Have no regrets if you had chosen Berlin over seaside beaches; you just did the right thing! This fun loving city is all about celebration this week: whether you are an art or party enthusiast (or most likely, both), you will have plenty of excuses to take some days off, only to be able to "keep on dancing". 

THURSDAY 07.08

19.00 MyPaper Sunglasses Berlin @ SomoS

WHY: After conquering South America, the "MyPaper Sunglasses" project  challenges the Berlin-based artists to express their artistic perspective on cutout paper sunglasses, giving a glimpse into their unique artistic identities. Take a look how they coped with the task to add more confusion into the blurred boundaries between art, portraiture, and fashion.

Somos / Kottbusser Damm 95, 10967 Berlin, U Schönleinstr. / open through 23.08 / free entry / more info

19.00 10 @ Halle Am Berghain

WHY: Since the opening in 2004, Berghain has been Berlin's (Europe's? World's?) central techno cathedral, which kept making people follow the strict rules and admire its deities religiously ever since. This year the triumvirate of music, arts, and clubbing celebrates its tenth birthday, honoring all three forces that made it so impotant and influential. The exhibition "10" places a special emphasis on the visual artists closely connected to the club since its launch, and dedicates the prelude to the club birthday with an homage to them.

Halle am Berghain / Rüdersdorfer Strasse 70, 10243 Berlin, S Ostbahnhof / open through 31.08 / more info

FRIDAY 08.08

18:00 Kunst Aktion @ WerkStadt

WHY: WerkStadt celebrates their birthday and happily invites everyone to join. For this occasion, artworks by international contemporary artists will go up for auction, the majority having been produced in the WerkStadt artist studios. The auctioned pieces cover a wide spectrum of media - sculpture, painting, as well as a variety of print techniques. The evening will start with a dance performance, and end with a series of short sketches; meaning: show up early, stay late, and go home with an art piece. Werkstadt will keep you going with a buffet of small appetizers and a bar full of drinks.

WerkStadt / Emser Str. 124, 12051 Berlin, S+U Neukölln / free entry / more info

20.00 Kottie Paloma - Say to the Flower @ Das Gift

WHY: Das Gift presents new abstract paintings by Kottie Paloma. The new works in the show "Say to the Flower" defines a new mark in his studio practice, where gesture and emotion replaces form and text, and show how meditation mixed with emotion layers the canvases with muted pinks, stark blacks, and glitter splattered, rubbed and gesturally painted.

Das Gift / Donaustrasse 119, 12043 Berlin, U Rathaus Neukölln / open through 10.08 / free entry / more info

20.00 Nicola Napoli - Party Hard @ The CLUB

WHY: "Party Hard" shows  today’s youth culture with special regard to the clubbing world of Berlin. All the kinds of characters who fill the artworks - from young expat hipsters to old generation ravers, from Disney’s princesses to mythological creatures - move together into the night looking for the same need of feeling alive once again. The show coincides with Berghain's birthday exhibition, and turns this week into a celebration of Berlin's common rule: "never stop dancing".

The CLUB / Biebricher Str. 14, 12053 Berlin, U Boddinstrasse/ open through 04.09 / free entry / more info

SATURDAY 09.08

16.00 Daniela Gugg - Ewig in Werden, nie vollendet @ LAGE EGAL

WHY: It is easy to get the impression that the only music exsisting in Berlin is techno. We stronly recommend to ocassionally expand that view with something totally unexpected - such as this classical music event. "Ewig in Werden, nie vollendet" is a new interpretation of the last unfinished concerto by the composer Béla Bartòk. Artist Daniela Gugg, whose research focuses on the emptiness and unfinished, will play the concerto at 16h and at 20h in its fragmented form, with blank segments in the draft score.

LAGE EGAL / Danzigerstr. 145, 10407 Berlin, M4/M10 / free entry / more info

SAVVY Contemporary celebrates one year at Richardstrasse 20

WHY: After one year in the "Cathedral of Electricity", built by the renowned architect Hans Heinrich Müller in the 1920s, SAVVY Contemporary throws a party to celebrate their new residence, and the new success of the building, which was resurrected by their engagements in the arts and critical discourses. For this occasion, they invited the legendary Ghanaian highlife musician Ebo Taylor to perform. Be ready to pull off some smooth dance moves!

SAVVY Contemporary / Richardstrasse 20, 12043 Berlin, U Karl-Marx-Str. / Suggested donation: €10-15 / more info

SUNDAY 10.08

12.00 Marike Schuurman - OZEAN SPIELT @ OZEAN

WHY: OZEAN - one of our favorite project spaces, recently awarded and now included in the program of the Project Space Festival Berlin - is in fact a garage with a semi-public character. Marike Schuurman plays with its intricate identity, inspired by the film "The Legend of 1900", in a perfomance titled "OZEAN SPIELT". The story is  about a baby boy, discovered on an ocean liner, who grows into a musical prodigy, never setting foot on land.

OZEAN / Schleiermacherstrasse 31, 10961 Berlin, U Gneisenaustr. / open through 31.08 / free entry / more info