Berlin is a cultural phenomenon borne out of a history of disparity, defying the odds and becoming an alternative landing spot for all things creative and community lead in modern times. Nowhere in Europe can you expect to find a more expressive city that will not only accommodate but draw you into the delicate enigma it has become. Don’t let the hardened, industrial look to the place mislead you, for a warmth runs throughout its streets.
UNCLE chose Berlin for the next stop in our Pin Drop series after our collaboration with Refuge Worldwide, which reaffirmed the distinctive way the city operates when it comes to creating spaces for individuals to come together especially in the name of creativity. Below we have chosen three institutions that help paint a picture of what you can expect from the city, all of which hold true to qualities that are emblematic of Berlin itself.
AMAMA
Please let their abstract, funky visuals fool you, Amama is everything you think it might be and more. Dubbed the world’s first ‘mood shop’, they specialise in the sale and distribution of legal substances with an emphasis on wellbeing and safe practice. With an educational edge the brand and store go above and beyond to ensure that their offering is not taken lightly.
Fueled by Berlin’s laxed and progressive rules surrounding drugs has allowed the safe exploration of how natural remedies can work with your body to bring out the best in you. Think herbal remedies meet mindfulness in a shop where you can lose and find yourself at the same time. Their ethos is about unlocking potential whilst remaining grounded, a perfect fit for the cities streets.
CITTI PUNKT
Citti Punkt is a collective-owned gallery space that although fairly early on in its journey has already made a name for itself amongst a community of creatives in the city. Giving equal opportunities to locals, students and more established artists, the space doesn’t discriminate, making it one to watch for the future.
Due to its accessible nature, it has become host to many events and exhibits that take advantage of the different setups possible within space to allow for an endless number of mediums to be explored and displayed in the gallery. With a very simple and clean interior design, they let the art do the talking whilst remaining striking for passersby that can’t help but stop and take a look inside.
REFUGIO CAFÉ
This is more than just what looks like a café from the outside, Refugio is a place of solace for all those that come through its doors. Made up of six floors, the building is an amalgamation of living, working and sharing, with the purpose of a considerate and mindful coexistence. Borne from founders Sven Lager and Elke Naters who set up the space after moving from South Africa using the same principles as the place they came from.
When you walk through their doors you can expect a safe, community-leading space to indulge in homemade food, co-work or just a chat with staff who always have an interesting story or two to tell. Throughout the six-level building you’ll find event spaces, workshops, studios and living quarters that come together in harmonious synchronicity. The name says it all with this one, a place where one and all can come and find refuge together, putting community above all else is a powerful message that Refuge exudes.
Radio has been with us for over a hundred years. Although you’ve probably not touched a dial or extended an aerial in a year or ten, the format is still evolving and organisations like Refuge Worldwide are sending clear signals about how radio is not only still relevant, but vital.
This dynamic online radio station from Berlin is the brainchild of co-founders George Patrick and Richard Akingbehin, who sought to create a platform that welcomes others like the city’s creative community welcomed them. Born out of a series of fundraising parties starting in 2015 for creative and social causes, Refuge works in solidarity with other grassroots and non-profit organisations. Since setting up the radio itself in 2021, they have provided support for the housing of refugees, developed programmes and music schooling for marginalised people, and supported social equity groups, homelessness agencies, and a shelter for women and young persons fleeing domestic violence. Meanwhile, the radio station has evolved into a vital community hub that not only platforms good music, but also educates and empowers, one show, one event and one workshop at a time.
At its core, Refuge Worldwide is committed to uplifting marginalised communities and addressing the imbalances that pervade the music industry and wider society. The station’s educational arm offers an array of workshops in DJing, music production, journalism, and photography, aimed at providing opportunities to those who have historically been overlooked. These workshops are not just about skill-building; they are about fostering confidence, creativity, and a sense of belonging. As George explains, “We started with an open-door policy, where people could use the studio for free. This was an entry point into what would later become the workshops, aiming to include everyone in the local area and beyond.”
The organisation has many goals and many outlets for achieving them, which currently includes a wildposting campaign all over Berlin as part of a collaboration with UNCLE. But in its broadest sense, Richard spelt out Refuge’s mission and its role in the wider ecosystem of its hometown: “Our goal is to elevate people into positions where they can influence and change the scene. Whether they become headlining artists or start their own small events, the impact is profound, not just on individuals but on the entire community.”
Berlin is pinned on the global map of club culture thanks to its weekend-long raves and establishments like Berghain – an (in)famous club where hedonism forms an orderly queue in front of a selective door policy that is the polar opposite of Refuge’s. For all its worldwide acclaim, Berlin does not come without its challenges for a project like this; gentrification, rising living costs and a tense political climate in which Germany’s far right is gaining traction. But the city’s raw creative spirit and openness to new ideas make it a place that Nadia Wise, one of many to host a show on the station, describes as ‘hopeful.’
And Refuge Worldwide embodies that hope. Through their Oona Bar, radio hub, or their newly-opened cultural space NM1 and through their workshops, through their events, and through radio.
To hear more about the station and its story, UNCLE had a chat with the two founders, who invited breakfast show host Nadia Wise to join the discussion and give the perspective of a resident.
FIRST THINGS FIRST, CAN YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELVES IN YOUR OWN WORDS…
George: I’m George, one of the co-founders of Refuge Worldwide. I grew up in Glasgow and have been in Berlin for ten years. We started Refuge as a fundraising party series to support the community here. During the lockdown, Richard and I decided to extend that into an online platform to continue serving the community around us.
