking, a customer steps into the shop, and Seydo brightens again, looks up, eyes sparkling once more: “Bitte schön?”

BONOBO LIVE ▂ DIE ANTWOORD ▃ DIXON ◊ FATBOY SLIM* ▌▌ GLASS ANIMALS ▥ HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR ▁ KAMASI WASHINGTON ▃ M.I.A. ∞ MACEO PLEX ▁ MØ ▀ MODESELEKTOR DJ ◊ PHOENIX ≈ RICHIE HAWTIN LIVE ▃ SAMPHA ▄▌ SOHN ▁ TALE OF US ▁ THE KILLS ▥ WARPAINT

AGENTS OF TIME ▄ AGORIA ▃ ÂME B2B RØDHÅD ◊ ANDY BUTLER DJ ∞ AURORA HALAL LIVE ▁ BARKER & BAUMECKER ▂ BEN FROST LIVE ≈ BICEP LIVE ▥ BJARKI LIVE ▌▌ CINTHIE ▃ CLAPTONE ◊ COURTESY ▀ DAN BEAUMONT ∞ DANIEL AVERY ▥ DAVE ▂ DAVIS ▁ DENIS HORVAT ◊ DENIS SULTA ∞ DJ DEEP ≈ EGYPTIAN LOVER ◊ ELISABETH ▂ ELLEN ALLIEN ≈ FJAAK ▥ GUSGUS ▁ HAIYTI ▃ HONNE ▄▌ JENNIFER CARDINI ▃ JIMI JULES ▂ JOB JOBSE ▁ JON HOPKINS DJ ◊ JP ENFANT ▥ JULIA GOVOR ∞ KATE TEMPEST ▂ KIDDY SMILE ≈ KÖLSCH DJ ◊ KONSTANTIN SIBOLD ▀ LAKUTI ▥ LIL SILVA ▄▄▄ MAGGIE ROGERS ▃ MALL GRAB ▥ MARCEL DETTMANN ◊ MASSIMILIANO PAGLIARA ▂ MICHAEL MAYER ▁ MK ▃ MONOLOC ▃ MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY ▄▌ NAO ▥ RAMPUE LIVE ▃ RECONDITE LIVE ▂ RED AXES ▌▌ RROXYMORE ◊ SKATEBÅRD ▂ SONJA MOONEAR ∞ SOULECTION SHOWCASE ◊ SYLVAN ESSO ▁ TEREZA ▂ THE LEMON TWIGS ◊ TIJANA T ∞ TINI ◊ TOM MISCH LIVE ▥ TONY HUMPHRIES ▀ VOLVOX ◊ VON WEGEN LISBETH ▂ WHOMADEWHO DJ ◊ AND MANY MORE

14—16 JULY 2017 FERROPOLIS GERMANY

PRE-PARTY WITH FATBOY SLIM 4-HOUR-SET 13 JULY 2017 *

#melt2017

#20yearsofmelt

www.meltfestival.de

Spring 2017

Onscreen Artist

Britta Thie

REARRANGING REALITY: BRITTA THIE ON MEDIA, SATIRE, AND REINVENTING THE EVERYDAY

Issue Three

Britta Thie

Onscreen Artist

“I actually feel like I’m getting more camera shy now,” Britta Thie tells us. The intonation gives her away – her statement is more of a question, and she leans back, smiling, as she ponders whether what she just said could really be true. For Britta, a filmmaker and director who often appears in her own work, the very idea of being camera shy seems unimaginable. “It’s weird,” she continues, “but when I used to do the modelling stuff or when I went to art school, it was really competitive. It was all about looking good and making good art and I was even conscious of how I was walking. Now that I’m past that point, it’s like that box has been checked, so I just don’t do it anymore. These days, I have my one social media channel, and that’s enough. I feel like I’ve grown out of being exposed in that way.”

e are sitting in a booth at an American-themed diner in Charlottenburg. Britta moved to Berlin in 2008 to study and has lived here ever since. We watch as a waiter passes by carrying a tray of hamburgers, each with a tiny American flag stuck in its bun. She smiles: “I love these cheesy American diners.” She pushes her own plate of French fries aside and pulls out her phone, scrolling through her Vimeo page before landing on HI, HD, a three-minute piece comprised of self-made home movies. In one clip, a young Britta with a bowl cut chats with a friend in a mock talk-show interview. In another, she stands outside her childhood home in Minden, Germany, pretending she’s in a nature documentary about trees. “It’s really funny, watching these clips,” she says, grinning as the clip cuts to one of her younger self performing a Cat Stevens cover, “but these were very heavily researched!” She laughs, eyes still on the video. “I did always love to act, but you know, with acting, you run to so many castings and if you’re not lucky that some big director discovers you, then it might never happen for you. That risk I never wanted to take, so I chose to make movies instead.” This kind of self-reflection has been central to Britta’s now decade-long career as a filmmaker, actress and video artist. Her Vimeo page brims with videos similar to HI, HD, often with herself as the subject. In a seven-year-old film, she faces the camera in two side-by-side shots, her strawberry blonde hair pulled tightly back. “Squint,” she calls out in a mock-photographer voice, “Growl. One, two, three. Look here. Squint your eyes.” Her mirror image obliges. In another early piece, Britta’s angular features melt as she edits photos of herself using Photoshop’s liquify tool. In her videos, Britta’s image, like her self-reflection, becomes masterfully distorted so that we’re unsure which part of her we are really seeing, or if we’re seeing any part at all.

Her 2015 endeavour, Translantics, is perhaps the best example of this. Created, written, directed by, and starring Britta alongside a cast of her friends, Translantics is a six-episode series that focuses on the lives of expats in Berlin and the city’s thriving, if self-indulgent, art scene. The art direction has a somewhat futurist aesthetic, which can be attributed to Britta’s own love of science fiction. In it, she plays BB, an artist and model much like herself, but who is, she says, an exaggeration of certain parts of her own character. “BB is kind of this Play-Doh figure I made,” she explains. “When you tell a story to someone about something that happened to you, you always exaggerate certain details. BB is a dispersed version of myself but she’s also much more naïve, clueless, dorky. She is a fictional character – a caricature.” There’s a scene in Translantics where, after being nominated for but failing to win a European Art Award, BB cries. “I would never do that,” Britta laughs. “Well, maybe I would, but it’s more a satire of the secret despair that you have at home. But she does everything publicly.” Although parts of Translantics can appear to encompass Britta’s reality – a brief glimpse into her world, or, as she puts it, the opening of a Polly Pocket shell – the show is more of a commentary on that reality, rather than a representation of it. “I wanted to observe that navel-gazey, narcissistic, selfie generation – that bubble. It’s such a millennial thing, this snowflake phenomenon where, ‘I’m so special, I’m entitled and I have so much to say that I can write a biography about it’,” she says. “I find that pretty annoying, and I would never make Translantics again for that reason.”

words by

Emma Robertson photos by

Robert Rieger

Minden Located in the northeast of North Rhine-Westphalia, Minden is the location of the nationally-known amateur cabaret, Mindener Stichlinge. Its foundation in 1896 makes it the oldest active cabaret in Germany.

Spring 2017

Onscreen Artist

Britta Thie

Britta’s new project, The Superhost, treads similar territory, an observation of another self-indulgent trend for young people: Airbnb. The Superhost started as a performance piece in a theatre in Munich, produced in collaboration with actor Preston Chaunsumlit, who also starred in the show. Taking place in an apartment, the piece is based on Chaunsumlit’s experience as an Airbnb host on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and featured a pre-recorded sitcom-style laugh track. “It’s a satirical approach to Preston’s experiences,” she explains. “But it also talks about the commodification of the self, how you sell part of your private space and how even these intimate conversations at the kitchen table that you might have with your Airbnb guests become commodities. You’re selling an experience.” The piece’s on-screen iteration will debut in March 2017, a variation on the same theme shot with two cameras and with improvised dialogue – reality meets fiction meets reality all over again. But the creative process isn’t always easy. “I’m working with a professional film production team on another forthcoming project and I have full freedom, but it is somehow really hard for me to come up with a narrative,” Britta continues. “My fiction has to be very realistic. I’m not good at fantasy

stuff. It’s funny, because sometimes reality creates such impossible coincidences that if you write those in a script, they’re not believable, even though they’re real. You need to shape-shift it a little, and I find even that can be really hard.” For this reason, Britta tends to work mostly with improvised dialogue, casting friends and actors in equal measure according to the character they embody, rather than their ability to act. In her early work when finances were tight, she jokes that her actors were paid with the satisfaction of their own vanity. One of Translantics’ most memorable scenes comes in the first episode, when BB wanders through a Media Markt electronics store and comes face to face with herself on a television screen, acting in a commercial for dry shampoo. Like Narcissus, BB becomes enchanted by her own face, and tears well up in her eyes as she watches the commercial. “It was actually supposed to be a surreal scene where the commercial isn’t real,” Britta explains. “But that didn’t translate, I guess. In the end, I just gave in to the interpretation that it’s a comment on this completely narcissistic behaviour because I think it’s also a valuable thing.” She shrugs and eats a French fry.

« I WANTED TO OBSERVE THAT NAVEL-GAZEY, NARCISSISTIC, SELFIE GENERATION – THAT BUBBLE. »

Preston Chaunsumlit A fashion casting director and actor, Chaunsumlit appeared in the video for Kylie Minogue’s ‘Sexercise’, as well as reality-meets-mockumentary series, Model Files. 14

Issue Three

Britta Thie

Onscreen Artist

« SOMETIMES REALITY CREATES SUCH IMPOSSIBLE COINCIDENCES THAT IF YOU WRITE THOSE IN A SCRIPT, THEY’RE NOT BELIEVABLE, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE REAL. »

got fascinated by just putting cameras up and recording this slice of reality and then copy-pasting it into the here and now, again and again.”

