An Artist Talks wth Jaesun Windsor, 22.09.2011, kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin

Jaesun is a young ambitious hip hop producer, he is a song writer and raps his texts with a Canadian twist. He describes the scene in his country as very active.

He is going to collaborate with another artist producer to finalize a first album, for which he will prepare a tour in the North of Canda. He is experienced in event organization and has many helpful contacts in the club/concert scene.

He has always listened to hip hop since he is 13 and qualifies himself as a bad boy. He likes the social and political impact that some good rap texts can have, and has an admiration for this form of expression. He also sees the superficial side of this hip hop production.  But still he feels it is positive, since it has opened the possibility for different social classes, to reach out to the people.


Jaesun is curious and has enjoyed discovering the Kunsthaus. He came through with a bunch of tourists and he came to my studio. That is how we met. He talks easily and enjoys communicating with strangers, he has been traveling through Europe since August. I took him around the studios in the Kunsthaus Tacheles and he was amazed by all the artists he spoke with. "He had no idea that places like this exist" he says, "He has had so much fun!"

Jaesun likes life and you can tell: He is enjoying every minute of his time and follows the flow. He knows how to trust his feelings and instinct. He is fast and clever and likes to suprise. Let's hope his album is a good suprise...

We were lucky after the interview to hear The Kominas a punk Pakistani American band from New York playing on the first floor of the arthouse that same night. The talk was easy going and relaxed. I had a nice time.

An Artist talks with Ashleigh Wilson, 15.09.2011, Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin

Ashleigh Wilson is a ballerina and dancer from South Africa. She moved to Europe, Germany and she came first to Dresden then 8 months ago moved to Berlin.

She discovered her passion for dance at the age of 18, which pushed her into the challenge of working 12 hours a day, to catch up time. As we know, most classical dancers start training at a very young age. Nevertheless her talent and qualities have allowed her to become a professional dancer, and Ashleigh has recently joined the Fehrnseh Ballet from Berlin.

She likes to discover new techniques and experience collaborations. She says: "they expand her possibilities as a dancer". In this respect, she is always watching other dancers, live or on dvds or on youtube... She has a good physical memory and intergrates moves very fast. All this  hard work is to improve always her dancing. She is very ambitious and would like to achieve something with her art.

She has developed a strong attitude towards the tough environment of ballet, where competition is very extreme. Alike most dancers, she trains a daily minimum of three hours and works on choreographies.

She recently performed in the "We Support Tacheles" party and also in the Hauptbahnhof in Berlin.

She explained how hard it can be in the ballet class and how much she has been working to reach her goals. She has many dreams and lives her life open to opportunities and exchange. She shared important moments of her life in South Africa, where she helped the disadvantaged and believes in change and improvement of life conditions there.

This has taught her determination. And she develops it with the practice of  buddhist meditations. She hopes to feel compassion and understanding towards those who are not as fortunate as her. She would like to grow from this stay in Europe. She has a clear view of the world and is curious about everything. 

She discovered the Kunsthaus Tacheles because of her performance and really loves this space. Today she comes regularly to dance with friends and dancers. She always tries to support, with her smile and charm, whatever she believes in.

To conclude the interview, she performed in the New Gallery in the Kunsthaus Tacheles, with her friend dancer, met in Dresden, George Hill. They both put together the choreography in two days, and she chose the South African National Anthem.

She is faithfull to herself and to her country... It was a suprising moment.

An Artist Talks with Salomea Genin, 25.o8.2011, Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin.

Salomea Genin was born in 1932 in Berlin to Polish-Jewish parents and fled the Nazis with her family to Australia in 1939. In 1944 she joined the Eureka Youth (Young Communist) League and in 1949 - the beginning of the Cold War - the Australian Communist Party. In 1951, as a delegate to the World Youth Festival in East Berlin, she became convinced her calling was to help build an anti-fascist state in the newly-founded German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

In 1963, after a nine-year struggle to immigrate, she finally settled there. Twenty years later, she realized that she was living in a police state, one in which she had willingly participated. By 1985, psychotherapy and writing a book about her family enabled her to find the strength to go into political opposition and build a new life, even before the Berlin Wall and East Germany itself were dismantled in 1989. ( from www.salomeagenin.de)

I was very happy to great Salomea Genin, "a Jewish woman of the world", as she calls herself. She is a woman with an incredible life experience. She shared with us in two hours, some of her memories and even gave us the priviledge of a few Communist songs, that she interpreted with emotion. I must confess, I cried.

