ART PUB WALLYWOODS
Berlin, 2006 - 2007 / See also Wallywoods overview

The blurb announced "Gallery Wallywoods is dead!" referring to Wallywoods Kreuzberg which I gave up to start this with my friend Thomas Heger. In the heart of town this time, he would run the pub, I would do the art and music. Crazy times were in store for the two of us, our Wallywoods friends and the new locality. The most intense year of my life, and not all of it good. Ostensibly a left-wing creatively thriving area, we had visits too from occasional nazis and dubious characters of all shades. Fights, drunks, love affairs, lashings of brilliant performances and a reputation to out live many of us. Amateurs running a pub. I moved on eventually, in great relief, to start Wallywoods Weissensee while the pub rolled on for a time with Thomas at the helm, before sadly sinking. Below are pictures from opening night, and below those, various events. And here are more blurbs:

"Rich in creative atmosphere & energy, Berlin's new, colourful & unique pub-lounge-gallery with widely varying exhibition openings every second Saturday; cult-cocktails, food, DJs, VIP appearances, regular events and music stage. Internationally mixed as well as multi-purpose performing & meeting venue for artists & culture fans of all types, of all interests, of all ages; as friendly to students, locals & out of town visitors as to the touring performers who drop in to entertain us from all over the globe at no cost on the door to the often astonished customer."

"If a curious blend is your cup of tea, the Art Pub is your venue. The unpredictable is always scheduled for the nightly program. An Indian/Irish singer/songwriter, perhaps, or a literary reading, in German, English or Swahili. A musical performance involving three banjos and a Jew's harp or a DJ cooperative of fornicating electronica, the entertainment is sure to question the definition. Art Pub co-founder, Thomas Heger, has made it his personal mission to question what is art, and further more, what is a bar. A meeting place for people with similar interests? Or disparate concerns. From its inception till mid 2007 the Art Pub was home to Gallery Wallywoods, among other things. Artist Paul Woods, founder of the infamous Kreuzberg Brit punk art gallery, now at Weissensee, has presented an array of the gifted and the absurd, pushing the boundaries of what is art and what is absurd. Frau Puschel, of club brat fame, holds court regularly. Russian emigres perform to a packed house. The San Francisco band The Ugly Americans have been asked to leave. But DDR leftovers keep the flame. Young wessies and old ossies share the same 'Stammtisch'. The secret ingredient seems to be the mix. There are no rules in art or bars. The Art Pub is an open space for ideas & expression. Only catch is, you may walk out more intoxicated than when you arrived."

Thanks to the photographers
Thomas Heger, Nathan Wright, Peter Woelck, Johanna Martin & MM (among others)


Wallywoods Posters & Fliers 2004 - 2010
Wallywoods overview
Curated Spaces