Unscene Berlin

Another day, and another several thousand party nutters are dancing to techno in the streets and fighting the system in Berlin, Germany. Except today, they are joined by over 270,000 people taking part in various actions and demos organised by Fridays For Future, Extinction Rebellion and Reclaim Culture - amongst countless other organisations - as a part of the Global Climate Strike .   Waving up-cycled signs and throbbing with techno and other sounds of the underground, five trucks (one decked out with reused plastic), blew through the Mitte in a kilometre long procession, passing straight through Potsdamer Platz, Checkpoint Charlie and finally, Alexanderplatz. The music pulled everything together, weaving a coherent entity out of all the frustrated, angry, yet hopeful and ecstatic strands of emotion. Check out the two-minute video below to get a sense of what it was like... The anarchic dancing mass parked up, chattering and laughing to a boom-tss-boom-tss-boom-...

At.Tension 2019  is an arts and performance festival running from September 5th to the 8th. On the website, it is described as a "side specific(sic) biennial, interdisciplinary theater festival, curated, organized and realized by actors."  That's the way they would put it. The way I would put it is this: At.Tension is basically a 'Fusion lite', a packing down and chilling out festival, taking place on the same site as Fusion, about two hours away from Berlin At.Tension takes place every second year and, to anyone who's been to Fusion before, it will be very familiar scenery: almost nothing seems to have changed. Everything and I mean everything that was open at Fusion is open at At.Tension. So if you can't get enough of Fusion, then this is for you.  All of the site's "aircraft hangars, an old runway, various circus tents, as well as various parking and open spaces ... including a swimming lak...

Photos taken by A. E. Elliott at At.Tension festival 2019 If there's something that holds people together, it's their creations: story-telling, painting, drawing, playing music and making clothing and food are what people have always done together.  And Berlin has a surfeit of visionary people, but how many of them are taking steps towards making their visions real?  As many as have the chance I'd guess. Yet that creativity could be the key to the largest problem we're facing - climate change. So maybe it's time to stop leaving things to chance.  Between September 20 th -  27 th , Reclaim Club Culture ,  UKlima2019  and Fridays For Future aim to bring all of Berlin's creative tangents together to see what solutions can be collectively dreamed, and then realised, in this city. Their weeklong lineup of action against climate change will kick off on Friday September 20th with a street party / demo called " No Future, No Dancefloor ". But...

  Rolling around Schoeneweide, again, I notice a gate open at the old brewery. It looks like a host extending a personal invitation to come in and look around.  Much obliged if I do... Eyes gazing upward of piles of rubble, grazing lofty, grandiose walls, all faded formidability that waits but never gives up its stature .  What is it about this delirious, valueless space , that keeps my mind straying off track, returning to center, re- balanced? Drawn into halls and bays that are   grandiose, soaring, extravagant as they are abandoned and unkempt. Like a pebble strewn beach or an overgrown field, this building needs nothing but the elements and awareness to sustain it.   The structure itself is actually formed of art. It's a very Berlin approach, the accidental breach of order spilling colour from every molecule of the city. No new beginnings or means to an end, just an ...