Jarrar is participating in this year’s 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (on view until July 1, 2012, free entrance) with a further aspect of the project that uses another official sign: postage stamps. In utilizing the Deutsche Post AG service called “individual stamp”, the artist produced stamps for the State of Palestine to be used in the regular mail. More than 20,000 stamps have been sold so far. Used on letters and postcards, they have circulated worldwide. Central element of the design is the Palestine Sunbird. It embodies the wish to create an open, independent country guaranteeing freedom to everyone to carry one’s life in one’s hand.

Jarrar’s passport and postage stamps tell the story of a state-to-be. But reality goes against him and other Palestinians. Instead of continuing again and again the discussion about a one- or two-state solution, using these stamps is a simple gesture that helps to create normality.

Read an interview with the artist by David Miller here.

You can buy the stamps at the counter of the 7th Berlin Biennale. To order stamps please contact fz@berlinbiennale.de. Against a small surcharge, the standard stamps of 0,55 Euro were produced with the “individual stamp” service of Deutsche Post AG and are valid for regular mailing. One sheet of 20 stamps costs 16 Euro (plus additional shipping fee for mail order of 1,45 Euro). Stamps are sold by sheet only.

In Hanna Liden’s Ghost Town, a wonderful new series of  photographs now on view at Maccarone, everything is covered with some kind of downtown detritus. Faces are masked in Have A Nice Day plastic bags, bodies clothed Canal Street Fuck You t-shirts, flowers painted Terrence Koh Black, classical busts etched with graffiti. Even the images of umbrellas and leather jackets, the most austere and abstracts works on view, bulge with hidden goods. There is always beauty to found in your surroundings, even in the knocked-off, rat-trodden world below Houston.

Hanna Liden: Ghost Town
May 2nd – June 16th, 2012
Maccarone
630 Greenwich Street
New York

Photography by Hanna Liden

It’s only when you go to other countries that you realize that this is not necessarily the case everywhere, so let’s raise our glasses for a moment to the old art book dealer of your neighbourhood, the ones you start missing only when they have disappeared. Sautter + Lackmann is a point in case, which has been holding up the torch for 42 years now in Hamburg, and gloriously so. It’s the place to go for digging into your monographs on Baselitz and Warhol, but for a long time, it was also the only store in Hamburg that was selling mono.kultur, pretty much from the very beginning – so much for stuffiness. And it’s always nice to know that there are some things you can still count on.

Sautter + Lackmann
Admiralitätstrasse 71/72
20459 Hamburg

Yes, you can bring your friends.

This month’s Yes but No Koi Klub event will take place at Krach Studio. Besides live performances there will be an exhibition; delicious Japanese food by Okawari will be served between all these satisfactory events going on. Fest for the five senses!

Friday 11.05.2012
Starts at 20:00
Location : KRACH STUDIO / LOBECKSTRASSE 30-35 10969 BERLIN

Live Performances
Inao , Fujimoto , Nishimoto

Oilworks showcase
Sound : OLIVE OIL , Himuro Yoshiteru, Visual : POPY OIL

Dj’s
AKIRA, Masako Tsujii

Photo Exhibition
“Somewhere Nowhere Anywhere” by Michael Kuchinke-Hofer

Koi Models Installation by Zen Yoshimoto

The Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (JRMiP) calls for the return of 3,300,000 Jews to Poland in order to re-establish the annihilated Jewish community. The movement was initiated by Israeli-born artist Yael Bartana in 2007 and has since spread internationally. It aims to create an atmosphere for a Jewish appearance in Europe. The Jews of today are not the same people who were expelled from Europe—the Europeans of today are not the ones responsible for the ethnic cleansing. This may be the appropriate time to unite again—and change Europe and Israel for the better.

The JRMiP is a response to these times of crisis, when faith has been exhausted and old utopias have failed. The aim of the First Congress of the JRMiP is to ultimately formulate the concrete platform of the movement and collectively imagine the future. The three-day long gathering departs from a letter of the late leader of the movement, Sławomir Sierakowski, found after his assassination, and considers the following questions:

- What should be changed in the EU to welcome the Other?
- What should be changed in Poland to become part of the revived EU?
- What should be changed in Israel to become part of the Middle East?

For the first time since its foundation, JRMiP members assemble, joined by international speakers, to reflect upon particular demands. The movement needs all of you who sympathize with the issues of different Diasporas in general.

Watch the official promo video here.

First International Congress of the Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (JRMiP) in Berlin
May 11 – 13, 2012
Daily from 3 – 10.30 pm
Hebbel am Ufer – HAU 1 , Stresemannstrasse 29, 10963 Berlin
In the frame of the 7th Berlin Biennale
More Information on the Congress / Program / Tickets

It’s Sunday, it’s grey and it’s cold – so what better excuse to head straight back for bed and indulge in some virtual horizon-expansion by watching this excellent feature on our current cover star Michaël Borremans? It’s great stuff, and yes, we do wish we had a studio like that (as much as we love ours…).

With Jumpy Potato, one can find various genres of mix tapes with designed covers, including videos and gifs. These mixtapes are made by not only musicians but also designers. Without any commercial concerns, two designers with a strong influence by music are generating the site. What concerns them mostly is to have a playground with a good taste of music from all around the world. Find a mix tape dedicated to a cult name in Turkish music scene from 80s, also known for his surreal videos, here.

Henrik Vibskov, the omnipresent ‘Mehrfachkünstler’ is already at a stage to present his first retrospective in the form of a book. The ingenius designer expanded the notion of fashion, while working towards an artistic ideal of freedom.

The unmissable compilation Henrik Vibskov is published by Gestalten Verlag.