Narcissism, for Britta, goes hand in hand with nostalgia. “There’s this thing that I call ‘digital puberty’. Our generation, we were born in the ‘80s and we grew up in this analogue world,” she begins, “but our hormonal puberty was parallel to the puberty of Western society transitioning from analogue to digital technology. The first chatrooms started becoming popular – we got our first period. We had sex for the first time around when MySpace blew up, things like that. That’s something I wanted to talk about in Translantics, and also in The Superhost. Our lives are so over-edited, like there’s truth, recreated truth, posttruth, nostalgia for our past truths…” We wonder aloud what Britta is nostalgic for. “I had a rough patch in puberty.

I got bullied in high school, I didn’t have a boyfriend until I was 18, I didn’t get my period until late either,” she says quietly but without trepidation. “That type of adolescence where you’re young and pretty and you try things, I never had that. I was a misfit in a way. I kind of tried to paste this image of a teenager onto myself, which I wasn’t yet. I guess sometimes I’m nostalgic for a different teenage life.” As such, Britta’s escape came in the form of art and movies. Her interest piqued with adventure films like Pippi Longstocking and American blockbusters like Jurassic Park, her love of sci-fi burgeoning from Back to the Future and Star Trek. Eventually, she started making her own films. “I think I just loved this rearranging of reality,” she muses. “I really

Britta’s first semi-professional on-camera performance was actually her audition tape for art school. The performance took place at a McDonald’s in her hometown of Minden. “I dressed up as the zeit-ghost, the Zeitgespenst,” she laughs at the memory. “I was wearing a mask that said feuilleton on it while playing Vivaldi on the piano. I invited all my friends to have dinner and watch the performance. I ate a burger with a knife and fork, there were candles everywhere–” she pauses. “Actually, I should dig that video out. I still have it!” These days, Britta is also a guest professor at the Offenbach University of Art and Design, balancing her lessons with semi-regular acting work and the production of her own shows and art pieces: “I still love making movies. I love the creation, the observation of reality, I love being behind the scenes, but I also love stepping out of that as an actor and embodying someone else. Maybe you can have a longer career as an artist because you’re always on the creative side, and that’s what I’ve always wanted to do most.” She dips another French fry in mayo and holds it for a moment, contemplating, “But I like both sides of it, so I feel like I’m carving my own category.”

The Superhost will debut in March on ARTE.tv and the-superhost.com. You can watch Britta’s other video projects at vimeo.com/brittathie Spring 2017

Bird’s-eye View

Birdwatching in Berlin

BIRDWATCHING: A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT OUR CITY Berlin is a city that yields endless surprises. One such revelation is the capital’s bountiful birdlife; it’s something of a Mecca for winged creatures, both native and migratory, mimicking the international nature of the city itself. Eager to get familiar with our city’s feathery inhabitants, we go on an ornithological expedition with local birder Gráinne Toomey, and speak to avian expert Rolf Nessing about why so many birds (and birdwatchers) call Berlin their home.

n a dismal Sunday, we find ourselves in the welcoming Café Strauss, at the entrance to Bergmannstraße’s sprawling network of cemeteries. Although it is warm and airy indoors, we can’t help but feel a chill as we remember that the building was once a working mortuary. Grim legacies aside, we’re here for an encounter that’s not morbid in the least. A few minutes after ordering coffee, Gráinne Toomey arrives. Although she doesn’t claim to be an expert, Gráinne’s enthusiasm for Berlin’s birdlife is compelling, and we’re excited for her to introduce us to this world. Originally from County Donegal in northwest Ireland, Gráinne moved to Berlin just over two years ago to complete a PhD in linguistics. “Finishing my research wasn’t particularly easy, especially during winter,” she says. “I don’t think you’re prepared for that when you move here. It feels like you can go days underneath these big clouds and not get any sunlight. Mentally, it’s quite exhausting.”

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Gráinne begins to explain how, searching for some respite, she stumbled across the cemeteries: “I needed a distraction and I discovered this place, so I started coming here for walks.” Having grown up in the countryside, she’d been immersed in nature from a young age and was already birdwatching by the age of ten. It didn’t take Gráinne long to notice that the cemeteries were teeming with birdlife: “It’s really interesting here, there’s so much history and it’s very peaceful, and there are loads of birds.” Berlin has a multitude of graveyards – 224 to be exact, not to mention the thousands of public parks inside the city limits. Most of these are hotspots for birds, including redstarts, sparrows and woodpeckers. “Berlin is great in terms of green space. It’s not really comparable to anywhere else,” Gráinne adds. Tempelhofer Feld is a green space favoured by many Berliners, and Gráinne explains that it is prime territory for birdwatching: “Sometimes I nip there to have a look at the kestrels. You don’t even need

words by

Alex Rennie photos by

Marili Persson

Bergmannstraße On April 20th 1837, Bergmannstraße was renamed after the landowner Marie Luise Bergmann, who owned land in the area immediately surrounding the street. Until then it was known as Weinbergsweg.

Birdwatching in Berlin

Bird’s-eye View

« IT’S NOT EASY TO SAFEGUARD NATURE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS BECAUSE A LOT OF POLITICAL DECISIONS ARE VERY SHORT-SIGHTED. » binoculars to see them. To see these creatures just doing their thing is such an expression of freedom, it’s quite life affirming. This man-made area has become a resource for birds,” she says. “If an airfield hadn’t been there I’m certain it would likely be filled with houses now.” But Berlin’s birdwatching isn’t just limited to the urban confines of the city. Gráinne recounts a summer trip she made to Grunewald forest: “Within a minute of arriving, a deer bounded across my path, followed by a wild boar. Then a goshawk swooped over my head, this huge, fierce animal, completely wild and free. It was like being in The Animals of Farthing Wood!” One autumn Gráinne went further afield and visited Linum, a village beside the Autobahn on the way to Hamburg. The surrounding lakes are renowned as a pit-stop for cranes migrating south from Scandinavia in search of warmer climes. During peak time, up to 80,000 birds can be found resting there. “It’s a trek to get to, it’s in the sticks. I got the train there and cycled down this path,” she says, “but around dusk, when the cranes stream in, it’s spectacular. The noise they make is ethereal.”

Above: Birdhouses at the Dreifältigkeit II cemetary.

Tempelhofer Feld Around 80% of the former airfield is an important habitat for several birds, plants and insects on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

We suggest that perhaps birdwatching has unlocked an entirely different realm for Gráinne. She agrees. “Birding has made me go outside of the city and explore, but also explore within. It’s really enriched my life here and made me more positive. It’s helped me personally, but I’m sure it would rally anybody.” Gráinne doesn’t appear to quite fit the mould of an archetypal birdwatcher, and we ask what her thoughts are on the stereotypical image of a ‘birder’. She laughs: “I’ve come across birders before who’re a little bit like Mike from Spaced, nerdy but in an army kind of way. They’ll be out there with telescopes, ticking things off methodically and saying, “That’s 35 species today!” It’s similar to trainspotting or stamp collecting. There’s a stereotype, but it’s a gentle one of eccentricity.” Coffees finished, we step out into the chill, and as we walk to the wrought iron gates we ask Gráinne if she’d be willing to meet again the following weekend to go birdwatching. She happily accepts. After our discussion with Gráinne, we can’t help but notice a change in our own outlook. Faint bird calls become more noticeable, we look up far more often than usual, scanning the skies with an almost predatory zeal and looking at Berlin in an entirely new light. When we reconvene outside Café Strauss, it feels like a spring day; the sun is well and truly out, and the heat it radiates reignites a naïve hope that milder times aren’t too far off. More importantly, it’s ideal weather for birdwatching. As we wander deeper into the cemetery, passing crumbling mausoleums and unordered rows of headstones, a chorus of birdsong floods the Spring 2017

Bird’s-eye View

grounds. “It’s a bit of an oxymoron, isn’t it,” Gráinne says. “This place is meant to be quiet and restful but in truth, it’s filled with life.” There is something extremely profound about her words and this odd juxtaposition of human burial rites and untamed nature. Half an hour into our sojourn, a bellowing sound rings out from the heavens. “There’s a crane somewhere,” Gráinne says, pausing for a moment. It’s then that a flock of these sizeable waterbirds appear in a perfect ‘V’ formation above us. Gráinne quickly passes us her binoculars, which we aim clumsily upwards. Viewing these animals in close-up is mesmerising, their wings seemingly beating in HD unison. “I promise I didn’t schedule that,” she jokes. Later, we watch in amazement as a pair of blue tits weave with uncanny agility through a thicket of twigs. Soon after, Gráinne points to a nearby tree. We spot a lone jay perched nonchalantly on a branch, totally unaware of our presence mere feet below. Through the binoculars, its plumage is beautiful, the blue feathers that accentuate its wings contrasting vividly against the tree’s ashen bark. Just as the image comes into focus, the jay flutters off. “That hap-

Birdwatching in Berlin

pens a lot,” Gráinne says with a smile. We spend the rest of the afternoon meandering through this tranquil place. On the prowl for a woodpecker, we venture to the cemeteries on Mehringdamm. Although our quest is unsuccessful, Gráinne takes the opportunity to show us where the late composer Felix Mendelssohn is buried. When she sees a hawfinch glide overhead for the first time ever, we’re comforted by the knowledge that the day’s exploration wasn’t just for our benefit. Curious to find out more about birdwatching in Berlin, we contact Rolf Nessing. Based in Lychen, a tiny town in Brandenburg’s picturesque Uckermark region, Rolf is a bona fide bird buff and tour guide. He starts off by telling us how he first began birdwatching when he was 13. “I’m 58 now, so that’s about 45 years ago,” he says. “A long time!” Between 1982 and 1992, Rolf worked as a government-employed conservationist: “I started out birdwatching then found my way into nature conservation, which I took up professionally. I ended up working in protected areas throughout Brandenburg,

BERLIN’S PRIME BIRDWATCHING SPOTS by Gráinne Toomey

Where: Tempelhofer Feld When: All year round The vast park is great for getting close-up views of kestrels and buzzards as they hunt and for watching skylarks in the spring and early summer.

