The Colors of Berlin was Stadtblind’s first publication with Prestel Publishing, released in 2005. The book grew out of the group’s work at the Galerie Stadtblind from 2004-2005, and has been exhibited at Van Alen Institute in New York, Deutsches Architektur Zentrum (DAZ) in Berlin, architekturgalerie am weißenho in Stuttgart , Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver.
From the introduction:
Too often Berlin is seen blindly.
The cultural production which presents Berlin to the world and that determines the city’s perception of itself, has been primarily fixated upon either the gleaming future imagined in a few blockbuster building projects (e. g. Potsdamer Platz) or the voids and scars left by the city’s turbulent past (e. g. the Berlin Wall and WWI I ). Berlin is often blind to its humanity. Lost is the personal, the common, the peripheral-the diversity of the city’s present. The Colors of Berlin makes the places visible that disappear from the city’s perception. These are the “blind spots” on the mental maps of Berlin.
Traverse the city with the color-fan and discover the colorful everyday life of Berlin. Open up the diversity before you and have a view of five levels of the city: image, colors, theme, map and text. The pictures show everyday images from all corners of Berlin-from Mitte to Hellersdorf. The two color blocks give the work its emotional element. The color tones are drawn directly from the picture and allow one to see these everyday situations with new eyes and feelings. The colors provide continuity and connectivity for this collection of urban fragments. The themes represent some of the most basic elements and loveable particularities of Berlin urban life: ground, urban furnishings and brazenness.
On the back pages, the oft-overlooked details are located in urban space. In this way, the inconspicuous parts of the Berlin map become legible and accessible. You will not find the motifs in the pictures exactly as they are represented in the photographs, but the location will inspire you to discover other particularities and to document them yourself. The small outline of Berlin shows the district and orientates you in your exploration of the city. The texts are quotations from a diverserange of urban descriptions: from the Berliner Morgenpost daily newspaper, Siegfried Kracauer to Dalai Lama. The texts are another form of urban representation and they deepen perception.
The Colors of Berlin is for tourists and Berliners. The book is a unique tool for urban exploration, serving both as inspiration for a personal vision and documentation of the city. It is a declaration of love to Berlin. It helps the flaneur and the city-lover see and experience the urban landscape in a new way. Stadtblind’s aim is to create a distance from that which is familiar, to re-frame the familiar in such a way that it becomes fresh, worthy of attention and affection. We present the everyday spaces, objects and surfaces of contemporary Berlin ina manner that provides a new means of perceiving cities. It is precisely the everyday aspects of our lives that are most often overlooked; and it is precisely the everyday that most constitutes our lived experience of cities.
STADTBLIND, Berlin, 2005.
