hem|mungen

Berlin loves Bourne.

Yesterday we went to see the Bourne Supremacy. I remember liking the first one well enough, though I don't remember any specifics. But we decided to go see this one in the theatre rather than waiting for rental because a large part of the movie is filmed in Berlin.
I enjoyed seeing the sweeping panoramas of Alex and Mitte (I did a lot of quick "Can we see our house from here?"), as well as the random shots of Ostbahnhof. Oh, and I especially liked the demonstration that gets in the way during an abduction on Alexanderplatz; a few hundred people with banners and attac posters; it was a fake demo but the "Bildung ist keine Ware" signs would have fit right in last fall and winter. (I felt such glee to see attac on the screen. How excellent.)
And then, we started to pick things apart. The major chase scene through Berlin (I guess this counts as a spoiler? Not really.), for example, starts at the S-bahn at Zoo, but cuts to Friedrichstrasse when they need him to make a daring jump off a bridge and onto a passing barge. I spent a few beats thinking, wait, there's no water like that at Zoo, right?
The photography of Berlin is pretty limited to making downtown Mitte look a little post-Soviet shabby, so much that when the film moves on to Moscow it's sometimes hard to tell they've switched cities.
Overall, I must say I enjoyed the feeling of a return to the Spy Movies I liked to watch as a kid. Only in this one, the Germans aren't bad, it's—oh wait, it's the Russians. Never mind. But there are bad Americans in it, too.

how things stand (bush/kerry)

At Crooked Timber, Ted has compiled info on the current state of the presidential campaigns. Neck-and-Neck? Apparently not. But who dares to hope?

War and representation

Several months ago, Adam Greenfield wrote this meditation on the photographs from Abu Ghraib. Now I see an essay by Solomon-Godeau at Artforum on something similar. It seemed like a good idea, in preparation for corroboration of this, to think again about how those pictures work and how they're used.

Mistakes we made while in Berlin

Ostblog reminds me that we never went here, except to use the WC during an especially long exploration of P'berg. How shameful.

Useless memory-bilia

The thought for the day is Boom shanka.

(clarification here.)

Protective padding for the Flick collection

DeutschlandRadio has an interesting update on the Flick Collection situation (previous entries here and here). While there won't be any mention of the family's history in the exhibition itself, they've got all sorts of other measures planned to prove that the SMPK are still Good People who take History seriously:

Zwar soll in der Ausstellung selbst die Familiengeschichte des Sammlers nicht thematisiert werden - schließlich gehe es um die Kunst, so Lehmann. Um die Ausstellung herum hat die Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz jedoch ein ganzes Paket von Maßnahmen zur Schadensbegrenzung geschnürt: Die Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung wird Gesprächskreise zur Bewältigung der NS-Vergangenheit organisieren. Und Klaus-Dieter Lehmann will ein Symposium moderieren, an dem neben Künstlern und Politikern auch die entschiedenen Gegner des Berliner Ausstellungs-Projekts teilnehmen sollen. Wer konkret dazu eingeladen wird oder bereits zugesagt hat, wollte Lehmann allerdings nicht verraten.
Darüber hinaus hat die Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz beim Münchner Institut für Zeitgeschichte ein Forschungsprojekt in Auftrag gegeben, das die Geschichte der Industriellenfamilie Flick beleuchten soll. In welcher Form dessen Ergebnisse veröffentlicht werden sollen, und ob sie in Verbindung mit der Ausstellung präsentiert werden, ist noch unklar.

For comparison, here's the Spiegel's report.

So: Berlin gets this apparently great collection of contemporary art, and, if the SMPK does this properly, the city also has an ongoing series of open discussions. Can't argue with trying to engage people, especially when you're dealing with a donor with a loaded legacy behind him. In general, really, a museum that is "living" in this way is much more use as a public institution than one which doesn't have these kinds of programs. But it's a little worrisome that they haven't worked out the details yet, especially since it's supposed to open at the end of September. Another worry is the duration of the show: will they be able to sustain this kind of public dialogue for 7 years?

Wonder what they'll do for Lange Nacht der Museen.

[keep reading for English trans. of the quote]

Summer is apparently here.

Each morning I check the forecast at the National Weather Service. Today I saw this icon, one I hadn't seen yet, for Wednesday. Compared to their other Bob Ross-y treatments of various climatic conditions, this one struck me as especially cruel and, thus, particularly apt. Texas is hot, dammit.

MoMA continues to rock out.

The MOZ reports that the MoMA in Berlin show has reached 700 000 visitors, which was the projected total for the entire run of the show. This comes months before its closing date of 19. September. This means they've more than recouped the initial cost of 8.5 million Euros; they estimated covering that with 550 000 visitors, so I guess they're in the clear. Remarkable.