Kelsey is a contemporary painter whose work has been inadvertently influenced by the street. I first met Kelsey when he was working as a scientist in some lab in San Diego and had tracked him down as I wanted to show his killer work in ‘1 percent’, a free online PDF that I used to edit all about urban creativity. He was doing something completely different and fresh, and was a sweet, out-there guy. I then ran ‘The 92024 Report’ in which Kelsey would tell us about his life on the West Coast in Issue 3 but the column never really developed, as it was the last ever issue of the mag.
So eight years later he’s blown up and is a full-time fully paid-up member of the global artistic community, and having exhibitions around the world. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
‘My work is about what I see when I close my eyes. It is about spirituality and the unknown. Others are calling it “Neo Shamanistica”, I call it what I do when I’m not eating. It’s evolved by means of random mutation and natural selection. In this case I am both the mutation and the selection, which really accelerates and distorts the evolutionary process.’
Some crazy shit going on here. Nina creates art by using tactile, unusual techniques such as knitting and sewing. It’s totally fresh and I love it. Nina Braun is a European artist who was born in Italy and then raised mainly in Germany near Cologne by a Dutch mother and a German father. She had a good childhood moving a few times as a kid, living in the Netherlands and Hamburg, with the result that today she doesn’t feel rooted to any one place. She now lives and works in Berlin.
‘I love to mix supposedly outmoded handcraft techniques with contemporary matters. I take the liberty to explore different materials and processes. I produce sculptures, installations, textile pictures and paintings, objects and cartoons.’
Back inna day she studied Visual Arts at art school in Hamburg.
‘It was there that I received the impression that art is not allowed to be fun and should not be pleasing to look at. I left the academy before the exams, partly disappointed, but partly for the benefit of (skateboarding company) Sumo, that expanded with rapid strides back then. My “education” continued on the streets and I improved my skills in urban disciplines. I finally entered the ‘real’ art world, but I keep my background—urban culture — visible in my work by using an iconic picture language and characters to tell my stories.’
Berlin has been one the finest cities for the urban generation for the last ten years and will continue to do so for some time, as in the grand scheme of things Berlin is a total infant as it has only been one city since 1989. The streets are plastered with graffiti and street art (only recently outlawed) and the Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain, and Prenzlauer Berg areas are where it’s at for street life. This is where the young and the restless hang and the great-quality, cheap places to eat, sleep and drink are in abundance.
Because of the number of youth in the city there is a lot of cheap entertainment on offer. There are too many clubs and venues even to think about listing and every genre of music is catered for. In the Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain neighbourhoods there are many small bars that open up and attract boho crowds that are seriously unique. This is the place where the doner kebab was invented. Forget what you know about the doner, in Berlin they are one of the most delicious things you can eat.
A short walk from the Ostkreuz station is a really great street called Sonntagstrasse, which is a great place to spend an evening. A lot of students live in this area as it is cheap and not-yet developed. There are a few hostels and cheap hotels here and many bars and restaurants.
The Mitte area has been almost completely rebuilt since 1989 as this was where the wall ran its course with large parts mainly no-man’s land between East and West Berlin, and a lot of the fashion industry and boutique hotels are situated here.
One thing that is interesting about Berlin is the courtyards behind the tall apartment buildings. There is a whole world waiting to be explored and most courtyards are accessible to the public. You can be on the most urban street and wander through the heavily graffiti’d arch, then step into another world: ponds, trees, timber yards, artists’ studios, kindergartens, communal eating and living spaces, indie cinemas. There are some great independent festivals and events in and around the city, especially in the summer when the city comes alive. The Berliners love their independence and when the 02 stadium was built recently there was much protesting at the homogenization of their culture, with a lot of the city promising to boycott any concert there. Here here! I say. Fight the power and commercialization of culture.
There isn’t much left of the wall except for the tourist area in the Potsdammer Platz and the West Side gallery along the river in Kreuzberg. The latter is the one to visit as a lot of the original wall art is still visible and this tells its own story of the wall.
BERLiN ON LESS THAN 40 EUROS A DAY
Berlin is one of the cheapest western European cites. The figures below will change slightly with inflation, but this is what you can live off:
| Dorm bed in decent hostel | €16 |
| Continental Breakfast | €2 |
| Lunch (doner/pizza) | €2.50 |
| Supper (quality) | €7 |
| Travel Card | €6.10 |
| Drinks (ten bottles of beer/soda) | €5 |
I drive 90 km north of Tel Aviv to the city of Haifa. On the way I pass gas stations with giant dragons