Richard: I’m Richard, also from the UK and half Nigerian. I’ve been in Berlin for ten years too, working in various music-related roles. George invited me to start Refuge Worldwide, the radio station, based on the events he was already running. The timing was perfect, during the pandemic and the peak of Black Lives Matter, which made me want to direct my energy into something valuable for the community and myself.
Nadia: My name is Nadia Wise. I’m originally from the States but lived in London for 20 years before moving to Berlin three years ago. I’m a DJ, a record collector, and a former party promoter. I started doing radio with Refuge Worldwide over two years ago. I started with an experimental radio play and continued with different themed shows, exploring various genres and storytelling methods. I love sharing music and telling stories about my passion for it.
WHAT WERE SOME OF THE MOTIVATING FACTORS IN THE EARLIEST DAYS OF REFUGE WORLDWIDE?
George: One of the core motivations behind starting Refuge Worldwide was to support the local community that had embraced me when I moved from the UK to Berlin. I wanted to give back to this community, which led to the initial idea of organising fundraising parties. These events were completely voluntary, with people playing and working for free. This established a good reputation and trust within the city, which helped us when we decided to expand into an online platform during the lockdown (pandemic).
Additionally, my passion for music, whether it’s from the club scene or niche genres from around the world, played a significant role. Creating a platform that merges these interests with a commitment to social issues was something I felt strongly about. During the early parties, I noticed that many attendees were not fully engaged with the issues we were fundraising for. This observation highlighted the need for a platform that could better link people to these causes, making them more aware and encouraging them to care. Radio, with its ability to tell stories, seemed like the perfect medium to use.
Richard: The music scene was extremely imbalanced in terms of race, gender, economic background, and more. One of our motivations was to create a diverse radio program that offers opportunities to people who have never had them before. This includes educational workshops in various sectors, all aimed at addressing these imbalances.
AND NADIA, AS A HOST OF A REGULAR SHOW ON THE STATION, WHAT IS IT ABOUT RADIO AS A MEDIA FORMAT THAT YOU LOVE?
Nadia: The creative freedom and ability to engage with listeners in a unique way make it a very personal and fulfilling experience for me. I didn’t really know that much about radio before Refuge, but I had a kind of ‘meeting’ with Richard, which was just a short conversation, very casual, that I didn’t really know was a meeting. I just talked loads about music, and he was like, ‘That’s cool. How about March 20-something?’ and I was like, ‘Okay,’ and then I didn’t really realise that was going to be my first show. So, I went in and he gauged from that conversation and from my enthusiasm that I’d be really good for radio, even though I didn’t know it myself. He has that really great intuition of programming and believing in people.
WHILST RICHARD BLUSHES, COULD YOU TWO FOUNDERS ALSO TELL THE PEOPLE WHY RADIO WORKS SO WELL FOR HELPING YOU ACHIEVE YOUR MISSION?
George: There are so many reasons. I mean first of all, it’s really easy to get started. We want something that’s not intimidating, something that is kind of romantic. When we started it was easy. This is just Rich and I on our laptops at home. People are sending us mixes and we can broadcast them around the world. You can do a party in a city and you’ll have a few hundred people there. But when you broadcast the music all around the world and you have listeners in hundred-plus countries, it’s a really great feeling.
It’s such a great listener experience in comparison to a Spotify or a SoundCloud or wherever you get your music. Having a host again, that’s why Nadia excels at it. It’s like someone who can anchor the show, someone who becomes like a friend to the listeners, someone who’s got a familiar voice and people want to tune in to hear them, whether they’re chatting, whether they’re nerding out or just shooting the shit for an hour with one of their friends. I think that’s what makes radio so engaging in comparison to any of these newer models or mediums. It’s why it lasted so long. It goes back 100-odd years and every time there’s a new piece of technology, radio seems to evolve to this new era of online community radio.
Richard: George pretty much said it all! But I guess one thing to add would be the ‘no video policy’ that we have. It’s something that’s becoming more unique to us because more stations go with video content either totally, all the time, or just for specific shows. But for now, we are trying to keep it with this old-school approach.
WHY HAVE YOU DECIDED NOT TO USE VIDEO CONTENT AT THE STATION?
Richard: One of the reasons for that is to keep that barrier to entry as low as possible so people can feel free to come and play their music on the radio with, ideally, as little stress as possible. I do realise that some people still find it stressful, but I think we try to make it as cosy and relaxed and comfortable an environment as we can. If you don’t like what you’re hearing, you can just turn it off. It’s not like paying a gig in a club where you paid to be there or bought a drink and have to stay. You can just choose another show if you don’t like it. So there’s a real freedom that you have for the host to express themselves in a quite relaxed environment, and that really allows us to offer a platform to people with very little technical ability.
They grow very fast; people who are scared to even touch the microphone on show one, by show two, they’ll say a few things, show three, they’ll say a bit more, and then soon enough, they will just keep talking all the time and you can’t shut them up… and that’s great.
YOU’VE BEEN SET UP AT OONA BAR IN NEUKÖLLN FOR A WHILE NOW. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR THE RADIO STATION TO HAVE ITS OWN SPACE?
Nadia: Having a dedicated space for Refuge Worldwide is incredibly important. It’s not just a place to broadcast; it’s a community hub where people can come together, share ideas, and collaborate. It’s where the magic happens.
George: I think it’s really important that you can carry that online network and community into a physical space. It brings a smile to everyone’s face. It’s like an anchor point for the team, it’s where residents can come to hang out on their own, or where maybe people might want to have a drink and listen to some great music.