Where: Berlin’s graveyards When: All year round With their trees and thick foliage, Berlin’s graveyards are amazing for all kinds of birds and wildlife. They’re the best place to spot goshawks.

Where: City parks When: April and May Most city parks have male nightingales, who sing throughout the evening and into the night to attract females as they migrate overhead. Try Treptower Park or Viktoriapark and you might just hear them.

Where: Großer Müggelsee When: Summer Berlin’s biggest lake is great for seeing ospreys. These large brown and white birds of prey can be spotted plucking fish out of the water with their talons.

Where: Linum When: Late summer and autumn Great for a daytrip by car or bike, the village of Linum is famous for spectacular views of thousands of cranes and geese as they roost in the evenings. In the summer months, you can also see storks nesting on the rooftops.

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Birdwatching in Berlin

« BIRDING GETS YOU MORE INVOLVED WITH YOUR ENVIRONMENT. IT REMINDS YOU THAT HUMANS AREN’T EVERYTHING. »

mainly at breeding grounds for rare birds including eagles, cranes and black storks.” But something was missing: “Government work meant a lot of paperwork, which wasn’t for me. That’s why I started freelancing in ‘92.” Opting out of political bureaucracy, Rolf established Birding Berlin in the early ‘90s, offering English-speaking bird tours throughout the city and beyond. Roughly half of Rolf’s customers come from the United States, the other half consisting of Brits. “Most of my guests send me a list of 8 to 15 birds they want to see,” he says. “I can plan a trip around where to find them because I know many of the region’s forests and lakes, and where the birds go to hunt.” Between March and April, Rolf organises goshawk tours in Tiergarten. Berlin has the most concentrated number of these birds of prey in the world. “The city has about 120 pairs of breeding partners,” he notes. By contrast, Britain has approximately 280 nationwide. “My guests arrive at Schönefeld in the morning, I’ll pick them up and we’ll go birding. After seeing the goshawks, they’re happy, and in the afternoon they fly back to the UK!” We ask Rolf what makes Berlin and Brandenburg unique when it comes to birdlife. “The big difference rests on the division between East and West Germany. We live in what used to be the DDR,” he says. “We’re not so developed in this part, agriculture and pesticide use was and is far more intensive in the West. That’s why we have a lot of birds here. If you look at a distribution map of birds you’ll see the old border!”

Bird’s-eye View

On top of these unintended Cold War consequences is the fact that there are 46 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) strewn throughout Brandenburg. IBAs are politically-defined conservation sites where birds and other fauna are shielded from agricultural expansion. “There are a huge number of protected areas here. We have biosphere reserves as well as national parks. Berlin is a very green capital too,” Rolf says. Given the inevitable creep of peri-urban growth, we wonder whether Rolf has any concerns about the future of this natural paradise. “Right now we have a lot of problems with farming, especially the cultivation of corn for biofuels,” he says. “It’s not easy to safeguard nature for future generations because a lot of political decisions are very short-sighted. People are focused on other concerns at the moment; environmental issues aren’t so important right now.” It’s engrossing to chat to someone as enthusiastic as Rolf. He confirms Gráinne’s account of Linum’s massive crane exodus and gives us an intricate, seasonal index of Brandenburg’s wildlife. Armed with such an expansive ornithological knowledge, we quiz him on whether he has a favourite bird. “A lot of people ask me this,” he says, chuckling. “Maybe the bullfinch. It’s a very smart bird, with its red breast and green head. But it’s a bad singer! Still, I like it, it gives me the feeling of spring.” After speaking to Rolf, we remember something Gráinne said when we first met a fortnight ago: “Birding gets you more involved with your environment. It reminds you that humans aren’t everything. We’re all part of this one big ecosystem. Why not get out there, explore it and relate to it a bit more?” We couldn’t agree with her more.

Spring 2017

Cover Story

BOYS NOIZE BANGING THE DRUM FOR BERLIN

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Boys Noize

Cover Story

In a career now more than a decade long, Boys Noize has established himself as a behemoth of the electro world. Through DJing, producing original music and remixes, and founding his own record label, he has come to define a sound. Berlin has been his home since he was 21. Here we talk with him about being an outsider, working with huge artists, and retaining credibility when following his punk spirit across genres. words by

Dan Cole photos by

Viktor Richardsson

« BERLIN STILL FEELS LIKE THE CITY WHERE ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. »

lexander Ridha, a former record store clerk from Hamburg who used to DJ under the alias Kid Alex, is now one of Berlin’s musical mainstays. He’s the quintessential music nerd with racks of gear in his bedroom-like studio, having remixed everyone from the likes of Depeche Mode to Snoop Dogg and Atom™, while his multitude of records are in constant demand. His label and parties have been filling dancefloors for over a decade with their unique brand of brash noise, always pushing conventions, frequencies and volumes in equal amount. As Boys Noize, Alex set the precedent for post-house electro-punk during a period when Berlin, by contrast, was making a name for itself in the stylish minimal techno world. And while most of the minimal scenesters have fallen by the wayside, Alex is still in Berlin, making lots noise with the fevered determination and ambition of a man who truly loves what he does. “Hamburg was so amazing,” he recalls. “I used to work at this record store, Underground Solution, which is how I got my first gigs. My old boss would pull some strings to get me support slots with local legends like Boris Dlugosch.” Nowadays, Alex lives in that grey area between superstardom and geekdom. We meet him, clad in a hoodie and a big, effortless smile, to learn about his story. The fresh looking 34-year-old has a childlike earnestness about him, and is keen to to play us his new productions, while eagerly spinning some of his older records as well. Alex couldn’t be happier, and who could blame him? He’s worked with some of the biggest names in the business: artists such as Jean-Michel Jarre, Skrillex and Chilly Gonzales, all of whom have been in that very apartment studio. “To me, Berlin has always been so mysterious. As a kid, my family and I would go from the west part of Berlin to the DDR as visitors,” Alex describes. “Everything was always massive in Berlin. It all looked so different.” The fascination with the city stuck with the avid music lover, and as a teenager Alex would regularly visit the Berlin Love Parade to see his idols, only to eventually become an icon within the clubbing scene himself. At the age of 21, already playing the city’s clubs on a regular basis,

he moved to Berlin to be with his girlfriend, leaving behind his job and the city where he grew up. This also brought him closer to his greatest passion: music. “[Berlin has] always had this dirty, ravey vibe to it. Even the yellow trams and the trains; it was all so different when you compared it to Hamburg. And that hasn’t really changed.” Even then, the musical styles of the two cities were worlds apart: “Hamburg and Berlin used to be so different – and the two scenes would not fuck with each other,” Alex recalls. “Hamburg was more house, and Berlin was techno, noise, and punk.” “I loved the punk influence with electro, and the techno at the time,” he continues. Growing up, Alex played drums in local bands, listening to house and late ‘90s techno, all of which would go on to play a significant part in his musical outlook. His career as a DJ started to peak during the electroclash period around 2003, when the likes of DJ Hell’s International DeeJay Gigolo Records label was at its height. As Kid Alex, he supported Felix da Housecat and other significant contemporary acts. “I would play with T.Raumschmiere and he was a big influence on me, as were labels like Sender and BPitch.” Alex’s first gig in Berlin was at a gay party at Kalkscheune in Mitte, where he’d been booked by a record store regular who used to purchase his under-the-counter mixtapes. During his initial DJing escapades in Berlin, Alex became a regular at spaces like WMF at Cafe Moskau, Pfefferberg, Polar TV, and Sternradio – venues permanently recorded in the annals of Berlin’s clubbing graveyard. “Sternradio at Alexanderplatz was a crazy place,” he says. “Me and Housemeister would play there from like six to nine in the morning, and it was full of proper, East German ravers.” Alex met Housemeister, also known as Berlin’s colourful wild-man, and producer Martin Böhm, during a late night– early morning DJ set at WMF. The two became good friends and struck up a musical partnership, leading to multiple co-releases infused with the same punk ideology. “He’s a really hearty guy,” Alex laughs. “We met up for a drink together the week after our first show and I was so inspired by his studio. It was full of analogue gear, you could just press play and everything was running.” Spring 2017

Cover Story

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‘The Bomb’ was the first record Alex released as Boys Noize in 2004 on Hell’s label. “I met Hell and Westbam at a gig we were all playing together in Berlin at Polar TV, a space near Hauptbahnhof that doesn’t exist anymore. I was doing the warmup and I handed both of them a CD with some new tracks. They both called me back, which was quite funny because I was such a huge fan.” In 2005, Alex founded Boysnoize Records out of a desire to release more music. The prolific, fastpaced nature of his music production made it difficult to release everything he was creating; there was just too much material. It got to the point where he was inventing various aliases under which to release the music; Einzeller, Morgentau, PUZIQUe, and EastWeek – Alex’s collaborative project with Housemeister. While the boys were making their noise, minimal techno was about to reach its peak in Berlin. Richie Hawtin had just moved here, and M-nus Records had become the city’s hottest property, something that was far removed from the Boys Noize sound. “It felt

« BERLIN IS STILL THE CITY FULL OF FREAKS. I WAS THINKING BACK IN 2006, WITH ALL THE ARTISTS FROM NEW YORK HERE, HOW MUCH MORE CRAZY CAN IT GET? AND IT DID. » really good being a total outsider,” Alex says. “As a DJ, I can see how people might have thought I was making late electro-house, but for me it was a new world.” Minimal techno came and went, but Boysnoize Records stayed. And so did Alex, unlike some of his peers who were no longer on the scene. “Some of the guys who left just had enough of partying. Some came here to make music and didn’t get anything done. Some people felt like they had to go back to where they came from – the older you get, there is this feeling that you have to return to the environment you came from. I like Hamburg, but I won’t go back. I love St Pauli and the Harbour, but Hamburg has more money and you can see and feel that too.” More than ten years later and Boysnoize Records is a tour de force, with releases from everyone in the electro-party, music community, including Peaches, Strip Steve, Josh Wink, SCNTST, Spank Rock, and more. And of course, there was Octave Minds, Alex’s spatial-collaborative project with Chilly Gonzales. Boysnoize Records Spring 2017

Cover Story

Boys Noize

fittingly embodies a desire for pure enjoyment, with earnest respect for electro, and bits of techno thrown in. It’s also a product of Berlin’s wider influence. As Alex says, “There are a lot of exciting things happening here. There’s a lot of EDM and new wave productions coming through, which I really like.” He adds: “I also enjoy going to Berghain and having a proper techno night out every now and then. Berlin is still the city full of freaks. I was thinking back in 2006, with all the artists from New York here, how much more crazy can it get? And it did. It got crazier and crazier. It’s one of the last places where, as an artist, you are able to express yourself.” This is something Alex has lamented before. In a 2016 interview with Pitchfork, he likened the city to a refuge for outcasts, from its bohemian Weimar period to the present. “When you live here for a little bit you realise that you can have a good life without being distracted by capitalism or what society wants from you,” he says. For all his success, Alex is far from living in an ivory tower. Stowed away in Prenzlauer Berg, he can be seen walking his dog up to four times a day. He is also a regular at local music establishment, OYE Records, adding to his already vast collection.