She has grown from her experience and shares. She brought us wisdom. She is fortunate to have thought over her past and transformed her suffering into generosity and talent. She is currently writing a fourth book.

She has perspective and insight over human behaviour and political regimes. She actually found herself comparing the nazis to the stasis, and discovered how they ressembled each other. She found out how people get trapped inside ideas and obediance towards hierarchy, leading to horror and blindness.

She has also forgiven... And she has forgiven herself. Salomea has found peace inside her heart. She says "I realized that the only way to bring peace around you, is to find peace inside yourself ".

She discovered again the Tacheles, and told us she came when she was 18 to a club downstairs in the twenties. There was a big cinema inside the theater. She was excited to visit it again. She saw that the Tacheles was still alive and that artists work here after all these years.

For those who do not know Tacheles means "speak the truth " and that is precisely what Salomea Genin does. It was a very moving talk.

video coming shortly

www.salomeagenin.de

An Artist Talks with Frank Schulz, 08.09.2011, Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin

Frank Schulz is alike a poet and his photographs recreate new dimensions, new territories and imaginary worlds.

He came very simply to the talk, friendly and kind.

He is very modest in his expression and seems very focused on his work.

He lives and works in Berlin where his studio is, behind the gallery, who shows his work in Freiedrichshain,  Boxenhagenerstrasse.

He likes to sale to an audience different form the big galleries. His works are editions of a 100 allowing him low prices. He likes the experience of meeting the buyers, some even save for months, to be able to buy one of his pieces. He finds that moving and smiles.

He works also on commission. And one of these clients is a famous Berlin clubs.

I particularly like a photograph with a sky view and flags waving from the top of a city with antennas on the roof of a small building. I can't help but remember pictures, I have seen in the press about the American flag on the moon.

His very accurate technique of the panorama photography is amazing. And the illusion of these unusual expansions, lead us into new realities, and redimensioned landscapes open up doors inside yourself. Alike a maze or a hidden path, you follow, discover and explore. With your eyes you go up the stairs and along corridors and through wide open spaces. In that respect the works can be interpreted like stories or tales around urban culture. He particularly likes the graffitied walls in Berlin and the old empty warehouses.

He took photographs of the Tacheles staircase and constructed an amazing black and white composition. He likes this free art space, it reminds him of the Berlin spirit, that it impersonnates since 22 years. He has a show in a Gallery on the 4th floor right, where you can see some of his works.

Please come and visit and take a look.

It was a nice talk.

An Artist Talks with John Blue, 18.08.2011, Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin.

John Blue is an American musician living and working in Berlin since 4 years. He likes the feeling of the city and is lucky to work for film production and theater for whom he produces music.

Tim and John Blue in the Kunsthaus Tacheles

He likes to work in a team essentially with his brother Tim. "Working and composition together is one of most intimate relationships", he says. He is self-taugh and can brillantly play the cello and so many other intruments that I cannot name them all. He is curious and likes to explore always new intruments from other countries and cultures, and works with them until he can master them perfectly.

 He produces and plays live sets of experimental music and is extremely creative. He has a very charming personality. He is joyfull and knows that he is fortunate to be living from his music production. He is extremely hard working and likes to create and push his work to perfection. He searches, goes back and forth, turns things upside down, he uses electronic sounds of course, but does not define his production as electronic music.

Tim, John and Axel

One of his first sound tracks took almost ten year to finalize, so he is patient and can be very dedicated to a project, if he believes in it.
He produced sound for films directed by Paul Rowley, the film title is "As Latháir". And John has also worked for the director Wilhelm Hein for his movie "Material Film", for instance.


He likes to play live also for theater production, of course this type of work is slightly different.
He is  working with the Arsenal and it is an ongoing project named 'Living Archive' that will be a performance and music composition using samples from early sound films.
John Blue has experience and has mature vision of his work. He enjoys sharing his passion for music and seems very excited to be a musician. He is not focusing at the moment on distributing his music. So curiously he has no label or albums released. He is in another dimension.

Axel

 He played live downstairs in the Kunstkonsum with his brother Tim and invited a friend Axel to join in a second part. Many people gathered and listen with pleasure to the set. We really shared a nice moment.

www.arsenal-berlin.de/kino-arsenal
www.myspace.com/johnbluemusic