AND THERE ARE PLANS FOR A NEW REFUGE SPACE, RIGHT?
George: Yep, I’m speaking to you from there now! What we currently have is a very small space, so all these things that we’re talking about—education, a growing team, a bar, a professional radio studio—all that into 45 square meters? It was tricky straight away, especially with the popularity of the station. Say you’ve got four people coming in for a drink, three team members trying to have a video call, you want to have a photo shoot or a workshop in the back—it’s just chaos, the best kind of chaos, which I’m a big fan of – but as the work and education arm grew, and as the team grew, it was very obvious to us that we needed another space.
As the station got so much bigger, with more partnerships, more projects, and more residents, having a bigger space that could operate as an office, a workshop room, and an event space just became too tempting.
YOU’VE MENTIONED THAT THE ‘EDUCATION ARM’ OF REFUGE IS GROWING ALL THE TIME. CAN YOU EXPLAIN A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS THAT YOU HOST?
Richard: Our educational initiatives started with a lot of DJ workshops and then expanded from there. We realised that focusing solely on DJ workshops wasn’t enough, so we started offering educational workshops in various sectors, such as journalism, photography, and music production. Every time we organise these workshops, our selection process aims to address the imbalances in the music scene and beyond. We aim to elevate people into positions where they can influence and change the scene, whether they become headlining artists or start their own small events.
We’ve also taken our workshops on the road, touring Europe and hosting events where we combine parties with educational sessions. This approach has become one of our signature formats. When we visit a city, we add an educational aspect to show that we’re not just regular promoters. This inspires clubs and venues to use their spaces for educational purposes, helping people grow as well as enjoy themselves.
George: Originally, there was a promise made when we did a crowdfunder to help get the lease on where the radio station is. The promise was that the space would be for everyone in the local area. We kicked that off by having an open-door policy, where people could just come and use the studio for free. This was an entry point into what would later become the workshops. Having this accessible top-of-the-range gear that literally anyone in the neighbourhood could access was crucial. However, we learned that not everyone in the neighbourhood found out about these offers, so we had to extend our network. We built relationships with nonprofits and collectives, inviting marginalised people from different walks of life across the city to participate.
We paired up with a friend of ours, Gaby D’Annunzio, who was running another group called Open Music Lab. This organisation works with disadvantaged and marginalised people who are new to the city. With Gaby’s expertise, we bounced ideas off each other and developed different ways to disseminate information and reach the right people. Our workshops began to attract attention, and we received support from brands and press, which allowed us to expand further.
Eventually, we got a call from Apple, who wanted to run a project called Creative Studios in Berlin. They wanted to use our contacts and expertise to produce a four-week podcast program with 40 students. Developing this program and having resources from Apple took us to a new level. We hired Gaby full-time, and she spent her days drawing up programs, making connections, and building relationships around the city. Off the back of that, things went from strength to strength.
THE WORLD KNOWS BERLIN AS ONE OF THE BEST CITIES IN THE WORLD FOR ELECTRONIC MUSIC, DJS AND CLUB CULTURE, BUT WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES THAT YOU FACE RUNNING REFUGE WORLDWIDE IN BERLIN?
Nadia: My least favourite thing about Berlin is the political climate right now. The increasing control that the government has over creative spaces and organisations, along with funding cuts and venue closures, are significant challenges. This is part of the same type of gentrification and commercialisation that is happening globally. I appreciate the diversity in Berlin, which makes the city vibrant, but there’s also a culture of fear due to censorship. Taking the recent protests in support of Palestine as an example, people are being arrested, harassed, and silenced, which is really concerning. Despite this, places like Refuge and certain alternative venues provide genuine safe spaces where people can talk openly about issues like Palestine without fear. But overall, the political and economic pressures are a big challenge for maintaining and growing our project.
George: It’s really hard to look past what Nadia has touched on. The political climate and the challenges posed by gentrification are significant issues. Rising rent prices, whether for private individuals or for venues and collectives, are a major problem. This changes the landscape of Berlin and makes it harder to maintain the spaces that foster creative communities. We face the same problems that everyone has, such as a lack of spaces and representation in the industry. While Refuge tries to address these issues, the fight is definitely a physical one in the streets as well. We see this in the news every week, with demos and protests, whether it’s in universities or cultural spaces having their funding taken away. I’m really glad that Refuge has this independent platform, and we’re not beholden to government funding, so we can still give a voice to those who should be heard without being censored or threatened.
HONING IN ON THE THINGS THAT ARE TRULY SPECIAL ABOUT THE CITY, WHY DO YOU THINK BERLIN WORKS AS A CITY TO HOST REFUGE WORLDWIDE AND SO MUCH OF THE WORK YOU DO?
Richard: Berlin’s creative spirit, despite being eroded by gentrification and rising living costs, remains a key factor. Compared to other capital cities, Berlin still has a rawness and a drive for radical art. There are still many spaces where artists can practice and showcase their work. This city offers a unique blend of comfort and creative opportunity. Additionally, the privilege of living in a place where things generally function and safety nets exist is significant.
George: Berlin is unique in many ways. The city has a history of being a haven for creative and marginalised communities. This creates a fertile ground for projects like ours. When Rich and I moved here, we were embraced by this community, which was a significant motivating factor for us. The city’s openness to new ideas and its rich cultural tapestry make it an ideal location. The challenges we face, like gentrification and the political climate, also reinforce the need for our work. We want to address these issues and make a positive impact on the community.
