Look up here, I’m in heaven/ I’ve got scars, that can’t be seen
Lazarus from Blackstar (2016)

David Bowie’s last album crowned his work as an unpathetical pure piece of art and poetry. Hunted by death the singer, actor, performer, writer  produced seven tracks for his latest album Blackstar. They are full of cryptic lyrics hinting at the terminal nature of his condition.  Bowie used the haunting lyrics of his swansong album as a parting gift to say goodbye  following a secret 18-month battle with cancer.

What does it mean to be a migrant? Coming from somewhere lost that is present only in the memories of the elder ones and in family albums.  Ramize Erer is a well known Turkish Cartoonist living in Paris and Istanbul. With the Solo show “Remembered” she is returning to painting, remembering her roots personally and technically.

In the dark times

Will there also be singing?

Yes there will also be singing

About the dark times

(Bertolt Brecht, 1942)

During Israeli soldiers have shot and killed two Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, less than 24 hours after six people were shot dead while protesting along the border with Israel we spend 6 days in Amman, Jordan, for a conference about Culture and Humanitarian Relief organized by the Goethe-Institut Amman.

Russian Dancer at Sultanahmet, 2015

About a month ago, Berlin based photographer Angela Fensch who is known for her portrait photography arrived in Istanbul with the Brandeburg BVBK Art Scholarship.

Angela started out as a photo model in the former GDR. But it didn’t take long, until she grabbed a camera herself.

As a West German you rarely enter the very Eastern parts of Berlin. Hohenschönhausen is known as one of the centers of power of the Former Communist Regime. The Stasi had it’s headquarters and a notorious prison there. Political prisoners would be tortured psysically and psychologically in there. A park hosts the former center for GDR’s sport athletes. For getting medals at the Olympics sportspeople would be abused with doping to demonstrate the superiority of the Communist system. Many of them suffered serious health problems later on.