Berlin. Whilst walking round Berlin i found myself saying 'i have masses to blog about' so here's my attempt at doing such. I'm going to start with the most memorable work i saw, which was actually the graffiti around the city. It was everywhere, some of it quite beautiful. I don't know if its legal in Berlin, but it really added something to this city. Few photos below...

 In parts i felt as though i couldve easily been in Manchester, with the tram, the Starbucks/McDonald's/all saints etc, then you'd turn a corner and find grand architecture, or a mass of graffiti clad buildings. Globalisation hey? After finishing that bloody essay i stumbled across tonnes of things that linked to globalisation but hey ho. The exhibition at the Guggenheim was globalisation materialised. It consisted of a mass of colourful toys/pieces that were interactive and tactile. They illustrated many recognisable landmarks, Easter island or the Taj mahal for example, and were made out of foam/fur/plastic/glitter etc. Children happily played around us, touching and moving the work, occasionally being told off by a guard for getting too excited. If I'm honest, i expected more from the Guggenheim. After seeing photos of Bilbao's offerings, and Dubai's plans for a Guggenheim, i was underwhelmed by the pretty average looking exterior.

I also went to an exhibition my Richard Long at the contemporary art museum Hamburger Bahnhof,  which was impressive. Ive always been a fan of Longs' work, and the setting of his work just made his work 'pop' for lack of  a better word. That's an awful word sorry. The building was so grand, and well lit, and the composition of his circular pieces worked beautifully within the space (couple of photos i took below). The circular floor pieces led to a giant wall at the back of the space which had another circle, painted in mud (i think) in which the hand prints of the artists remained. As i approached the piece it seemed remarkably flat. I was expecting to see some level of texture but i couldn't. As subtly as possible i touched the edge to see if it was in fact a print but got shouted at by a guard before i could register whether it was or not. I felt abit bitter about this. In the real world if there was mud on a wall no one would stop you touching it. Its just mud. it doesn't belong to anyone, but it belongs to everyone. the same applied to the circular rock formations on the floor. God forbid anyone to touch of kick a rock. but if you head out side you can kick rocks about to your hearts content. Art has the power to do this. I'm not sure i like this fact. Ive been considering doing my dissertation on ephemeral art next year, and potentially basing a project on it. Chances are this time next year I'll have a piece made from leaves that no one can breathe around, and i will have completely contradicted my last point.