Nadia: Berlin is different from some of the rest of Germany due to its diverse population, which makes the city vibrant and exciting to me. There are so many migrants here that make the city really great. The creative and artistic freedom is unparalleled. Even though the political climate poses challenges, the presence of like-minded people and supportive communities like Refuge Worldwide make it a hopeful place. The segregation of the music scene by genre was surprising to me, but the coming together of like-minded people with shared values gives me optimism. It’s a place where genuine conversations and collaborations can happen.
Image Credits: Sebastian Luna Cortes, Karl Magee and Lena Brecht
Horrox has been hotting up the fashion scene with a poster campaign popping up internationally courtesy of UNCLE. Our continued partnership with the androgenous clothing brand seems an opportune moment to home in on the effective and varied methods UNCLE uses in cities worldwide to create campaigns worth talking about.
London is the foundation of UNCLE’s existence; we were borne in the rebellious beginnings of the fly format, it’s our roots. Our mindset for our home market tends to be ‘go big or go home’, using all our format types to create a high frequency and saturated campaign across the city. Whether that be three billboards in a row for a street takeover or a paste up to play with a unique square creative, Horrox took advantage of all this city has to offer.
European markets themselves each carry with them individualistic elements that are iconic in their own rights. Amsterdam always makes for a campaign that transitions to the digital well, being a city so instantly recognisable, our sites work wonders across social channels. Barcelona, a sunny haven where pillars cut through crowds, high foot traffic are always on the cards for those who are displayed here. Ever the crowd pleaser is Berlin, a sought-after mecca for brands that like an edge, our sites have an industrial feel, and this grittiness certainly added a sense of intrigue to the Horrox campaign itself. Milan – one of the world’s fashion capitals – it’s sunny streets and refined site design always lead to a clean looking outcome for campaigns, a favourite of brands going for class. Finally, we have Paris, whose arguably most important feature being the context that comes with it – all things fashion needs to have a presence here. A combination of these cities made a unified stamp across the continent for Horrox and built brand image in alignment with each city’s perspective.
Let’s not forget our overseas cousin America – a beast that brands always want to conquer. The cities Horrox appeared in are all key players in the vast market that makes up the country. Whether the relaxed west side with Los Angeles and San Francsico – where your poster can be backdrop to a beach walk and golden sunset or the red-hot west side that offers a streetside catwalk in fashion hub New York or a fiery addition to Miami’s iconic skyline. Horrox is a brand based in Brooklyn, and the campaign felt at home amongst its streets, UNCLE made sure to emphasize the homecoming with a focus on distribution surrounding the area.
Tokyo needs no introduction; the powerhouse city of the east has an unmistakable feel. Formats here are clean cut and perfected – an apt style that seems to reflect the general feel of the city itself. Due to lack of competition with advertising space, Horrox had no trouble standing out against the brutalist architecture. The striking red was a key colour in eyeline with all onlookers, working perhaps best on the digital screens that offer a distinct look that posters cannot replicate.
The true definition of global includes that of Australia; laid-back and homegrown posters here feel part of the woodwork and have no trouble looking like they belong. Sydney makes for a city that offers a casual edge that capitals tend not to include, this only grounded the Horrox campaign and approachability is important within advertisement. Whereas Melbourne delivers on locations that are unmissable, want to be noticed? Melbourne is the one for you if you want eyes down under.
Every city offers its own opportunities, and if you can align yourself with the pulse of that city you can appeal to its onlookers. Horrox was at home in all markets, reaping the benefits of the cultural markers and standing out amongst the grey.
Adébayo Bolaji is known for his abstract and vivid artworks, designed in a multitude of media types and borne from a desire to represent the individual – in hopes to transform the masses. This focus allows his pieces to connect with onlookers on a personal level, begging to be unravelled thematically. Intimacy is a tool in which messages can relay most effectively – a thought not lost on the artist.
Although London is his home, Bolaji is an international spirit who has been able to create a name for himself on a global scale. His upcoming Berlin based exhibition ‘To Speak Out Loud’ homes in on police brutality borne in the Nigerian rebellions, a cause close to the heart of Bolaji thanks to his heritage.
The show, in his own words is “the first show where the reason for it was the closest to me. I was born in London but have Nigerian heritage and, I also have experienced so many times where people have tried to tell me who I was, who I am… it’s a constant battling process even as an artist. It’s a meditative show, highly reflective on this idea of the voice.”.
UNCLE ran a campaign in the showcase city Berlin as well as his home of London to bring eyes to the campaign as well as support his artistic achievements. Alongside this we took images of the artist with his piece in the heart of Shoreditch, his artistic core easily readable through the way his character translates through the images. We also chatted with Bolaji to dive deeper into his own mindset and bring context to an exhibition that stands for so much.
YOUR ARTWORK IS DIVERSE ACROSS THE BOARD, HOW DOES INSPIRATION STRIKE TO MOTIVATE YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS?
Anything that gets me to ask “why”, to ask questions. Staying curious. It really doesn’t matter what it is, although ultimately, I’ve found that somehow the questions, I ask are rooted in the bigger idea of what I feel my purpose is, which is connected to a vision that I have for my life. So, there is something that is pulling me forward all the time, my vision, but along the way, I will encounter things that somehow cause me to ask, why, how or what, these are real inspirations because they cause me to grow and develop in light of this vision. It’s too easy to just say something like “music” because it’s not just the music is it.. it’s also something about where I am in that moment, it’s not the thing on its own.
WHY WERE YOU DRAWN TO THIS ARTISTIC PATH?
