A highlight of my European tour, Michael Steger’s Open Space is a refreshing oasis for the unwanted artist. Open Space was host to the continuation of Al Paldrok’s Diverse Universe as the first “International Printer and Performance Festival” and took place on Berlin’s infamous May 1st. Thousands of performers, protesters, party-goers and arts patrons descended on Berlin’s Kreuzberg, making for an insane spectacle that I cannot believe I survived!

You can view a selection of photographer and resident webmaster Luz Scherwinski’s photographs of the festival on the Open Space website here: http://www.openspace32.de/galerie.php or on my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/edoheart/

Luz means light in Spanish, I believe, so it is no surprise that Luz Scherwinski busies himself capturing light. I will always remember that Mr. Scherwinski helped me set up sound and visuals for my performance at K-Salon when I had nobody to help me because I came alone to the festival.

In addition to Luz’s help, I was lucky to hang out with Michael Steger, founder of Open Space, VolksLuxus and multi-genre artist extraordinaire. Mr. Steger has a long history of theater arts and performance, extending as far back as his work with New York’s “The Living Theater” and his long partnerships with Al Paldrok’s “Nongrata”. Micha made me feel at home!

Here he is in his lovely backyard garden.

hello there, handsome

This delicious morning, I had coffee with Micha while a lovely boy and girl played around their families. The VolksLuxus backyard is a communal area for the other artists and families on Naunyn Strasse.

speed racer

Later in the day, we went to a play at the Jüdisches Theater, “Adam und Eve” in which Michael’s friend, Phillip is a snake terrorizing Eve. It was pretty hilarious.

hey sssssexy!

I spent the rest of my time in my friend Daniel Kahn’s neighborhood, a peaceful, tree-lined block.

hark how the bells

Daniel has a flock of birds always at his window. Can you see the bird in this picture?

tweet if you see me

Ah, beautiful Berlin. For now, Tschüssie!