“Everyday, when I see something online, I send a message to the store to put stuff aside for me. I think it’s the best record shop in the area. They have everything.” As a local guy, albeit one who sells out arenas and has worked alongside Skrillex, Diplo and Snoop Dogg, getting recognised on the streets is not such a concern for him. But that isn’t the case everywhere he goes. “In Paris it’s happened a few times, but in Berlin it’s rare. Sometimes I feel that people recognise me, but don’t say anything, which is definitely not the case in somewhere like LA.” Back in the early days, Alex would always hide his face on press shots to avoid fame. The iconic photos of Alex with his hands in front of his face came to define his image in the mid ‘00s. “Being recognised is not something I wanted. I love the idea of faceless techno, where you don’t have to put out a press shot. Even my MySpace page was just a picture of a skull,” he tells us. As Alex’s profile grew, there was no way to retain his anonymity. “With YouTube and everything, I couldn’t keep it up. I considered wearing a mask at one point, but it was just no use. When Skrillex was here in 2012 to record our Dog Blood record, it was totally crazy. We went out, and even late at night he would have drunken kids coming up to him all the time. It was totally crazy.”

Sitting in his studio, Alex seems fulfilled by his achievements to date. Towards the end of our conversation, he starts playing a new remix of D.A.F. (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft), the pivotal electro act that influenced him so much. I remind Alex of an earlier interview in which he said it was an ambition to work with the legendary German electronic label, Raster-Noton. “For me it was pretty awesome to have a release on Raster-Noton,” he says, proudly pulling out the remix he did for Atom™, released on the label two years ago. “I love to meet people who make stuff that I don’t know how to.” Last year, Alex even got to work with another one of his idols, Justin Vernon, otherwise known as Bon Iver. “For me, he’s one of the best musicians I’ve ever met. And he’s fucking awesome. It’s so funny, he said he was a fan of Boys Noize on MySpace back in the day.” The two hung out, sharing accolades, and eventually got to work with each other in Berlin last year at Michelberger Music, a two-day festival at Berlin’s riverside Funkhaus location. Alex got to write and perform with Vernon along with Nils Frahm, Mouse On Mars, Erlend Øye, Woodkid, The National’s Aaron Dessner, and others. “That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been involved with, for sure,” he says. Without too much of a preconceived plan, the artists locked themselves in Funkhaus’ many studios, jamming and rehearsing on the fly to put together a set of new material resulting from collaborations and unique arrangements. “Every single person I met was a genius,” Alex recalls of this experience. “Everybody made music with each other; people that had never met before. I would end up in a session with The National, and then with a folk singer with a drum machine, and then I would do a techno set with Justin. It was almost psychedelic. I think some people were confused, but it was such a cool idea. I have recordings of everything we did, I still don’t know what I’m going to do with them.” From playing warehouses and famed party locales, to jamming with his idols in former DDR broadcasting studios, Alex has come a long way. No longer Kid Alex from Hamburg, Boys Noize is beating Berlin’s drum. He smiles and leans back, “Berlin still feels like the city where anything is possible.”

Boys Noize is currently on his Warehaus Tour until May. Find European dates at boysnoize.com/tour 24

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Boys Noize

Cover Story

« WHEN YOU LIVE HERE FOR A LITTLE BIT YOU REALISE THAT YOU CAN HAVE A GOOD LIFE WITHOUT BEING DISTRACTED BY CAPITALISM OR WHAT SOCIETY WANTS FROM YOU. »

Funkhaus Funkhaus was designed by architect Franz Ehrlich and built in 1951. A communist imprisoned by the Nazi regime in 1935, he became the main designer at Buchenwald concentration camp. A fellow inmate later claimed Ehrlich helped the Resistance by passing construction details to them.

Spring 2017

The Right Swipe

Eylül Aslan

Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? This is the question behind photographer Eylül Aslan’s latest project: Trompe L’Oeil. For six months, Eylül met with 20 different men from Tinder and asked each what they loved and didn’t love about their own physical appearance, as well as hers. She then photographed the features they chose, and positioned the images side by side to highlight the deeply subjective nature of our perceptions of beauty. 26

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Photo by Justine Olivia Tellier.

WHAT DON’T YOU LOVE ABOUT ME? PHOTOGRAPHER EYLÜL ASLAN CONFRONTS BODY IMAGE ON TINDER

Eylül Aslan

words by

Jack Mahoney

ylül found inspiration for the piece while watching her friends swipe left or right. “I’d only seen other people use Tinder, and I’d played it a bit with male friends,” she says, as if it were a game. As she continued to play, she noticed how often her tastes differed from her friends. “‘No, she was so cute,’ I’d say, ‘why did you swipe left on her?!’ No one could explain why they liked or disliked someone. They’d decided in milliseconds.” Eylül, who is married, found the process delightful: “It was so much fun to see all these people and the way they presented themselves; I had to make an account,” she recalls. “And I, too, found it hard to say why I’d swiped one way or the other. But soon I started to see people I knew, people who knew I was married. I thought, ‘Well. This is going to be a bit of a problem.’ So to continue playing, I wrote a description: ‘I’m a photographer and I’m casting for an art project.’ It worked, but then I asked myself, ‘Well, what actually is my project?’” “My initial thought was to meet boys and girls at the same time and photograph their favourite features to create the so-called ‘perfect male’ and ‘perfect female’ from a collage of body parts, but I didn’t actually get any matches with girls,” she says, shrugging. So she decided to go only for men, and examine the way they saw themselves and others. For a photographer known for her work on the female form, this was a first. A few matches took offence, complaining that Tinder was for dating, not art. “I didn’t lose any breath trying to convince them,” Eylül says, “because so many guys were interested. Some asked for more information so I told them the premise: I’m going to meet you and ask you what you love and don’t love about yourself and about me, and then photograph your answers. I was really shocked when they all said ‘yes.’” Eylül met her ‘dates’ in parks and cafés, or occasionally at her Neukölln apartment, where the light was better. “Everyone looked different

The Right Swipe

« HIS RIBS WERE THE FIRST THING HE THOUGHT OF, BECAUSE THEY WERE SO CONNECTED WITH SUFFERING. » in real life – sometimes for better, sometimes for worse,” she laughs. “Their personalities differed a lot from what they projected in their profile. All of them were different from how I’d imagined. There was one guy who wore leather and looked like a tough guy who listened to heavy metal, but in person he was like a little cat. It was surprising to see how insecure perfectly handsome guys could be.” “Sitting down in front of complete strangers, I was kind of at their mercy,” she says, looking back. “Sometimes they would go on for two hours about a girl who broke their heart in highschool because they were overweight – and I was like, ‘OK, this is not what I signed up for!’ But people really opened up. I think because it’s such an intimate question – to say what you love about yourself and then about the person in front of you.” “One guy said he liked his ribs because he used to be overweight and they are a constant reminder of how slim he is now. That made him feel proud,” Eylül notes. “His choices were so different from mine. He had beautiful eyes and hands but they weren’t his favourite features. His ribs were the first thing he thought of, because they were so connected with suffering.” Preferences for different physical aspects of ourselves and others are the focus of Eylül’s piece. “We have a society that puts pressure on women to look pretty. Men – straight men at least – don’t

Left: Photos from Trompe L’Oeil. His smile was the feature he most liked about himself. His knee, the least. Spring 2017

The Right Swipe

« MY WHOLE PROJECT IS TO SAY, ‘IF I DIDN’T CATEGORISE THESE PHOTOS AS BEAUTIFUL OR UGLY, YOU COULDN’T TELL THE DIFFERENCE.’ » seem so bothered by it.” But on Tinder they are forced to confront notions of beauty, to choose a look, and display themselves in ways they think women find attractive. “I became really interested in how men present themselves on this app. If a guy thought he had a nice bicep and wanted to show it, he would strike a pose,” she says, puffing up her cheeks and flexing her arm. “He’d highlight the bicep. It’s not as obvious as a girl doing a duck face, but he’s making a choice about what he thinks will appeal to women.” “People focus on the way women are pressured,” she continues, “but I think men feel just as stressed by it as

Photos by Justine Olivia Tellier.

Issue Three

Eylül Aslan

we do. Perhaps it just isn’t so talked about. There’s an idea that men don’t dwell so much on their feelings but I think they suffer just as much as women. Maybe a society so concerned with how women look doesn’t pay attention to the appearance of men, but the issues remain.” Given how open men had been with her, she wanted to even things out – to hear what they thought about her own body. “I asked friends first what they thought of me, but noticed how difficult they found it to answer. I think there is more honesty in strangers,” she says, “though they always struggled to say what they didn’t like.” Some chose the easy way out, something inoffensive, but perplexing nonetheless: “I don’t know what was going through their heads when they said, ‘ears’ – they’re small, and distracting maybe?” Others were more candid. “If you look at what society finds attractive in women, it’s often full lips. I have small lips and a wide face with a tiny mouth, and some men didn’t like that. I always knew I didn’t have a stereotypical look but I loved my face. It wouldn’t matter if ten guys said, ‘Nope,’ I would still like it.” She never asked whether those answers meant she was ugly. “It didn’t affect my views. I’d convinced myself, and their views couldn’t change that. What surprised me more was actually how many men liked my face, because I always thought it was different.”