I feel that at some point I just had no choice. I grew up living other people’s ideas about who or what I should be, and then eventually frustration revealed itself in so many ways I had to give in to it. I already had a creative background from theatre and film but, I wasn’t aware that my body was telling me it already had a natural way that it wanted to communicate artistically through painting… by expressing my own ideas and not that of others. So, I had to pause, stop and listen, which practically meant just doing it, to first just paint, and to keep doing the thing itself in any way I could. I also spoke to people who were more experienced than I was about how I might constructively sustain and keep communicating my ideas, take their advice and then, adjust it to what I saw in my mind… my vision. It was also important to know that we shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions and speak to others but also to remember why we started, so to find out what you believe in, so that doesn’t get lost along the way.
WHAT DOES YOUR DESIGN PROCESS LOOK LIKE?
Ultimately, I am asking a series of questions, something will instinctively make sense to me, so I put it down first not because it’s right but because it’s the first thing I need to deal with, it’s also a sense of play. So, there are no restrictions just at first… feelings. I deal with how I feel. I then play with this feeling, but it is really a game, because in the back of my mind I know it’s for something it’s for a particular time and space. So, the game is catered to a space, so the real first question is, what is this space and what does it want or need. If the space didn’t exist, then it doesn’t matter what I do… and if it is about creating a new space I am still asking why. This may not happen with words or direct intellectual reasoning… practically it could mean I draw a circle, and then see what that tells me. In the end I’m looking for harmony, I’m not pushing harmony, it already exists (nature teaches me this)… so I’m just looking for it.
WHY DO YOU DRAWN TO TACKLING SUBJECTS ON THE INDIVIDUAL?
Because they are the ones that bother me the most. There’s a saying that if you’re confused about how to find what you love, find out what bothers you the most. I’m frustrated and care about the individual. How we hide, overthink, worry when we don’t need to. Crush our own voices… things like this. Everything for me is purposeful especially people, and so I feel somehow that my work likes to honour the fact that people matter.
THROUGHOUT YOUR DESIGN CAREER YOU CAN SEE THE SHIFTING AND GROWTH IN TERMS OF STLYE. HOW HAVE YOU REFINED YOUR STYLE?
Be giving it love and attention. By seeing obstacles as part of the journey. I know it’s cliche but, things are made stronger because of obstacles or “blocks” it’s in these moments that you find out who you really are, what you really stand for or believe in… you hear and see yourself. Knowledge is also crucial, I can’t stress how important it is to look for knowledge, if you don’t know something, look for the answer and when you find it, it’s no longer a blind spot and then you are no longer the same, your voice is different.
COLOUR IS A THEME THAT HAS CONTINUED TO BE PRESENT IN ALL YOUR WORKS, WHY IS THIS – DOES COLOUR MEAN A LOT TO YOU?
It’s everything to me, in fact it’s how I enter all my work, with a line an expression of colour. It’s a language I seem to gravitate towards, it’s defining a lot of space and narrative for us as well at such a high speed we’re not even aware of it… it’s so powerful. So there is clearly meaning here. By meaning I mean a sense of something that makes you believe or not believe something, it makes you feel. Even if you ignore it, its presence is still made more valuable because of it being ignored. It was also very healing for me at first, when I started I needed a lot of colour, I needed a lot of healing to feel fully free. We wake up and have everything visually set in our lives. Colour says to me “now paint how you feel”.
WHY IS THE SHOW TITLED ‘TO SPEAK OUT LOUD’?
Again, it goes back to my idea of the individual who in turn makes up a group… this is important. The voice of one and the collective. The initial inspiration was the unfortunate happening a few years ago in Nigeria where young people were brutalised and killed for peaceful protests against Police Brutality in Nigeria, known as END-SARS. I was so moved by the courage, especially in an age where it’s so easy to just be a “keyboard warrior -activist” … their voices mattered and they wanted the whole world to know it, even if they died.
EXPLAIN THE INTRIGUING ARTWORK DESIGN?
I like to use myself as well in a lot of my text work, it’s very natural to do I don’t question why, maybe it makes it more relatable for people, so I just do it. A pose is never “natural” is it, it’s an idea of an idea of an idea and so on. So, I’m standing in a way I guess that suggests I’m here in this moment doing something that feels right to me. Not in a self-indulgent way, but one that hopefully is a powerful stance that suggests I am here, I have this one life and so I will be present and not hide.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?
Alongside my show in Berlin, I have my first public sculpture being erected in London, in the new Acton Gardens. It’s a big piece and I spent some time with the community there too to get a sense of what this piece should be. It’s titled: “The People’s Throne” and is set to be revealed this October!
Horrox is not a brand that exclusively pulls from the past but also the present, with some of its most prominent pieces being collaborations with artists and charities. In continuation of UNCLE’s partnership with Horrox we put a spotlight on one of these collaborators. JV Aranda, an artist based in San Francisco uses a mixture of colour, printing and repetition to make an impact with his graphic designs. His playful graphics prioritise impactful, layered motifs that are reminiscent of a pop art and dadaism which seemed a fitting match for the first collaboration of Horrox as the brand also borrows from the past for its creative direction. We took a spotlight and enquired about how his contemporary techniques and style have developed as he’s grown as a creator.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO ART?
Fortuitous museum visits during my formative years. For instance, in 1998, while on a trip to Los Angeles to celebrate my 16th birthday, I had the good fortune of being introduced to the work of Yayoi Kusama via a retrospective exhibition of her work at LACMA, which was mind-blowing and incredibly influential in a multitude of ways: from her enthusiastic experimentation across different mediums to how her practice overlapped with her mental health, nationality, gender, era, and pure intuitive visual talent. Her work has always served as a wonderful example of the limitlessness of Art as a storytelling device and her resilience and prolific output continues to be an inspiration.
