Blake & Vargas is side project of our Studio - a showroom for contemporary art with a diverse program of exhibitions & performance, that reflects the complexity of Berlin’s art scene. The next exhibition season starts again in January 2020. Also check out the website for our latest editions.

What looks like a plant nursery from the outside, is both, a plant nursery housing two rescued Amazonian parrots and a hidden cafe serving up some of the loveliest cakes and cuppas in all of Berlin. Brace yourself fir occasional screeching parrots flying around though that only adds to the charm of Blumen cafe.

Art bookstore for the more off-the-grid publications.

A green oasis wedged between the continuous blocks of apartments, this Cemetery provides a place to be alone or take sleeping kids. I love how from the front it looks slightly macabre and a rigid with it's iron gate. But if you dare to enter its a fantastic place to escape and think. There's a battle going on locally about adding a building inside the ground to help fund the archive and maintenance of the site. The Chair Anke Reuther feels the park is being disrespected with children playing on the headstones and people using it as a place for picnics. Whilst i don't know the in's and out's I love seeing this beautiful 'life cycle' playing out under the trees (which have probably seen it all before). I love that people use a cemetery for living and in our ever crowded cities a green space is being claimed by the community. I do feel there is a hushed respect that i don't see in other parks which gives the place a reflective mood. Personally another building would ruin the magic of the place. Perhaps some more input from the people who use it could be the key? Or even a re-examination of the inscription above the gate: Make life good and beautiful here, no other world is, no resurrection.

The typical Berlin winter is biting cold and grey. In combination with the hardness of the city and the angry natives, it feels like a hostile area. Why it's worth experiencing it? Because that's the way this city is.