Exberliner Issue 171 May 2018

WHAT’S ON — Calendar
Calendar
May 2018
Picks, highlights and can’t-miss events for this month in Berlin.
Clockwise from right:
Xposed Queer Film Festival,
May 24. Ghostfacekillah,
May 14. MyFest, May 1.
TUE
1
MyFest — Street Party
Kick off your month of
revolutionary struggle in
the classic Kreuzberg fashion:
outside, with a beer in hand, hanging
around Kotti. Stifle any
car-burning compulsions with
DJs, comedians and a kid’s
programme. Starts 11:30.
WED
2
re:publica 18 — Conference
and Festival This year
underpinned by the
succinct motto “POP”, the media
convention’s programme will
take on the not-so-squeaky clean
current state of digital culture
with the help of artists, activists,
scientists, hackers and many
more. Through May 4.
Station Berlin.
Pictoplasma — Conference and Festival
Like seeing all your wildest
Pusheen gif fantasies come to
life, gain a “new understanding
of character” at the festival and
conference featuring graphic, toy
and game designers plus
leading animation filmmakers.
Through May 6. Various venues.
Visionär Film Festival —Film
The festival for new auteur
cinema returns for its second
edition. This year proceedings
begin with a tribute to French
director Agnés Varda, with an 8pm
screening of her Left Bank classic
Cléo from 5 to 7 at Kino Wedding.
Through May 7.
THU
3
Superbooth — Electric Music
Fair Know your Moogs
from your MaxMSPs or
your chiptune from your circuit
bending? Then rejoice, dear
modular synthesizer enthusiasts
of Berlin: Europe’s largest
electronic music trade fair is at
FEZ through May 5.
FRI
4
Berlin Theatertreffen
— Theatre
Berlin’s annual festival
showcasing a jury’s pick of the
year’s ten most noteworthy
theatre productions is back at the
Haus der Berliner Festspiele and
other venues. Through May 21.
SAT
5
MIRA Festival Berlin
— Festival If your ideal
festival aesthetic is a
Commodore 64 loading screen
meets the Funkhaus, the
Barcelona-based digital arts
festival is for you. Laurel Halo and
Forest Swords head up the bill.
Through May 6.
MON
7
Berlin Burlesque Week
— Festival The finest strategically-placed
tassels,
sequins and giant cocktail glasses
Berlin has to offer. Featuring
esteemed performers
demonstrating a plethora of burlesque
genres at venues across the
city. Through May 13.
Yo La Tengo — Music New Jersey’s
ever-reliable and critically-feted
three-piece bring the noise-pop to
Heimathafen Neukölln with songs
from 2018’s There’s A Riot Going
On. 21:00 (sold out).
WED
9
Xjazz Festival — Music
Spread across 11 different
Kreuzberg venues, make
up for the time you spend
overlooking jazz, electronica and
neo-classical in Berlin the rest of
the year. Through May 13.
SAT
12
Isolation Berlin — Music
These days probably
feeling anything but
isolated (see p. 31), Berlin’s best
indie nihilists play a homecoming
gig at Astra Kulturhaus in support
of new album Vergifte Dich.
Starts 20:00.
Eurovision Song Contest — Party
It’s that time again! For our
money, there’s nowhere better
to indulge in this yearly ritual of
epic key changes, tactical voting
and fractious Euro-politics than
Freiluftkino Kreuzberg. Free
Schnapps for the front row.
From 19:30.
MON
14
Ghostface Killah — Music
Nearly four years since
his last visitation, the
unrivalled narrative abilities of
the Wu Tang stalwart finally
return to Berlin at Festsaal
Kreuzberg. Starts 20:00.
THU
17
Digitalism — Music
Kitsuné’s Hamburg
darlings take to the
Funkhaus’ stage, continuing their
mission to convince us earthlings
that the gap between Ennio
Morricone and Justice is easily
bridged by a wall of synths.
18:30-23:30.
TYPO Berlin — Design Festival
Entitled simply “Trigger”,
this deliberately, er, triggering
edition of the yearly design
conference at HKW will
pit the industry against the
twin-pronged forces of media
deception and digital transformation.
Through May 19.
The Encounter — Theatre
Renowned British theatre director
Simon McBurney stages
himself at the Schaubühne in
a solo work that makes heavy
use of audio to tell the true
story of the odd encounter of
an American photographer
and Brazil’s Mayoruna tribe in
1969. Through May 20.
42
EXBERLINER 171