Eylül Aslan

Evidence was building to support Eylül’s theory that attraction is arbitrary – that beauty is entirely subjective. Rarely can we agree on what we find attractive about ourselves, let alone others. “During the project, I was changing the self-image of my subjects, but I was also playing with my own,” she says. “In the end I felt much more at ease with how I looked. I realised that it’s not important how other people see you. It’s about how you see yourself. My whole project is meant to say, ‘If I didn’t categorise these photos as beautiful or ugly, you couldn’t tell the difference.’” For Eylül, working exclusively with men offered a shift in perspective from her previous projects. “I’ve already published two books on feminist topics and it’s been my work all along, so this project challenged me to do something new. I’m interested in men, and I wanted to know how it felt to work with them. The body and the sex changed, but it was still me behind the camera. My techniques still applied,” she says. But that isn’t to say there weren’t challenges. Working with men brought one tangible difference: sexual tension. “I mean, if it wasn’t from my side, it was from theirs. They were opening up about such private issues and there I was, taking photos of their half-naked bodies! When it was finished I was like, ‘...OK, that was intense,’” she says, with a slow exhale. With no time to dwell on any awkwardness, the second part of the project needed to be completed: the meticulous photographing of the parts of Eylül’s own body that each match had selected, using mirrors and self-timers, while double- and triple-checking shots. “That was the most difficult part. For ten years as a photographer, I’ve always been the one deciding what to photograph,” Eylül says. “For the first time, [the subjects of] these 80 photos were decided by the men that I met. I didn’t have the chance to capture what I found interesting. I couldn’t say, ‘You think you love your eyes, but I love your shoulders.’ This time it was only what they told me. It was very different from how I usually work.” Nevertheless, like all affairs that are built on novelty, Eylül’s love for Tinder eventually waned. “I was using Tinder for my work and it was so exhausting. You have to find a perfect match, and make sure you can talk, then go on a date and spark some sexual attraction. If this is what you do to date someone, it seems like a lot of work!” she says, shaking her head with a smile. “It’s so much easier when you’re outside or in a café to see someone reading a book that looks interesting, when you like the way they’re dressed, or smell, or move. When you’re on Tinder, it’s a single photo, a frozen two-dimensional image, and you have seconds to decide if they’re attractive or not. Maybe they just photograph poorly or don’t show their personalities so well on social media.” This is a question Eylül’s matches might have asked themselves before agreeing to a date, but in Eylül’s company, some found her and her views enticing. “I think there was a little hope from a few on the dating side. ‘I’ll help her with her project and maybe we’ll click,’ they probably thought. A few asked me on second dates and I had to say ‘No, I’m sorry, this is only work for me.’” And just like that our conversation draws to a close – only work, after all.

Learn more about Eylül and her work at eylulaslan.com or follow her at flickr.com/yllparisienne and instagram.com/ eyluelaslan. Trompe L’Oeil will be released in May. Spring 2017

Spring 2017

Deconstructive Talent

Black Cracker

words by

photos by

Maggie Devlin

Justine Olivia Tellier

“Our bodies like coal, brilliant and bold,” sings Black Cracker on ‘How (Do) You Do That There’, the atmospheric canticle from his vulnerable new album Come As U R. It’s a confounding tapestry of beats overlaid with simple choral melodies, and these lyrics speak for much of the album, demonstrating that a project so sonically dark can be simultaneously energising and tender.

e meet in a coffee shop in Mitte where the Alabama-born musician is dissuaded from putting sugar in his coffee by a grinning but unrelenting barista. He shrugs as he walks back to our table, his brightly patterned trousers and sandalled feet a sartorial ‘fuck you’ to the studied greys and beiges of the café. Black Cracker is as open and confessional as suggested by the bare-chested photo on his album sleeve. A tell-tale bounce of the left knee and a gentle, ambling eloquence stand in sharp relief against the mission-like vision and determination of his artistry, but like every good art school dropout will tell you: everything is intentional. Here he talks to us about identity, promoting love, and kicking the art scene in the nuts. Tell us about the album. Is it fair to say it’s a step away from your previous work, Poster Boy and Tears of A Clown? Yeah. I’m a sensitive person, so I always try to take too many issues into account, but I

Issue Three

feel like in this album, I’m learning to be a bit more secure and stable. I’ve always been an advocate of evolving the identity of male sexuality in music. I think in particular genres we don’t have the most representative range of sexual interest and desire. I think there’s a place for really provocative, almost fetishised R&B or hip hop, but then there’s also a place where we can build more positive, holistic relationships with music that could be considered popular. I think that was really my focus on this album. And also I just wanted to make something nice, something that I actually felt was listenable. How much of the album covers your dayto-day experiences? Every song on the album is 100% autobiographical and super personal. I’m not really a narrative person. I’m not a storyteller. I’m a bit more experiential. So I try to capture different feelings, even in one line or one verse; going from introspective to extrospective, personal to political, identity to individuality.

The album artwork finds your chest exposed and mouth open. Would you say openness is a key theme of this album? Yeah. Actually, when I was a younger artist this was my gift, and this whole album became an opportunity to go back into myself, to remember that each of us, as artists or contributors on the planet, has a lane, and that I need to just get back into my lane – to get comfortable and trust that the world is taking me somewhere by my just being who I am. If we can just remember to be who we are, hopefully we can do a great deal of healing, because the coming times are not so attractive. You talked about how you don’t want this album to challenge the status quo in queer music. Is it a concern of yours to be acknowledged as a queer artist? A lot of artists really make it their identity, and it’s their politics, it’s what they want to be. But for me it’s just a community that I care about and I love.

Black Cracker

Deconstructive Talent

Spring 2017

Deconstructive Talent

I think the minute we put any label or subcategory on people we are basically fulfilling white supremacy. Until we start labelling “white rapper”, “white male rapper”, “female white rapper”, we are just being very exploitative as a culture. With people like Trump, we really are going to have to be a lot more conscious of the identities that the media puts on people, because it actually has severe consequences for their lives. Because labelling is reserved for the “Other”, and qualifiers like “female” or “black” or “queer” are applied to roles where straight white men have staked their claim. We don’t say “male doctor”. Exactly. Because that’s just the fucking system. I feel like we have to – as writers or artists – constantly break the system, otherwise we’re not doing our jobs, you know? And the minute we let someone give us that label, unless the gain is really worth it, we’ve failed. One time, I was in New Zealand and someone referred to me as transgender. Usually, if a media outlet had called me a transgender anything, I would immediately write them and say, “This is not appropriate,” but in this context I was like, “Maybe it’s going to bring this conversation,” so I left it alone. But in general I think we have to police ourselves and set our own goals higher. In an interview with The One-Hit Parade you talked about how you used humour when discussing race relations in ‘Chasing Rainbows’. How do you feel about the relationship between wit and identity politics in music? [Laughs] I’m not so witty actually, my medium is more sincerity. And, you know, being around my girlfriend so much – she is like queen of wit, like real wit. Just brilliant, provocative, political wit.

« I GUESS WHAT I LIKE TO DO IS DECONSTRUCT ART. »

Issue Three

Black Cracker

The One-Hit Parade My language is more trying to break down the Recorded at Kantine am wall. I am not a theatre performer, but that is Berghain, The One-Hit Parade my performance: to break down that wall so showcases Berlin’s rising musical talent with each artist people forget that this is a person performing. performing one song. I do things that don’t seem intentional, but are fully intentional, that make it feel casual and comfortable or even insecure. A lot of times, people don’t realise that it’s super intentional. I think that is similar to wit, because sometimes it doesn’t work.

We saw your performance on Boiler Room. It was so engaging, really open-armed. Is that typical for your live performances? Yeah, it’s interesting, because honestly I’m really trying to grow with my live performances. I don’t have the strongest vocal, so I’m trying to learn how to use my voice. I want people to have a good time; I love people, but I’m also so up in the air lately with my thoughts that it’s like, ‘Do I even have the authority or skill level to achieve my interests as a musician?’ Because if I can’t sing perfectly or if it doesn’t hit perfectly, then I’m not close to the conversation I want to have. People seemed to really respond to that show, so maybe you found your mark. Yeah. When we can break down all the interweb insecurity, we really come together as people. There’s nothing that says that on every night we can’t really make love collectively. It’s just a choice. We say we want to come and we want to feel open and equal, or we decide that we’re there to make ourselves feel better or worse; like our outfit is better, this girl is hotter. You know, all these divisive things. But at any point in time, we can collectively engage in a love affair.

Black Cracker

Deconstructive Talent

some university where I can be a professor on counter-culture and performance art. My albums are actually the least of what I do artistically. I look at everything that I do as one artistic movement and process. The jazz stuff, the theatre stuff, even throwing parties and building these cultural conversations. Contributing to Berlin, contributing to New York, contributing to Switzerland. I don’t care about ‘big’. It’s like playing poker: if you get really late in the game, you just want to be able to stay in the game. So long as I’m 60 and able to make an income through culture, then I’m winning. I come from the art world; I really look at it like I’m building a body of work.