WHY COLLAGE?
Collage was always a medium that just made sense to me since first being introduced to it at school. The materials needed were accessible and the process of destruction, manipulation and reinvention has always felt liberating and cathartic.
Additionally, with the amount of content being generated daily in this day and age, Collage has grown in importance as a method to utilise the world’s growing collective archive, showcasing and re-contextualising imagery that would otherwise be ignored or forgotten.
DESCRIBE YOUR DESIGN PROCESS?
It’s a mix of following my intuition and problem-solving. I’ve always loved being commissioned and receiving a brief to interpret with various constraints to meet. So the design process can vary due to the project at hand, and my favourite experiences have been the ones that allowed me the opportunity to widen my scope and try new things, like working with Horrox, which gave me the chance to use the comic-strip panel format as a structural device and incorporate speech bubbles in my work for the first time.
WHAT IS THE THING YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT BEING AN ARTIST?
I love how artwork can form a life of its own while retaining that psychic link to its creator, who essentially become visually invisible when the work is finished. As a Queer, Person of Colour, creating artwork feels like one of the few realms in which I’m not immediately judged by any of my physical or sociological attributes, though my work is always representative of all of those things purely from being filtered through my vantage point.
TELL US MORE ABOUT THE COLLABORATION WITH HORROX?
Legs somehow found my work out there in the ether and got in touch with her vision for the prints that she had wanted to commission for Horrox. I was enthused after being introduced to her work and learning where she wanted to go conceptually with the prints and was pleasantly surprised to discover the strange parallels we had with one another; Namely that I was an American living in the U.K. at the time and that she was British and living and working in my home state of California.
WHY ARE YOU DRAWN TO USING COMIC STRIPS IN YOUR WORK?
When working with Comics, I’ve primarily been drawn to utilising work from the Golden Age of American comics, which spans from the 1940’s and 50’s, since I not only enjoy the aesthetics of that era but additionally have gotten a kick out of re-contextualising work that was originally found in arguably quite wholesome environments, and reconfiguring the work with more modern narratives that reflect our current realities and collective discourse.
HOW HAS CALIFORNIA AND LONDON INFLUENCED YOUR WORK?
Growing up in California, I was surrounded by pop culture and the grandeur of nature. I was essentially raised by cartoons and theme parks. And I’ve often felt that the hyper-saturated colour palette of my work is very much informed by being a Californian. Living in London was quite a contrast and helped me realize that pursuing the arts was not only valid but important, and it was incredibly inspiring to be in such a global and diverse city, absorbing such a range of stories. My work may be incredibly influenced by California conceptually, but I learned how to become an artist thanks to London.
HOW HAS SAN FRANCISCO HELPED SHAPED YOU AS A DESIGNER?
When Legs got in touch about the commission, I was living in London and when she mentioned she was based in San Francisco at the time and wanted the prints to reflect the city and it’s musical history, specifically during the Jazz age, I was absolutely delighted as a former San Franciscan, previously living there for a number of years in the early 2000’s, back before I even realized I was an Artist and Designer. So, I’d say my time in San Francisco planted a lot of seeds, that still grow to this day. There’s an organized chaos to the city, or rather, a battle between structure and hedonism, that definitely shapes my work.
DOES THE CITY INSPIRE YOU?
Absolutely. Living in San Francisco was my first experience as a young adult with the wonder and perils of embracing spontaneity. I was raised in San Diego, which is very much a car-based city, so it was quite liberating living in San Francisco, which is much more pedestrian friendly. I’ve always been inspired just walking around the city and getting immersed with the different personalities of both the different neighbourhoods and the characters who happen to be around on any given day.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE PLACES THERE?
I’m biased towards the neighbourhoods I previously lived in: the Castro and the Mission, which includes my absolute favourite place in the city, smack dab in the middle of those areas: Mission Dolores Park, which is situated on an incline with a gorgeous view of Downtown San Francisco, and has been the setting of many meditative walks, sunny celebrations and heartfelt conversations with loved ones in the past.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?
More Collages! Currently, I work as an Editorial illustrator for a variety of clients. Most recently, I’ve been working with the esteemed American automobile magazine, Road & Track, creating collages for a column called the ‘Department of Overthinking’ and I’ve also begun to participate in different art fairs, showcasing all of the different adaptations of my Collage work, in preparation of opening Sinewy Sea Fine Art, which will be a hybrid of an Arts Space, Tea Lounge and Gift Shop, showcasing modern curiosities and storytelling, to be based in San Diego.
Based in Brooklyn, New York fashion brand Horrox are launching their debut collection to a global audience promising to deliver on an informed and cultural array of designs. Horrox marries culture, art, music and collaboration with fashion that culminates in an informed yet edgy drop. This emerging fashion brand seemed a great match for UNCLE to support in their beginnings with a partnership.
Horrox was born of music. From the intrigue of record sleeves and music publications, to clothing synonymous with music subcultures throughout history, it all serves as muse for the core Horrox product. Whether it be the new wave stylings of Talking Heads or punk rock powerhouse The Clash, the brand infuses distinctive eras into its pieces with a modern edge. These aesthetic choices could often misinterpreted as vapid, but instead are rooted in politics, class structure and other poignant moments within the zeitgeist. Horrox revels in research that elevates design beyond the visual and strikes a balance between concept and composition.
