20 Years of Change – The “Berlin Days” in New York City

27.03.2009

be Berlin in the Heart of the Big Apple

The be Berlin international capital city campaign has organized an event entitled “Berlin Days” to be held in New York City from March 31 to April 2, 2009. The event is set to take place at the New Museum on Bowery Street and will showcase Berlin’s creative industries with a focus on film, fashion, art and design. Other themes to be highlighted during the event will include the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the versatile creative environment that has emerged in the German capital since 1989.  

One of the major highlights of the Berlin Days in NYC is the “Bricks to Berlin” event, which was organized in cooperation with Kulturprojekte GmbH and will take place on Tuesday, March 31. On that day, all New Yorkers will be invited to inscribe or draw a personal message on the 2.5 meter solid-foam panels designed to symbolize the Wall. Artists from New York will also be involved in the project. The panels will then go on tour, making stops in Istanbul and Copenhagen. On November 9th, as part of the official celebrations surrounding the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, the panels will be brought together as part of a large art installation at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. There, they will form a wall that will be symbolically torn down as a tribute to the events of 1989. The event will bear the title “Berlin - the place to be for change and history.”

“Berlin - the place to be for fashion” is the title of the events set to take place on the evening of March 31st, when the fashion schools ESMOD (Berlin) and Parsons The New School for Design (New York) come together to discuss business models and sustainable design.

Panel members will include

• Klaus Metz (Esmod)
• Julia Knüpfer (Esmod alumni)
• Shelley Fox (Donna Karan Prof. of Fashion Design, Parsons The New School for Design)
• Melissa Drier (Women’s Wear Daily)
• Dr. Cameron Tonkinweise (Chair of Sustainability and Design Thinking Parsons The New School for Design)
• Georgeana Ortiz (student at Parsons The New School for Design)

The discussion will be moderated by

• Simon Collins (Dean of Fashion Parsons The New School for Design)

The evening will also feature a fashion show of 20 top Berlin designers and labels and a presentation of the new film “Berlin Fashion Now” as part of the opening gala.

“Berlin - the place to be for film” is the theme of the evening of April 1st. The film “24h Berlin” and the latest hit from director Hannes Stöhr, “Berlin Calling,” will be presented.

Participants in the discussion will include

• Hannes Stöhr, Paul Kalkbrenner (musician and lead actor in “Berlin Calling”)
• Ann Carolin Renninger (Zero One Film / “24h Berlin”)
• Robert Eysoldt (Triad Berlin / “24h Berlin”)
• Laurence Kardish (Senior Curator MoMA, Dept. of Film and Media)

The evening will be moderated by

• Oliver Mahrdt (German Films)

After the discussion, the film “Berlin Calling,” which had its U.S. premiere at the film festival in Miami, will be screened. The event is geared primarily towards New York cinema fans as well as filmmakers, scriptwriters and producers from the U.S.

“Berlin - the place to be for art & design” is the theme of the final evening of the Berlin Days on Thursday, April 2nd. The evening will showcase Berlin and New York artists and designers, who will present their current projects in short, timed PowerPoint presentations called “Pecha Kucha,“ a new, Japanese-inspired presentation format now gaining popularity in Berlin.

Presenters will include

• Benjamin Godsill (Curator New Museum, NY)
• Susanne Philippson
• Flip Sellin
• Raban Ruddigkeit
• Robert Eysoldt (Berlin)

The evening will be moderated by

• Iepe B. T. Rubingh and
• Joachim Stein (Pecha Kucha Berlin)

“Berlin - the place for clubbing.” A wrap-up party at the APT Club will bring the evening to an end.

As Dr. Richard Meng, spokesman for the Berlin Senate, explained: “We’re inviting everyone in New York to participate in the celebrations surrounding the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall by inscribing something on one of our “Wall” panels. The events in the evening are designed to generate further excitement for Berlin among New York’s creative professionals and to show that now, more than ever, Germany’s capital city is the place to be.”  

For more information about the international capital city campaign, please visit www.be.berlin.de.