I think that night it was also a lot easier ‘cause people were aware that the cameras were on them. So it’s even like a third level of consciousness. They are coming together communally, but it’s also because the cameras are watching them. And they don’t want people to see them not being cool in the context of something that is deemed cool. You found a community of sorts, in that you’ve collaborated with three different acts on the album. How do those partnerships work? [Smiles] Because they’re singers. They can sing. I can sing in my way. But they can, like, sing, you know? And this album was really about singing. It’s more R&B than a hip hop album. Actually, I’m not a musical musician. I don’t like musicality. And I feel like they really help give the music a bit more musicality. I’m more interested in rhythm and layered rhythms, which I think for a lot of people makes the music a bit too busy, but the way I make the rhythms there are all these shifting sorts of tectonic plates of impulses. I think that really comes through on the album – the sophisticated rhythms – and there’s almost a hymnal quality to some of the vocals and refrains. Was that conscious? I think so. It’s always been my interest, but it’s also coming from insecurity. I’ve always been super insecure about my voice, but it’s 100% growing up in a Southern, Christian community. Like, not being allowed to listen to music as a kid – only Christian music. So subconsciously, lots of my references are super gospel. I didn’t really grow up in the South but all my family is from there, and I think

I feel a heavy weight and responsibility knowing that a lot of my cousins or my close family aren’t doing well, whether incarcerated or severely underemployed. So, like, it’s in my bones to carry this legacy of beauty, struggle and tragedy. Are there any artists who you respect that are able to strike that balance between creating and promoting, but still being politically active? Most of the artists that I love are friends or close enough to be friends. I guess from an abstract perspective, I’m super into Tino Sehgal. It’s pop, but it’s also deconstructed poetry and performance art. I really think that his work is important and effective. I guess what I like to do is deconstruct art. And kind of like ... kick art in the nuts. I think this would make space for the art world to call more stuff ‘art’, and not just have the same people at the table. And maybe it means that my art is not the best art, but hopefully I’m making room for other people. Is it important then that what you’re doing is understood? Not these days. These days I have a super ‘I don’t care’ mentality. But I think this is also me finally taking a moment to acknowledge that I have had a very amazing set of experiences that have pulled me to this place. Recently I did something with the Deutsche Oper, and to be from Alabama, all the way to the Deutsche Oper ... It’s like, ‘How did I get here?’ How far do you want the Black Cracker star to rise? I’m just trying to, by the time I’m 60, have like, an honorary doctorate at

There are some artists who feel 100% the author, while some believe they’re communing with a muse, or energy, or God. Where does your art come from? I have to think about this. I don’t know. It’s funny because it’s a question that a lot of people asked when I was doing more poetry: “Where do the words come from?” I honestly have no idea. I do think that when we listen to the experiences that we have and the experiences that we come from, we are being told to do different things. And for whatever reason, the universe gave me this possibility to write and communicate and travel. I guess, it’s just being Alabama-born, military-raised, former-slave lineage, American, everything that’s made me me, is where it comes from. Plans for this year? I’m just honestly so excited to hit beats hard – just like a maniac, but also in the context of theatre and performance. I want to just take one year and make a big theatre work, maybe two hundred people see it and then that’s it. I think this is also why I have to reduce what I’m doing. Right now I have a lot of things going on. I think we’re going to need voices like yours, judging by how 2016 turned out. Yeah. And really just make music from the heart. Just from the heart. That’s when you’re privileged. When you’re the opening act for your girlfriend, you can kind of suck. Like, you can take risks because you know she loves you. I’ve really just tried to perform from the heart. Like no ego, just ‘I love you, let’s have a nice night.’ [Laughs, arms open] Promote more love. We need it.

Black Cracker’s new album Come As U R is out now and available on iTunes and Spotify. Keep yourself informed of tour dates and happenings via blckcrckr.com Spring 2017

Reluctant Pornographer

Bruce LaBruce

A RADICAL REPUTATION: CULT FILMMAKER BRUCE LABRUCE ON THE POWER OF PROVOCATION

Issue Three

Bruce LaBruce

words by

Marc Yates interview by

Alexander Darkish photos by

Viktor Richardsson

Bruce LaBruce smiles as he describes a screening of his first traditionally pornographic film: “When I showed Skin Flick in Toronto, a Jewish advocacy group called the police. The police came to the screening and they actually sat through it. It was the softcore version, but still pretty hard. They said they were considering pressing charges based on hate crime, but they watched it and said they weren’t going to. We asked the undercover cops what they thought of the film and one of them said, ‘It had its moments.’” We laugh with Bruce, but having seen some of his work, it’s already clear that his films aren’t just about porn. Rather, the pointed politics of them, and their explicit content, leads him to walk a fine line of controversy – something at once important and thrilling.

Red Army Faction This West German far-left terrorist group was supported by the Stasi, and were responsible for a series of bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, bank robberies, and shoot-outs with police over the course of three decades.

Reluctant Pornographer

e meet Bruce shortly before the 67th Berlinale, in which he’s about to debut his two newest films: The Misandrists and Ulrike’s Brain. He sits in his sparsely-furnished sublet in Friedrichshain wearing a knitted jumper with ‘PORN STAR’ written in red across the chest. He’s softly spoken, kind, and speaks with the ease and depth of an unflinching artist who has long since found his voice. “You know,” he continues, elaborating on his motivation for producing radical alternative films, “John Waters was always a big influence, and people always say, ‘Oh you just did this for shock value,’ or, ‘You just did that as a provocation,’ and it’s like, ‘Yeah, of course!’ That’s what cinema is – cinema should be a provocation. I don’t see that as a negative thing. It’s meant to challenge people’s perception every time, stylistically and formally, and in terms of the content.” The Misandrists, Bruce’s latest feature-length film, tells the story of a group of radical feminist

terrorists plotting to overthrow the patriarchy from their base in the German countryside. “It’s a loose sequel to The Raspberry Reich,” Bruce explains, referencing his 2004 film about a homosexual terrorist group who set out to continue the work of the German Red Army Faction (RAF). “When I made The Raspberry Reich,” he continues, “which is a critique of the radical left and radical chic, some lesbian viewers complained that I didn’t really address the lesbian issue. So I always thought someday I should make a film about radical lesbians … it’s also kind of a spin-off of Ulrike’s Brain.” Thematically linked to The Misandrists, Ulrike’s Brain is the B movie-esque story of fictional Doctor Julia Feifer, who arrives at a scientific conference with an organ box containing the brain of the real Ulrike Meinhof, which was actually recovered by authorities along with the brains of the other three leaders of the RAF when they all died in Stammheim prison in the 1970s. The brains later mysteriously disappeared. Bruce explains: “In real life, they went missing. Well, they took their brains to study them to see if there was any biological factor, any kind of pathology in their actual brain function, which is a very Nazi notion.” Here the story of Ulrike’s Brain picks up where reality left off: “So Dr Feifer is trying to find the perfect female body to transplant Ulrike’s brain into, and her arch-rival is another scientist who has Michael Kühnen’s ashes – Michael was the openly-gay leader of the neo-Nazi movement in the ‘80s. No one would bury his ashes on consecrated ground in Germany, they were literally floating around, and so this scientist is trying to reincarnate Michael Kühnen in cult rituals. So it’s two Frankenstein’s monsters, one on the extreme right and one on the extreme left, coming together and clashing in the end.” “It’s a B movie idea,” he continues. “There’s a famous B movie called They Saved Hitler’s Brain, and another called The Brain That Wouldn’t Die; it’s sort of based on those. It’s referencing these B movies but in a very specific, German way – like a Nazi exploitation movie.” Although inspired by classic B movies, Ulrike’s Brain actually stems from a project Bruce undertook in Hamburg: “I made a film in front of an audience at Kampnagel. There Spring 2017

Reluctant Pornographer

was a conference there called Die Untoten – The Undead – and it was scientists, artists, and theorists talking about concepts of the post-human and the new definitions of life and death. I was asked to do this installation as a sidebar to the conference, and Ulrike’s Brain is the performance that I did, but then I also shot additional material in Hamburg to make it into a film. Out of that came this idea of The Misandrists. So Dr Feifer in Ulrike’s Brain is trying to start a new feminist revolution with Ulrike Meinhof’s brain, but in The Misandrists, it’s taken a step further where Big Mother is envisioning a world with no men, where women are able to reproduce asexually without the intervention of men,” he laughs. Bruce’s love of B movies can be traced back to his early years in Toronto, studying film theory at York University: “My main mentor was Robin Wood, who was a very famous film critic and a Marxist, feminist, gay activist. He loved horror B movies as well. He edited a book called The American Nightmare that was all about the radical subtext of horror B movies.” This education would have a marked effect on Bruce and his approach to his own work. “One thing about Robin Wood and that whole circle was that they were extremely politically correct. Their idea of feminism was very specific, and pretty mainstream,” he says. “I was still kind of politically correct and I wrote this savage critique of the Cinema of Transgression based on a feminist reading ... Also Toronto in the ‘80s was one of the international hotspots for art videos, and I wrote another critique of certain gay Canadian video artists, so I was really like the Armond White of the time.” He continues: “Then a couple of very close friends of mine just sat me down one day and read me the riot act, pointing out to me that my political correctness was really narrow-minded and that I was being very doctrinarian, so I started challenging my own positions. After No Skin Off My Ass and Super 8½ I started challenging ideas about sexuality, tackling issues of race, submission, domination, and power relations within sex and how complex the relationship between homosexuality and fascism is, and presenting female sexuality. Before that I was very afraid of representing female sexuality because I felt, as a pussy-whipped male feminist, I had to be very careful about female sexuality. So I started being much more open in my work.”