The brand’s founder – Riona Horrox – a graduate of the Royal College of Art used Motifs have most commonly been drawn from the ‘77 punk era, alongside elements that borrow and modernise 50s and 60s styles. Shrunken t-shirts and jeans lend themselves well to the inherited seventies influence on the west coast.
As part of the partnership, UNCLE will be continuing to dive deeper into the core of the brand with interviews with collaborators. This is only the beginning. Fashion can be a portal of education for its audience. Horrox is a brand that plays with nostalgia; style can intertwine with who you are and pull you into whichever community you wish to be a part of – let Horrox be yours.
Der Berliner Clemens Wilhelm schafft außergewöhnlich schöne und sehr bewegende Werke, die immer nachdenklich stimmen und nicht selten von einem ausgeprägten Sinn für das Absurde begleitet werden. Manchmal stehen all diese Qualitäten nebeneinander und ringen um unsere Aufmerksamkeit.
Zum Beispiel Die Linie (2019), Wilhelms Reise zu Fuß entlang der nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg auferlegten Grenze zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschland, vierzehnhundert Kilometer von der tschechischen Grenze bis zur Ostsee. Alle fünfzehn Minuten hält er an, um ein Schwarz-Weiß-Foto zu machen: links der Westen, rechts der Osten und in der Mitte des Bildes die unterschiedlich überwucherte Patrouillenstraße. Dieses Überbleibsel, ein Gespenst einer geteilten Nation, das einst als Todesstreifen bekannt war, ist heute ein Naturschutzgebiet und, so der Künstler, ein Zeugnis für die Banalität der Macht: “Es ist ein Beispiel für unglaublich dumme Architektur.”
Die Linie besteht aus 975 Bildern, die in 67 Minuten mit einer Musikkomposition präsentiert werden, welche aus Originalaufnahmen stammt, die auf dem Weg entstanden sind. Wilhelms Porträts der Landschaft sind atemberaubend. Aber beim Durchqueren von Wiesen, Weizenfeldern und Waldwegen hat man das Gefühl, dass diese Route, dieser Nicht-Ort, in der deutschen Psyche herumspukt. “Auch nach mehr als 30 Jahren ist die Wiedervereinigung ein unvollendeter Prozess, es ist schmerzhaft, daran zu denken, dass einige der Politiker, die Architekten der Wiedervereinigung, immer noch an der Macht sind und nicht zugeben können, wie schädlich Aspekte des Projekts waren. Es ist an der Zeit, dass der Prozess der Wiedervereinigung neu bewertet wird. Und ähnlich wie beim Brexit ist es ein Thema, über das man sich nur schwer unterhalten kann. Die Gemüter können sich sehr erhitzen.”
Wilhems Werke reichen von Bildern, die von Politik, Gesellschaft und Ökologie inspiriert sind, bis hin zu Werken, die die Evolution der Kunst und den Massentourismus darstellen. “Ich beschäftige mich schon seit vielen Jahren mit dem Klimawandel, lange bevor er zu einem ‘heißen’ Thema in der Kunst wurde”, erklärt Wilhelm. Sein Video mit dem Titel A Horse With Wheels (2017) stellt die Frage: “Können wir unseren Vorfahren, die die ersten Kunstobjekte hergestellt haben, näher kommen? Hilft es unserem Verständnis, wenn wir dieselben Sehenswürdigkeiten und Umgebungen sehen? Haben wir uns seit der Eiszeit überhaupt verändert, oder ist der Fortschritt eine Täuschung? Was wissen wir wirklich über unsere Vergangenheit und warum wollen wir glauben, dass unsere Vorfahren primitiv waren? Unterscheidet sich die Kamera so sehr von einem Tranchiermesser?” Solch tiefgründige Fragen werden in A Horse With Wheels geschickt aufgegriffen. Der Film, der über einen Zeitraum von sieben Jahren gedreht wurde, führt uns von prähistorischen Höhlen in Frankreich über eine Herde von 1000 Rentieren in Norwegen bis hin zu den Weiten der schottischen Highlands und einem anthropologischen Museum in Deutschland. Eine faszinierende Frage wird gestellt: “Wie hat eine solch unerbittliche, wenn auch ehrfurchtgebietende Landschaft die allerersten Bemühungen der Menschheit, Kunst zu produzieren, hervorgebracht und beeinflusst, jene Praxis, die Forscher als “nutzloses Werkzeug” bezeichnen, Kunst als Werkzeug nicht nur zur Darstellung, sondern auch zum Denken und zur Reflexion? Eine 13 000 Jahre alte Mammut-Stoßzahnschnitzerei eines schwimmenden Rentiers ist ein verblüffendes Artefakt. Wenn man Wilhelms nordische Sequenzen sieht, die in der Arktis gedreht wurden und steile, von Rentieren bewohnte Hügel zeigen – wo kein Himmel zu sehen ist, sondern nur die eleganten Tiere, die sich durch Gestrüpp und Felsen bewegen -, dann sehen die eiszeitlichen Höhlenmalereien an den Felswänden plötzlich eher wie wörtliche als abstrakte Darstellungen aus.
