the blue curtain #2
Istanbul to Rheinsberg
Hello everyone!
How have you been? A few weeks have passed and there are some new finds. Also a big change happened: I started a writers residency in Germany and am spending spring in a palace. I know. Sounds completely crazy but wait …
Tales of Rheinsberg
On March 1st I became the 59th town clerk of Rheinsberg, a small town two hours away from Berlin, surrounded by sparkling lakes. Twice a year the Kurt Tucholsky Literature Museum invites a writer to stay in the Rheinsberg Palace. It is a dreamlike concept: You get an apartment with turquoise walls, a red bicycle and an allowance to work on a project. In my case: A novel.
What I discovered so far:
Nights here are pitch black, raven black, blackest of black. You see nothing. It’s like the darkness piece at documenta 13.
The most beautiful trail along the shore of the lake (Grienericksee) is called “Poet’s Way” and if you are lucky you don’t meet anyone for hours.
The light at 4:30 in the afternoon is as golden as on the Bosphorus.
There is - no joke - a doll clinic in the center of Rheinsberg. Since 1998 a woman named Birgit Führenberg has been repairing and restoring dolls, teddy bears and other toys.
Virginia Woolf was right: A woman does need a room of her own if she is to write.
One should read Kurt Tucholsky (again), whose legacy is kept in the palace. Tucholsky was one of the most important journalists of the Weimar Republic and an incredibly courageous voice of his generation. Fun fact: His first literary work takes place here. Rheinsberg: A Picture Book for Lovers was written in 1912 and its plot revolves around Claire and Wolfgang and their weekend trip as a young, unmarried couple from Berlin. An act that was unheard of at the time, quite scandalous but also really funny.
The basis for the story was Tucholsky's own life: in 1911 he traveled to Rheinsberg with his lover Else Weil, an extraordinary Jewish-German woman and doctor. Claire, the main character of the story, was modeled after her. Claire/Else embodied a new image of womanhood: self-confident, independent, determined. Readers were thrilled. The book immediately became a bestseller and remains a delight to this day.
The Perfect Spoon
I love soft boiled eggs. In my childhood we only ate eggs once a week. Eggs were a special treat, reserved for long breakfasts on Sunday mornings. Naturally I became obsessed.
The other day, during a stay in Berlin, I came across a little store for kitchen utensils (to be precise: it was Küchenladen on Knesebeckstrasse in Charlottenburg) and found the perfect egg spoon. The surface is extremely smooth, the size is perfect and they have various colors. To whom it may concern: If you are in that neighborhood, go and get yourself at least a pair.
The Ambassador
Current world events got me thinking about the role of embassies and diplomats. And I remembered a piece by one of my favorite performance artists. Ata Doğruel is based in Istanbul and has been doing long durational performances for almost a decade. One of his early works is called “Ambassador”. In 2017, he placed himself among the portraits of ambassadors from the 17th to 19th century in the famous Pera Museum, trying to highlight the duality of the lives of these ambassadors in the Ottoman Empire. Two cultures. Two faces. But only one body.
What I admire about this work is the attempt to put yourself in the so-called “shoes” of another person, to change your perspective and not only face the ambivalences, but also endure them.
There is also a short video about the piece online and I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
See you around!
Yours Carolin
🤍
💙