« CERTAIN PEOPLE CAN’T WATCH CERTAIN KINDS OF ART BECAUSE IT TRIGGERS A BAD FEELING IN THEM? YOU HAVE TO BE MUCH TOUGHER THAN THAT TO FIGHT FASCISM. » 36

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Bruce LaBruce

It was during this time in Toronto that Bruce met Jürgen Brüning, the founder of Berlin-based porn studio Cazzo Film who would go on to become the producer on almost all of Bruce’s feature films, including The Misandrists. “Jürgen was the visiting film curator at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, New York, in 1988 and ‘89,” Bruce begins. “He would come up to Toronto and scout for work to show, so he saw my work and brought me, G.B. Jones, and a couple of our friends down to Buffalo. Our films were almost confiscated at the border for the first (but not the last) time. He was also starting out as a producer so I asked him to give me money to make a feature length Super 8 film, so he gave me $2,000 to make No Skin Off My Ass.” This, Bruce’s debut feature, is a comedy-drama in which explicit sex scenes featuring a punk hairdresser – played by Bruce himself – and a skinhead are interwoven with a radical political message. It now enjoys cult status, and Kurt Cobain famously declared it his favourite film. Jürgen then gave Bruce a further $12,000 to blow the film up to 16mm: “At that time some people called me a sellout for making a $14,000 film. I was in the very hardcore, anti-establishment punk scene, so if you spent any amount of money on anything you were considered a sellout.” Selling out or not, the creative relationship between Bruce and Jürgen was cemented, and it

Armond White Known for his provocative film criticism, Armond White was expelled from The New York Film Critics Circle for allegedly heckling director Steve McQueen at an event for the film 12 Years a Slave.

Bruce LaBruce

wasn’t long before they were travelling together to Berlin: “He first brought me to Berlin in 1990 or ‘91 when the city was still divided,” Bruce tells us. “I mean, the wall was down but it was still totally divided. In fact, a local avant-garde filmmaker in Berlin named Michael Brynntrup used to take me to the East to show our Super 8 films in bars and emerging queer spaces. It was amazing, because the people from the East were really starved for underground stuff that they never had access to.” “Then of course I started making films here. After Super 8½, my first two features were shot in Toronto, then I lived in LA for a year and made Hustler White because I felt like I wasn’t getting any support in Canada from arts councils and stuff, but also because the police were coming to the labs to confiscate the negatives for my films,” he laughs. “Like, the lab would call the police! Also my photographs, because in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s I started shooting porn, and one of the photo labs called the police as well. I mean, this is all pre-internet, so porn was much more taboo. I tried to get financing for more mainstream films after Hustler White, but unsuccessfully because I had a reputation for being a pornographer. In the meantime, Jürgen had started the first avant-garde porn company in Berlin, Cazzo Film, and he got me to direct my first full-on, industry-style porn film, Skin Flick, which was shot in London but I did the post-production and the editing in Berlin. That started a whole series of me working on films in Berlin – Raspberry Reich, Otto, Pierrot Lunaire, and now The Misandrists.” Given the radical and explicit nature of Bruce’s films, which often feature unsimulated sex, it comes as no surprise that he has had his fair share of criticism over the years. However, when his first feature was shown, this criticism came from an unlikely source – the very underground scene that he was a part of. “The punk scene was very homophobic in the mid to late ‘80s, so I got a lot of hostility and violence directed towards me for showing these kinds of films. I was only showing No Skin Off My Ass at punk bars and queer, alternative art spaces. I had it on Super 8, so I would bring a Super 8 projector with the soundtrack on a cassette.” Having received such hostility from the beginning, and later watching audiences walk out in the middle of his screenings at international film festivals, we wonder about Bruce’s particular approach to creating such provocative cinema. “It comes from a punk spirit,” he says, matter-of-factly. “It’s done in a playful way, a politically incorrect way, and also in an ambivalent way. I wrote a book called The Reluctant Pornographer, so it’s not like I’m just this gung-ho porn person who was just passively presenting porn as something simplistically good; I felt very ambivalent doing it. It was very embarrassing to act in these

Above: Still from The Misandrists.

Reluctant Pornographer

films, very impersonal, and I realised that a lot of porn is very exploitative. The way I present sexuality is with so many layers of distance, and foregrounding the spectatorship of the viewer, drawing people’s attention to the awkwardness of sex or the political problems with it. And then also ambiguity,” he adds. “It’s difficult for people to pin down what my politics are exactly, even which side of the political spectrum I’m on. I showed films at a festival in Katowice in Poland a couple of years ago, and in a Q&A for The Raspberry Reich, someone’s question started out, “As a right-wing filmmaker, how do you feel about…” and I was like ‘Wow, that’s amazing.’” But how does it feel to have his political stance so greatly misunderstood by his audience? “I took that question as a compliment!” He says, “But it’s exactly why the left is in such chaos and disorder today. They’ve taken this very simplistic and politically correct position. They’re so busy policing themselves and their language, and policing the activities of factions within the larger spectrum of the left that they lose focus of who the real enemy is. They become easy targets of the right because they’re so naïve about their own political position and worldview. They’re way too sensitive. This idea of ‘safe spaces’ and the concept of being ‘triggered’, like certain people can’t watch certain kinds of art because it triggers a bad feeling in them? You have to be much tougher than that to fight fascism.” We ask Bruce if he would ever make a movie about Donald Trump’s brain, in the spirit of Ulrike’s Brain and the B movies that inspired it. “Eesh,” he recoils at the thought. Then, groaning, adds: “I mean, if he weren’t so fucking boring! He’s not very glamorous. He’s very crass, and kind of dull-witted.”

For more information on Bruce and his work, visit his (quite NSFW) website: brucelabruce.com Spring 2017

Tour Diary

Gurr

TOUR DIARY: ON THE ROAD WITH GARAGE-ROCKERS GURR Gurr have been charming Berlin’s audiences since 2012 and received skyrocketing attention following the release of their full-length debut, In My Head, last year. Weller-esque polo shirts meet big old Epiphone guitars in style and sound, and their second single ‘Walnuts’ delivers strong hooks and catchy singalongs in spades. Here, they take us along for the ride on the tour that would lead up to a sold-out show at Lido. Ludwigshafen First show of the tour - we didn’t expect much, we played at around 8pm and were the only band, but a lot of people showed up and gave us invitations to Russia. We ate pasta with seafood before the show. ↓

Zürich This is Liam who booked most of the shows on the tour. We wanted to go to Züriberg in Zürich before leaving because, as Liam says: “Mountains are tight.” ↓

Berlin After our record release show in Kantine am Berghain we got into the car, kissed our baes goodbye and drove to Paris. Here we woke up after a three-hour nap between 6 and 9am to have ‘breakfast’ at the hip vegan café, McDonalds. → 38

Issue Three

In My H e is out no ad w on Duches s Bo Records x .

Stuttgart We slept in the most comfortable apartment because they turned up the heating to the max everywhere, so the hole in the roof didn’t matter anymore. In the pic you see an art installation close to the venue, where we played with Wolf Mountains. ↓

Gurr

London This is Laura, drunk, holding a Heineken that we found in our van from the Paris show. Laura and I, Andreya, got really drunk because a lot of good friends and our booker Jamie were there. We continued drinking at Sally’s uncle’s house (thank you for the wine!) and no one showered the next morning (except drunk Andreya) because we were scared to miss the ferry. ↓

Paris Here is Laura doing what she does best: prepping up the merch really nice in Paris. My guitar broke and a guy in the audience requested a really early song of ours, ‘Joseph Gordon-Levitt’, that we played laughing and out of tune as a Zugabe. ↑

Tour Diary

Brighton In Brighton we stayed with Liam’s mum, in a house that has hosted bands like La Luz and Hinds before. Lewis, a good friend who kindly agreed to drive us nutties around, really fell in love with one of the inhabitants. ↓

Here are Liam and Laura on the streets of Brighton the day after the show, being very German and waiting for Liam’s friend who was ten minutes late. The trains weren’t running that day (apparently a common thing) and our label manager Grant missed a lot of appointments. →

Lille In Lille we binge-shopped Maman products (biscuits, cookies, brownies and yoghurts/mousse au chocolat) that we devoured before the show. The very nice promoters gave us boxed wine but we could hardly look at alcohol that day. ↓

This is Sally, our bass player, hugging our drummer Brandon in front of the van with our golden balloon letters floating in the trunk. Brandon got very drunk the last day and I woke up at 3am to Lewis helping Brandon while he tried to throw up but only shouting: “Uergh, oh God.” ↓

Spring 2017

Dispatches

Trump’s America

DISPATCHES: DAY ONE IN TRUMP’S AMERICA United States President Donald J. Trump took office on January 20th 2017, and his inauguration would mark the beginning of a turbulent new presidency. To capture and record the events of this day from Washington, DC we sent Jessica Reyes Sondgeroth and Roman Petruniak to report from the streets of the capital as supporters gathered and a resistance amassed. n the moments leading up to the beginning of the ceremony, the streets south of the US Capitol Building, where Trump would deliver his address, were sparsely peopled. The lines that took attendees through a brief security screening were just four or five people deep. Most people seemed to arrive on shuttle buses at Union Station, north of Capitol Hill, as protesters scattered around Columbus Fountain. Meanwhile, other DC metro stations were rather quiet, with trains less crowded than on a typical morning commute or before a Washington Nationals hockey game. Those travelling to the inauguration ceremony itself were mostly white and often older, some with families in tow, while those protesting the newly-elected president were of mixed ethnicities and backgrounds and mostly in their late teens or early 20s. To be honest, it was all rather lacklustre; the streets were not very crowded, there were no chants or obvious excitement – people were mostly just hoping it wouldn’t rain.

