June 22, 2016

OUT THERE


Alex Valder is a designer of unique minimalistic and thoughtful objects and furniture.  When I learn to know him years ago, we realize that we share more than just our interest in art and design, but also a similar vita. We were both born in the same hospital, grew up in the same block in Wilmerdorf a district of Berlin, went to the same primary and high school and even our studies we both absolved at the University of Arts. But ten years of age difference made an earlier encounter impossible. when I started at primary, he was already in high school and so on. When we decided to collaborate on a photoshoot, we wanted to beam us back in time a common ground of another place we shared with many other Berliners growing up in the western part of the city: The Kiesgrube.Many excursions with family and school remember on happy days as a child jumping, running and falling from the sand hills in the middle of the forrest close by Teufelssee. We took Eda (3 years) and Nane (6 years), two sisters that just grow up now like we used to, on a day trip to the sand fields to shoot this series of happy days. Happy about the reunion of a hand full Berliners at an almost forgotten place.

Thanks to the kids, Sarah (Nane and Edas mother) and Güray (the father) and of course Alex Valder! www.alexvalder.de  www.maisonmariaodelga.com

 

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We stay curious

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We find peace

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We free the fish

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We make a wish

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We keep on playing

December 11, 2015

FORBEINGEN – The New World Vulture


The New World Vulture is Norwegian artist and performer Kyrre Bjørkås´ brand new group. True Norwegian etno-noirwww.newworldvulture.com

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Text by Kyrre Bjørkås

When somebody asks you to sit on a table on a rooftop, subjected to the icy winds of contemporary Europe, to pose for an extended still image, then you say yes, because that somebody is Esra Rotthoff. This extended still image was inspired by a song from an upcoming release of mine, called Om Ho Naturi EP. The text in the song is about a naked guy up in the mountains contemplating the incapabilities of language and the cruelty of nature, no less. I identify a bit with this guy, up in his mountain, all naked and stuck in contemplation. As a writer once said it: Sometimes human beings just has to sit in the same place and, like, hurt. But there is a time for contemplation and a time for action, and the sweeping winds are certainly not getting any less icy nowadays. So maybe its time to come down now? Come down and actually do something? See u soon, we hopes!

 

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Esra: “When I read Kyrres Feedback on my work, it was more than flattering  – almost too flattering to post it on my blog. We all like to be perceived as humble, right? But as I said, only almost too flattering …he is just a such truly talented writer, so how could I refuse to publish it?”

The Tornado from Wilmersdorf

by Kyrre Bjørkås

As a Norwegian in Germany I often wonder why the Germans have kept their old habit of writing all subjects with a capitol letter. Take a car, for example. You don’t drive a car in Germany, You drive a Car. It seems a wee bit archaic, right? But then u see that there is something very nice about it – The subjects in the syntax get their fair share of lingual dignity, so to speak. And concerning lingual dignity: Much more so with Esra. With Esra, the capital letters runs trough the whole bloody word. You are not in Front of the Camera. YOU are in FRONT of the CAMERA. As a SUBJECT waiting to be sucked up by the TORNADO-like being that is ESRA, standing behind the CAMERA. YOU see HER in a DISTANCE at first, slightly frightning in HER swirling movements. If YOU are lucky enough to get to sit in HER swirling WAY, YOU are struck by the calm, intelligent and gentle FOCUS that YOU find in the MIDDLE of the STORM, before SHE sucks YOU up with her immense POWERS, hurdel YOU trough LAYERS upon LAYERS of voilet SKY, before shooting YOU out over the WORLD, so you can RAIN yourself down on it, reconfigured, rearranged, recomposed, retouched, redignified and bloody BEAUTIFUL.

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