Weißensee, a Foray Into West Berlin, and Dali

After an extended break due to COVID-related life adventures, if you will, I have come back to post my second set of photos from Berlin (and I know whomever is reading this is not keeping track—these photos were all taken on a visit in 2018). During this two day span we wandered a little farther; We were constantly travelling through Mitte (Berlin's central neighborhood), which always seemed the best way to get from two different parts of the city (even when the neighborhoods themselves were closer), back to Potsdamer Platz, the continuing series from Alexanderplatz (this post overlaps the last), and a very interesting visit to Kreuzberg in West Berlin.

The most notable series of this post is a visit we made to a gallery that had a Salvador Dali exhibit off of Leipziger Platz (where one of those famous sections of the Wall, painted by Thierry Noir, is located) which is adjacent to Potsdamer Platz. I gather that the gallery, named Dali – The Exhibition on Potsdamer Plaz Museum, exists just for the exhibit. The exhibit itself, however, is a substantial gathering of Dali's art, all from private collections. And I must say, I think what I saw there is among my favotite of his work (not a melting clock among them—and also, it must be said, regardless of my aversion to his support of Fascism). There was even a series that was labeled as part of a set on Alice in Wonderland, but a couple of months ago I found out many of the works are actually defaced prints of a 16th century artist, which at the time were attributed to Rabelais, the author of Gargantua and Pantagruel though later falsified ( and I would recommend looking through those 16th century prints, they are incredibly bizarre, and a fine pairing with Gargantua and Pantagruel too).

There are also a few more photos of the neighborhood we stayed in, Weißensee. The area gets its name from the smaller-than-Greenlake-sized lake (as us Seattleites will know) that was just a few blocks away, Weißer See (White Lake). It was a bit more removed from Mitte than I would have hoped, but very quiet and peaceful. And really, it was peaceful to such an extent that arriving on our street after the long journey from central Berlin felt a lot like finally arriving home. It really carried the sensation of refuge to be there; when you know you are safe. Being more or less a suburb of the grittier and bustling Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood, the journey to get there was like a separation from the urban (even though it was still very urban and dense there).

In summary, it felt so much like home there that, to be honest, I wouldn't have thought twice about staying there for the rest of my life

oroboros on 5/16/2020 9:16:18 PM