Issue Three

As we approached people for comments, some were willing to talk, but there was a general apprehensiveness towards ‘The Media’. I felt a little nervous, a little unsure as to how receptive people would be. We were dressed plainly, but introducing ourselves often incited tension. I could see people begin to relax as I asked more questions, but I felt they were trying to decipher what my intentions were. When I asked if they were hopeful for the future, however, they perked up, strengthened by their convictions. “It’s about standing up, taking our country back, making America safe again. We have to be vigilant against terrorists,” Billy Prickett, a biomedical engineer from Wilson, North Carolina, said. “I think America is not safe; if you look at all of the terrorist attacks we’ve had that have been downplayed, I think it’s a very serious issue. America needs to open its eyes.” Billy’s claim is not unique, and has been circulating among conservative groups and

words by

Jessica Reyes Sondgeroth photos by

Roman Petruniak

Trump’s America

Dispatches

websites. In fact, it was later reiterated by President Trump himself, just before the White House issued a list of 78 terrorist attacks it says went unreported by the media. The list has been largely renounced by the American press, with many outlets including the New York Times making a point of noting “what the list excluded: attacks targeting Muslims, the overwhelming majority of Islamist terrorism victims.” The list is part of President Trump’s reaction to a massive wave of opposition to his January 27th executive order restricting legal immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. Despite Trump’s statements to the contrary, the vetting process for immigrants and refugees to enter the US is already extensive, and it can sometimes take years. Deaths caused by violent jihad are also far less common than those caused by other forms of violence in America. Yet, for many Americans, the threat from foreign Islamic terrorists is paramount in their minds. Nelda Thompson, a founding member of the Hermitage Artists Retreat in Englewood, Florida, attended the inauguration because she is “passionate about this country,” but her words quickly turn to an ominous danger: “We must be more careful, more diligent about who comes into our country, that they come here because they want to share our ideals; we’re ready to fight for [our ideals] morally, physically, spiritually, verbally.” Nelda’s fears stretch beyond physical violence and echo a common thread in the conservative media – that the growing Muslim population and Islam’s legal system somehow pose an ideological threat to the American tradition. John Thomasson, a high school freshman from Fairfax county just outside Washington, DC, represents the younger wing of the Party. His father is Chief of Staff for Republican US Congressman Jodey Arrington of Lubbock, Texas. Hailing from a state that shares a border with Mexico, border protection and national security are also big issues for John, but so is maintaining a strong relationship with Israel. “As a Christian, being friends with the Jewish people, it’s a very momentous thing and America has always done that, but I also feel like it has very biblical effects when you make them your enemy,” he said. John’s father and mother are also Trump supporters, and having recently moved from Lubbock, Texas, to Fairfax County, Virginia, he’s noticed his classmates tend to have more liberal politics, like their parents. “I like Trump, I believe in what he’s doing,” he said. “I think that he likes to put up a front as a dumb, irrational man, but he’s a very smart guy. He knew how to work the election – the entire thing ended up being centred around Donald Trump.” While those attending Trump’s inauguration were mostly white, that is by no means the entirety of President Trump’s following. A few faces stood out in the crowd who represented the true diversity of America. Bobby Cunningham, a deputy commissioner for the State of Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, said he originally supported Jeb Bush for president and he’s still “heartbroken” over the candidate’s loss. Still, Bobby said he rallied around Trump when the Republican Party selected him as the nominee. However, there was still some reservation in his voice as he emphasised the importance of checks and balances in the US government. “There’s only so much Spring 2017

Dispatches

Trump’s America

a president can do,” he said. “We have the greatest government in the world – there’s no one mindset that can overthrow everything we worked so hard to establish in this democracy.” Cherokee Hill, a woman whose first name befits her heritage, is from Union City, Georgia, outside of Atlanta, and she’s been a Republican all her life. “I’m here today wearing my colours of red for love and white for purity and protection, symbolising a covering over him in prayer and in good blessings for him and his family,” she said. “I look to the person, I look into the heart of the individual and that’s where I get my direction, firstly from God, and to the heart of the person that’s running.” A smaller group attended in protest and out of sheer curiosity. “The white giant has spoken up and now we have to respond to that,” Lana Leonard said. Lana and her friend Alex Nichols, both in their early 20s, came from New Jersey to protest the inauguration. Sitting against a tree behind the crowd, Lana carefully penned the words ‘Not My President’ on a poster board. Unlike the others in attendance, who were mostly calm and content, she was visibly tense. “I’ve never seen so many Trump supporters in one place and it’s nerve-wracking. As a member of the LGBT community, it’s frightening,” she said. “There just seems to be a lack of depth and thought about what’s going on, about Trump’s policies.” Amy Powell, an artist from Ohio, was in Washington, DC visiting friends when she offered to take somebody’s picture. Powell ended up befriending the individual, a Trump supporter, who gave her a ticket to attend the inauguration ceremony. “I was very honest with him and told him that I did not vote for Trump, but I’m here, taking pictures and taking it all in,” she said. “It’s crazy because my experience with Trump supporters was that they’re usually very friendly and very nice, and it’s really confusing to me how they could vote for this guy.” Powell said she was particularly surprised at the women who support Trump, given his remarks that include grabbing women “by the pussy” and his con-

Issue Three

servative stance on restricting government funding for Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organisation that provides reproductive health care and abortion services. “I do truly believe that Trump supporters really believe that he is going to make the country a better place,” Amy said. “I think that they’re wrong, but I don’t consider them my enemies, I just think that we’re going in the wrong direction and we’re going to hopefully turn this around in four years.” The division between supporters and non-supporters became ever more apparent to us at Union Station. Trump supporters, often donning their signature ‘Make America Great Again’ hats, returned to board trains, buses and shuttles. A few dozen protesters stood, some wearing costumes, bearing banners and signs that said, ‘We won’t go back’ and, ‘Love Trumps Hate.’ Trump supporters often stood a safe distance away, reading the signs and staring, or simply walking through the scattered crowd. Protesters stared back, with few words passing between the two groups. Meanwhile, northwest of Capitol Hill, anti-capitalist protests erupted, destroying the windows of a Starbucks and the Bank of America. Agitators hid their faces behind black bandanas and lit trashcans – and in one instance an entire limousine – on fire. But most demonstrators were peaceful, linking arms to face a line of armed police officers. Some would be arrested, but the entire day’s events would soon be overshadowed by one of the largest protest marches in DC’s history: the Women’s March. This event would galvanise a hailstorm of protests across the country, and indeed the world, in response to a string of executive orders issued by President Trump in the first weeks of his presidency. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer would later claim that the president’s inauguration ceremony gathered, “the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period.” Trump himself would claim that as many as 1.5 million people attended the event. With the tally of Women’s March attendees tripling estimates for inauguration attendance, it was the first time the new White House would be less than truthful, but not the last.

Planned Parenthood Abortion accounts for just 3% of the organisation’s services, which include STI testing, cancer screening, birth control, and education services. Despite abortion having been legal in the US since 1973, federal law forbids any federal funds from being used to provide abortions.

STUDIO183 BERLIN

STUDIO183 Brunnenstr. 183 10119 Berlin

STUDIO183 @BIKINI Berlin Budapester Str. 46 10787 Berlin

www.studio183.co Spring 2017

Queen in Kitten Heels

Cher Nobyl

When was the last time a German person shouted at you? German people don’t shout at me, they whisper. When was the last time you stayed up past sunrise? 26th April 1986. What was the last great place you visited? Hasenheide Park, the gay cruising area. I ended up there by mistake, imagine. Where did you buy your last costume from? Buy? What am I, rich? When was the last time you were heckled on stage? It happens quite often, but I am not necessarily against it. “Let them talk,” is also among my famous quotes. Of course, the aggression I do not encourage. When was the last time you stole something? I guess now, stealing a smile once you read this.

THE LAST WORD: CHER NOBYL ower-dressing career woman, social commentator, celibate. Cher Nobyl’s magnetic beauty and strident attitude make her the perfect host of the post-nuclear chat show, Wednesdays with Cher Nobyl that she’s brought to the Berlin stage. Now she’s poised to become Berlin’s newest and best-dressed agony aunt, drawing in crowds with her intimate style of humour. When was the last time you had a fist-fight? Last night, actually. Me and Helena Bonham Carter were fist-fighting in Fight Club. She obviously won and then I woke up. When was the last time you were scared? New Year’s, from all of the damn fireworks. When was the last time you broke the law? I break the law very often, that is, the law of attraction. For example, I engage in a discussion with positive feelings and end up with a negative outcome. Something gets lost in the middle and I don’t know exactly what. If you could choose your last words, what would they be? “Traditions will remain.” It’s already a famous Cher Nobyl quote. 44

Issue Three

When was the last time you laughed so hard you cried? I wouldn’t. Tears would destroy my make up. Who was the last person to ask you on a date? I don’t date. I am engaged to my career. What was the last great piece of advice you gave to someone? “Treat the others as you expect to be treated.” This and: “Stop the anger.” When was the last time you spoke German? Right now, oh wait this interview is in English. What was the last drag show you attended as an audience member? Get Fucked with Olympia Bukkakis at Café Engels. When was the last time you went to the west of Berlin? Last week I went for a currywurst with Ruslana Maidanova. Who was the last person you told you loved? You. I love you, LOLA. Great interview. When was the last time you told someone off on the U-Bahn? I don’t have time for that. I’m too busy watching out for controllers.

What was the last thing you dreamed? That fist-fight with Helena Bonham Carter. Oh, and Hillary Clinton was selling expensive wigs to a cheering crowd. What was the last pair of shoes you bought? Spain, summer 2015. Leopard print heels. When was the last time you said ‘I love you’? Can’t believe you forgot already. When was the last time you were asked a difficult question? Well, let me think about this... Follow Cher to find out about her next events at facebook.com/chernobylberlin

LAST ORDERS The Bee’s Knees Add half a tablespoon of honey to a shaker, followed by a good dash of hot water. Stir to make a syrup, then add the juice of half a fresh lemon and a shot of gin. Add ice, shake, and strain into a glass.

THIS ISSUE WAS POWERED BY… The letter B, Korean food, puns, late nights, epic email threads, Maggie’s bake, Orange Juice, bad language, Singin’ in the Rain, çiğ köfte and the final seconds.

‘‘

I ALWAYS WANTED TO MOVE FROM

REYKJAVÍK TO

BERLIN

AND SO WHEN I FOUND THE CREATIVE MUSICIANSHIP COURSE AT BIMM BERLIN IT GAVE ME THE REASON I WAS LOOKING FOR. I LOVE THE PEOPLE THAT I MEET AND GET TAUGHT BY AT BIMM. THEY ALL WORK WITHIN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND HELP ME TO GROW

CREATIVELY.

ÁSDÍS VIÐARSDÓTTIR REYKJAVÍK, ICELAND

EUROPE’S MOST CONNECTED MUSIC COLLEGE

BIMM.CO.UK/BERLIN Spring 2017