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The Needle: Berlin

The Needle: Berlin

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Berlin Arts

Photo by Alex Yoku (2014) Used with Permission from the FIND Festival, Schaubühne, Berlin
Berlin Arts 

Why Theatre, and its ‘Idiots’, Still Matter in Today’s Russia

20/03/201423/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

In Moscow, the Gogol Centre has produced a loose adaptation of Lars von Trier’s 1998 film Idioterne (The Idiots, or

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Berlin Arts 

240 Hours of MEAT

13/03/201423/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

  The installation MEAT, upcoming from 3-13 April 2014 at the F.I.N.D. festival, an international theatre week in the German

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Berlin Arts 

Stattbad Wedding: Novelty and Nostalgia

28/09/201323/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

When I come to Stattbad Wedding, I feel like I’m diving into both the nostalgia for what Berlin was, and

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Berlin Arts 

Berlinale Wrap-Up 2013: Forum Films

28/02/201323/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

On Cuvrystr. in Kreuzberg there is a famous street art mural of a man chained to his own wealth, a

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Berlin Arts 

Berlinale Wrap-Up 2013: Competition Films

23/02/201323/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

The Needle is back after my winter break, and in time to catch the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, or

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Berlin Arts 

‘This Ain’t California’: The Undeclared Mockumentary

01/10/201223/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

Every once and a while a film comes around that does the truth a real disservice. This is one of

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Berlin Arts 

Gerhard Richter Unaccompanied: The Retrospective at the Neue

07/03/201223/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

Gerhard Richter was flying to New York on September 11th 2001. His exhibition 40 Years of Painting was opening at MOMA

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Berlin Arts 

How to Survive the Berlinale (the Berlin Film Festival)

14/02/201223/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

Potsdamer Platz is suddenly teeming with people. There isn’t the density of midtown Manhattan but, restrict your peripheral vision, you

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Berlin Arts 

Ex-Pat Disorientation: Kawaguchi’s Andropolaroid at Dock 11

16/11/201023/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

Being an expat can be profoundly frustrating and disorienting. It is like having no points of reference, it’s the struggle

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Berlin Arts 

The Berggruen Museum

07/11/201023/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

On the top floor there is a flat where the old man himself lived. Not a bad solution for old

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Berlin Arts 

A New Museum

20/04/201023/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

Germany’s bold confrontation with its past, its sometimes self-flagellating intent to imprint guilt and scars onto its official history, marks

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About the Author

Joseph Pearson is a writer based in Berlin. Born in Canada, he was educated at Cambridge University, UK, where he received his doctorate in history in 2001. His non-fiction portrait of Berlin was published in 2017. He is also the essayist and blogger of the Schaubühne Theatre, one of Berlin’s best known state-funded institutions. Since 2008, he has written The Needle, which has become one of Berlin’s most popular blogs. His writing has appeared widely in the press, literary and academic journals, and has been translated into German, Italian, French, Arabic, and other languages. For professional inquiries please contact:  joseph [AT] cantab.net.

What is The Needle?

The changing meanings of The Needle are the inspiration for these pages. Above Alexanderplatz is Berlin's television tower. The Needle surveilled the city during East German times like a threatening eye; then its meaning changed after the Berlin Wall fell. Berliners now think of the tower as a giant disco ball flirting with the city lights––a symbol of sex, electronic music and youth culture. This weekly documents the Berlin Renaissance today, mindful of a dramatic and terrifying history. Berlin is Europe's most exciting city, and The Needle is here to share.

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