Day 21 – September 21 2024 – Berlin: Neue Nationalgalerie, Tempelhofer Feld [Festival der Riesendrachen] & Kreuzberg [dinner with friends]
Gerhard Richter: 100 Works for Berlin,
from the collection,
…
American twins, whose laughter could be heard throughout, who said,
We’re just making fun of modern art.
And, gesturing at trees in the courtyard,
Nature … does it so much better than humans.
…
Hans Peter Alvermann (1931-2006), Deutsches Notstandschwein [German State of Emergency Pig], 1966,
a place recalling of Zone of Interest,
a snapshot of the puffline for the Warhol exhibition,
…
waiting with the Next bikes for provisions for Tempelhof,
kites, said J, like spermatozoa,
about the dinner with friends, no snaps, so this, called by J a postcard, of the event:
from Berlin
And she said,
I also had a cold last week
although I am much better now
my left ear is still blocked
When I speak
I hear my voice inside my head
I imagined the apartment we stayed
at when we were in Berlin the
time Dora's head was a bobble
in a too-big helmet
on the back of Lisa's bike
and Quack got nits (not there!
I added in mock horror)
while hearing about the painting
in the new apartment and bickering
over who was responsible for the
painters painting with acrylic paint
over oil. Something, Lisa said,
impractical as I am, even I
know about. And the paint
she made a spidery
gesture (was creeping)
I imagined the
distressed walls of where they lived
the time we rode down Karl Marx
Allee. We might go there today.
Wassili paid the bill. I'm Greek! he said
more Greek than ever, with his
philosophical demeanour and his
beautifully coiffured beard. We
never thought he'd amount to
anything, said Lisa. Now
he heads production for
Netflix for the German-
speaking world And she
spoke of herself,
wondering how when
all her peers from dance
school no longer danced she
had managed to I must be spoilt
she said. She wondered what by the
choices she and Wassili had made
would be left for the childen Love,
said Wassili. We too wonder on these
things. And reflecting on it later
asked ourselves who outside the circle of
her friends and colleagues, who could
afford to now she still a dancer at 60
was no threat, who outside of us, might
give to her the recognition that she,
a New Zealand dancer, was due? As
always in these discussions and
we should know better there is
no answer!
The curfew on the noise-making outdoor tables
had come down. The staff politely asked us to
leave and leaving La La (I'd recommend
the octopus), kissing each other
good-bye, I said
Keep on doing what you are doing
