Why did I take a less-than-24-hour jaunt to Berlin on Friday? In all honesty, I wasn't exactly 100% sure before I arrived. I was apparently attending the opening of Transmission1, a 3-day festival curated by Raf Simons in association with The Avantgarde Diaries and Mercedez Benz. The list of ten artists involved included Peter Saville, Germaine Kruip, These New Puritans, Jo-Ann Furniss and curiously the blogger Hapsical, who is on my RSS reader. The video above will either throw some light or confuse the hell out of you. What were The Avantgarde Diaries? Didn't have a clue. Are they being ironic with their name? What had Mercedes-Benz got to do with it all? No idea. I wasn't actually invited out to see the festival which just finished up today so I was there merely for the opening party so what exactly was I, the blogger supposed to get out of it?
I was intrigued enough to do the day trip and find out though. My quest to seek info didn't start off well. When comparing itineraries with another journalist on the plane, I didn't have the 'bloggers preview' of the exhibition during the day down on my itinerary so I ended up inviting myself along just because….err… I am a blogger and was curious about what all concerned parties had come up with.
The venue was the impressive Berlin Congress Centre on Alexanderplatz - a Bauhaus behemoth of a space that seemed so very characteristic of East Berlin. On the darkened ground floor, the smoke rose to the reveal the main attraction created by Germaine Kruip and Thierry Dreyfuss - a weirdly apt metaphor that sums up Transmission1. Clouded by an impressive projection of smoke that wafted through air was the Mercedes Benz new A-class car model proudly lit up in the middle of this "installation". The subtlety level began to make me droop a little.
It then sadly progressed into my discovering of Peter Saville's contribution - his old 1998 Mercedes SL 500 with Joy Division and New Order blaring out of it. He, a design and cultural legend. Not sure whether I would call this an "installation"...
I cringed my way through a presentation given to us where they called us bloggers, 'pioneers' and then proceeded into a slideshow timeline of Mercedes-Benz history to show us how avant-garde they were and are as a company. I don't doubt Mercedes' achievements but the point became rather laboured when they played us an excerpt of Janis Joplin (I did learn that actually Mercedes is the most oft-used car brand in pop songs). If anything, I never expected that a brand like Mercedes-Benz NEEDED to impress upon us, how cool they were, with a slideshow. Meanwhile, I wondered what the other mostly German bloggers were making of all of this as they snapped away throughout the presentation.
Upstairs in the installation, the artist Peter de Potter, a close collaborator of Simons, redeemed the exhibition somewhat with his contribution of blown up photos from his archive printed across the windows. This I loved. It was a marvel of savage and random imagery that smacked very much of Simons' reference points and universe.
I of course had vested interest to see how Simons had collaborated with the two bloggers that were named in his artist/creative collaborator list. The first was one I did know, Hapsical,Nike Air Max 95 Womens, a menswear blog written by Peter Henderson, who also works at Mr Porter. The second was one I didn't, Dandy Gum written by Begüm Sekendiz Boré who loves all things Raf/Jil Sander and makes parallels between fashion and contemporary art through a beautifully presented blog. They were given plush live-blogging suites in the hilariously labelled "Bloggerworld" at the venue, interiors that I can only dream of as I sit in my little Holloway hovel, and encouraged to blog throughout the festival (but not necessarily ABOUT the festival - that was an abstract instruction from Simons himself). The answer to "Do designers read blogs?" is partially answered here. Raf Simons says "In a way it's (fashion blogging) very far away from my own world but I really appreciate what it's about for this generation."
I found out that The Avantgarde Diaries is in fact Mercedes-Benz' funded editorial website in line with brands creating their own editorial content. It consists of fairly absorbing videos asking people what they consider to be "avant-garde". With minimal brand presence, this is a certainly a convincing editorial that plays a role in shedding light on the participants of Transmission1 and definitely a positive result of the project.
If you're in the UK, you're probably looking at the right hand side of my blog going "Hold up… this girl is insane… Mercedes-Benz ADVERTISES with her and she's raising her eyebrows at an MB-sponsored event?" On the contrary, I actually find Mercedes-Benz and their involvement with fashion a wholly positive thing - their sponsorship of Stockholm, Berlin and in part, New York Fashion Week has uplifted the events on a professional level and I look forward to similar experiences in Tokyo and Sydney as Mercedes has been announced as their new primary sponsors. I don't deny there's an ambivalence here. I praise the intention, selection and premise of the festival - the idea of curating a world outside of Raf Simons' own fashion one is a brilliant and apt one and perhaps half achieved on this occasion. It's just that at times I was somewhat confused by the guise of 'curation' and 'artistic' creation when branding and product was so clearly communicated alongside. If the ad spot on the right does end up getting cancelled, then I'll be a little saddened to find that these so-called "avant-gardists" of the car world were too short sighted to see the up side to my comments. We'll wait and see.
Like I said though, I have NOT experienced the festival as a whole and perhaps would have taken away a more fulfilling experience of Transmission1, an event billed with such pomp in Berlin. Afterall there were performances from Fischerspooner, a talk between Jo-Ann Furniss and Tim Blanks on pop culture (which I would have LOVED to have seen), a dance performance by Michael Clarke and film screenings, all of which makes me well aware that this review is not the full picture. I'd like to invite those that did experience the full programme to pass comment here.
Music gets the last word and I did hugely enjoy These New Puritans' set that ended my short jaunt even if I have seen them a number of times. I even enjoyed the brand-tied engine rev noises at the beginning of the set which which created atmosphere, rather than sending a Mercedes shiver down my spine.
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