The New Year’s Concert of the Komische Oper: “Frankenstein!”
In the early evening of January 1st, you could be ready to listen to a New Year’s concert at the Komische Oper. They call it “Frankenstein!”, not only because after a wild New Year’s Eve party many might feel a little like Frankenstein. But also because the composition of the same name by the Austrian composer HK Gruber is part of the program – the stirring music, sometimes sounding like a children’s song, to Hans C. Artmann’s dadaistic poems, which no one else should interpret than Max Hopp.
Max Hopp is part of the New Year program.Jan Windszus
There is no one better suited for this. James Gaffigan will also conduct Engelbert Humperdinck’s Overture “Abendsegen” and “Traumpantomime” from “Hansel and Gretel”, Joseph Haydn’s Overture to “The Creation”, Leonard Bernstein’s “Three Dances Episodes” from the musical “On the Town” and Manuel de Falla’s ” Danza Ritual del Fuego” from the ballet “El Amor Brujo”. If that’s not the right soundtrack for you to rethink your New Year’s resolutions.
Suzanne Lenz
Frankenstein! Comic Opera, January 1, 6 p.m. Ticket phone: 030 47 99 74 00 or online at: www.komische-oper-berlin.de
Fireworks of confession: “Mother Tongue” on the Gorki
With the empowering documentary and confessional theater evening “Mother Tongue” by Lola Aurias, the Gorki Theater reflects on itself. And on its biographical-political approach, which it has been pursuing since Shermin Langhoff took office in 2013. It’s about procreation and identity, apparently two aspects or even goals of a successful life, at least when you hear the people on stage telling about their fates.
Who are you, what is yours, what are you giving away when you become a parent? What do you lose by giving up parenting? What power do conventions, culture and morality have over us? How tragic or how surmountable are the conflicts that we throw ourselves into when we rebel against them? Every life is a dramatic individual case, solidarity begins with the telling. “Mother Tongue” releases the necessary energy for this. Ulrich Seidler
Mother Tongue. December 31, January 1, 6 p.m. in the Gorki, tickets on Tel.: 030 20 221 155 or at: www.gorki.de
Dissident art in times of war
The eyes of the world were famously on millions of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s brutal invasion in 2022. But many Russians also left their homeland this year. And at a pace that has probably not been seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a rule, these people are not fleeing from bombing raids, but from their own government: from conscription, penal service and massive restrictions on freedom of speech and the press. In particular, the liberal intelligentsia and political opposition in Russia have meanwhile made their way to neighboring countries such as Georgia and Armenia in their thousands. Some have fled to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, others to Middle Eastern countries where visas are not required. Still others have made their way west by car. Many ended up in Berlin.
A chilling dystopia by artist duo Nadya and Sasha Svirsky: freedom of expression at the meat hookNadya and Sasha Svirsky
In the premises of the organization MiCT (Media in Cooperation and Transition), a number of them have now opened the exhibition “Dissidents” – an exhibition of Russian and Belarusian art and media workers in exile. All participants fled to Berlin out of fear of political repression. Sometimes because they have experienced political threats themselves. More often simply in order not to have to participate in political lies, i.e. to protect their personal integrity. The fact that leaving the country almost always meant a loss of wealth and status, but also a gain in freedom of expression, is reflected here in this art. Among the participants of the exhibition are Anna Demidova, Dmitry Brushko, Sergey Ponomarev, Karen Shainyan, Nikolay Kononov, Angelina Davydova as well as Nadya and Sasha Svirsky. Hanno Hauenstein
Dissidents. MiCT, Brunnenstraße 9 – until December 31, 2022. Open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment. Contact: Klaas Glenewinkel: 0151 504 23 455
Window art: Ukrainian “Screen[far]shots“
“Untitled to war I” – that’s what the Ukrainian Victoria Pidust, born in 1992, calls her panorama picture. It was created months ago in Kyiv, it is a motif in the young artist’s photo diary. At first glance, everything seems a bit abstract. Then the gray and colored chunks turn out to be fragments of a shopping center destroyed by a (Russian) missile. Using photogrammetry and artificial intelligence, Pidust created the final 2D images, deliberately playing on the imperfections of digital scans, raising questions of veracity, propaganda, and the use of deepfakes.
“Untitled to war I” is what Victoria Pidust from Kyiv calls her panorama picture in the KVOST shop window.KVOST/Victoria Pidus
The Kunstverein Ost (KVOST) in Mitte recently started a showcase art project for which there are no opening and closing times, at least not until nightfall, when Berliners can sleep, unlike in Kyiv, Kharkiv or Cherson. “Screen[far]shots” wants to make the passers-by stop, look away from the screen or the mobile phone display for a few minutes at the KVOST shop window, in order to wordlessly “illuminate” the sheer amount of reporting that is constantly pouring in on us: War in Europe. The Ukrainian President fights like no head of state before him with the tools of a media professional. Putin’s Russia is responding to this fight with fake news and digital sabotage. Tried using multimedia positions „Screen[far]shots“ to bring the attention back to what is crucial: empathy. Against looking the other way and being dulled, KVOST quietly and silently seeks another way. That of pausing. Ingeborg Ruthe
KVOST showcase, Leipziger Str. 47/Jerusalemer Str., illuminated daily from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Until January 21, 2023
“Legends of Entertainment – the big New Year’s show” in the Volksbühne
There’s nothing like cultivated New Year’s rituals, appropriately on January 1st, a few weeks before we finally throw our good New Year’s resolutions overboard and ship the best ones to next year. Always on January 1st, people meet up in the Volksbühne, and have been for a long time. Everyone is still exhausted from the evening before, the Charlottenburg residents from the champagne dinner and the Neukölln residents from the firecrackers. But the New Year’s concert at the Volksbühne is always an experience – even if it’s no longer called that, but, extra fancy: “Legends of Entertainment – the big New Year’s show”. Hear hear!
Who’s in? The PR department of the Volksbühne knows: “Denice Bourbon, the rising, lesbian star in the stand-up sky, Christiane Rösinger, legendary Berlin songwriter and gala host, and Stefanie Sargnagel, cult poet from the Viennese suburban pub.” But the three have each other In turn, illustrious guests were invited, such as the glamor harpist Hans Unstern with his “plastic sweets”. 2023? It can and should be fun! Stefan Hochgesand
Volksbühne at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Sunday, January 1, 2023, 8 p.m., advance booking 20 euros
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