The day’s first event just at noon was a “vernissage,” so called by our hostess, Ingrid Roosen-Trinks, at her spacious Kreuzberg loft on the Tempelhofer Ufer that runs along the pleasant waterway south of the center of Berlin known as the Landwehrkanal. Ingrid heads the cultural foundation of the luxury hardware firm, Mont Blanc, and she is privileged with all of the glamour and flair that such a position commands and implies. She and her husband, a retired Lufthansa Captain, live in Hamburg but maintain the flat in Berlin for visits and art functions. The event of the day was a curated photography show that, among other very good works, featured one of those large, amazing airport photos from the early ‘90’s by Fischli & Weiss. Gallerists, architects and other art world people abounded, and there was a lot of handing out of cards. I did my share.
After a stop at the Johann Koenig Galerie, we took the U-Bahn to the Rosa Luxembourg Square area, site of the venerable Volksbuhne (an East Berlin theater where the likes of Brecht hung out) and other venues dedicated to the cause of early twentieth century communist utopianism. To the kids and graying would-be kids who hang out there nothing is outdated or lost. We went for the “Sun Day” show, it being the Sunday and final day of Gallery Weekend, a gathering of fifteen young Berlin and London galleries on five floors (no elevator) of an as yet unoccupied new modernistic building. The galleries were all showing new things when they weren’t resurrecting some ‘60’s hero of language in art as though that new day were still dawning. I concluded it was setting. There were a few good art pieces on view, particularly some sculptures and photos by an old friend, Raphael Danke, but most of what is displayed is merely to be tramped through while one gives the young gallerists misleading signs that you want above all for them to hang in there. Where this artworld recession will leave them all is yet to be determined. Most of them will never have the chance to get good.
Next two more galleries across the street from the Volksbuhne, including a show by one of our favorite artists in our collection, the Viennese Heimo Zobernig. On route to the U-Bahn we were detained at the coolest of Berlin clothing stores, The Apartment, near Alexander Platz. From the window we saw strange furniture and lamps, as it turned out by a woman named Hun, who is the significant other of Rick Owens, one of the most famous of now menswear designers, originally of L.A. but now from Paris. A photo of the ground floor of The Apartment appears above. The store is in the basement – an affectation that won me over years ago.
At six p.m. we walked the almost two miles (half an hour at a fast exercise pace) from out apartment to attend the Anglican service at the Marienkirche in Alexander Platz. The Rector of St. George’s parish in West Berlin, Father Chris Jage-Bowler, is a gaunt, strong, inspirational and untiring leader, and we appreciate him very much. There were two unbelievably cute Nigerian, infant, boy-girl twins in attendance, as well as a number of young Englishmen with strong voices out of the Kipling era stoutly ringing out the old hymns. Once again Abraham was narrowly prevented from sacrificing Isaac. I continually live in fear that the Angel of the Lord will not arrive in time to save Isaac, but the Angel always comes through, which I have to be told again and again is what it’s all about. A good time was had by all.
We capped off the evening with a big dinner at one of our two favorite restaurants here, Lutter & Wegner in the Gendarmenmarkt. We had something to celebrate. As last Sunday, we feasted on plump, white asparagus, a “small” schnitzel and boiled potatoes accompanied by a light, tasty white wine represented by the waiter to be a German pinot grigio, namely, a Grauburgunder from Baden, the southwest corner of Germany. The celebration called for skipping the Pilsner this time.
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