Von der echten Wildnis zu einer zynisch konstruierten Realität: The End of Something (2022) zeichnet die Zeit auf, die in einem Park neben dem Eiffelturm in Paris verbracht wurde. Im letzten Sommer, bevor das Coronavirus das “normale” Leben auf den Kopf stellte, wirft Wilhelms Darstellung des Tagtraums des Massentourismus – Segen und Fluch der französischen Hauptstadt – ein Licht auf die konstruierten Ablenkungen des Spätkapitalismus. “Es ist wie der Turm zu Babel: Menschen aus der ganzen Welt Menschen aus aller Welt, die sich versammeln, um eine vorgeschriebene Freizeit zu verbringen, verschiedene Momente mit ihren Smartphones aufnehmen und so den Algorithmus um dieses Monument des Tourismus füttern. Es ist seltsam, fast wie ein religiöses Fest”. Zwischen den scheinbar alltäglichen Vergnügungen gibt es auch Momente ergreifender Beunruhigung. Eine Frau sitzt im Gras, trinkt aus einer Weinflasche und füttert Vögel mit Brot, als eine Gestalt, deren Gesicht wir nicht sehen können, in den Bildausschnitt tritt und eine Bewegung in Richtung des Brotes macht und dann ihre Finger zum Mund führt. Zunächst winkt die sitzende Frau die Bitte der Fremden ab, doch dann – vielleicht erkennt sie die Ironie, dass sie die Tierwelt des Parks zum Spaß füttert, sich aber weigert, mit einem Mitmenschen zu teilen – bricht sie ein Stück Baguette ab und reicht es ihr. Es ist eine bewegende Szene unter den vielen Ausschnitte, die dieses touristische Ritual begleiten. Auf die Frage, wie er so viele intime Momente im öffentlichen Raum eingefangen hat, erklärt Wilhelm: “Ich habe zwar nicht um Erlaubnis gebeten, aber ich war mit einer ziemlich großen Kamera im Freien! Die Menschen sind so sehr daran gewöhnt, überwacht zu werden, dass sie kaum noch Kameras sehen. Ja, es ist eine Arbeitsweise, die berührende Momente einfängt, Geschenke, die entstehen, wenn man einfach nur dasitzt und lange beobachtet. Das wahre Leben findet statt, wenn man wartet.”
Für seine Zusammenarbeit mit UNCLE greift Wilhelm auf ein Projekt zurück, das 2008 begann. “MACHT NICHTS” ist ein doppeldeutiger deutscher Ausdruck. Er kann als Beschwichtigung verstanden werden: “Es ist nicht so schlimm, es macht nichts.” oder er kann als Befehl verstanden werden: “Tu nichts!”, “Bleib passiv.” Und dann, wenn es als Botschaft hinter einem Flugzeug auftaucht oder über einer riesigen digitalen Anzeige auf einem stillgelegten Gasometer die Stadt erhellt oder sich in einer Berliner Szenekneipe niederlässt oder auf zwei Plaketten zu sehen ist – eine davon wird der ehemaligen Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel überreicht -, entwickelt sich “MACHT NICHTS” zu einer verwirrenden Äußerung, einer unheimlichen Aufforderung/Anweisung, die, ohne dass man weiß, wer der “Absender” ist, zu einer Art Doppeldeutigkeit wird. Vielleicht so ähnlich wie die Sprache von gerissenen Politikern und anderen, die ihre Absichten mit schwammigen Worten verschleiern.
Es gibt zwei Versionen des Plakats, die auf den Straßen Berlins zu sehen sind: weißer Text auf schwarzem Hintergrund und umgekehrt. Abwechselnd und in schachbrettartiger Anordnung platziert, säen das strenge Design und die faszinierende Botschaft die urbane Umgebung mit Zweideutigkeit, eine subtil entwaffnende Intervention, die die extremen Enden der “Don’t worry/Do worry”-Taktik widerspiegelt, die verwendet wird, um die Menschen zu beruhigen/zu verängstigen, die durch Themen wie Immigration, die stark steigenden Lebenshaltungskosten, Öko-Krisen, sozialen Zusammenhalt, die Auswirkungen der künstlichen Intelligenz auf die Beschäftigung, etc. etc. aufgeschreckt werden. UNCLE freut sich, einen Künstler/Filmemacher zu unterstützen, dessen Arbeit visuell verführerisch und hypnotisierend ist und der darüber hinaus wichtige soziopolitische, psychologische und philosophische Fragen erforscht.
Berliner Clemens Wilhelm makes exceptionally beautiful and very moving work, always thoughtful and more often than not leavened with a keen sense of the absurd. Sometimes all these qualities co-exist, variously jostling for our consideration.
For example, Die Linie (2019), Wilhelm’s journeying on foot, walking the length of the imposed post World War II boundary between East and West Germany, fourteen hundred kilometres from the Czech border to the Baltic Sea. Stopping every fifteen minutes to take a black and white photograph: the west on the left, the east on the right, and in the middle of the frame the variously overgrown patrol road. This remnant, this ghost of a divided nation, once known as the death strip is now a nature reserve and according to the artist a testament to the banality of power, “It’s an example of mind-blowingly stupid architecture.”
Die Linie comprises 975 pictures presented in 67 minutes with a musical composition born of original recordings made along the way. Wilhelm’s portraits of the landscape are breath-taking. But as we traverse lowland pasture, wheatfields, woodland pathways… there’s a niggling sensation that this route, this non-place, haunts the German psyche. “Even after more than 30 years reunification is an unfinished process, it’s painful to think about, some of the politicians, the architects of reunification are still in power, and they can’t admit to how damaging aspects of the project were. It is time that the process of reunification is re-evaluated. And much like Brexit, it’s a subject that’s hard to talk about. Emotions can become very heated.”
From the socio-politically infused visual studies to works that address the evolution of the earliest art objects, ecological issues and mass tourism. “I have made work about climate change for many years, long before it became a ‘hot’ topic in the arts,” Wilhelm explained. His video titled A Horse With Wheels (2017) poses the question, ‘Can we get closer to our ancestors who made the first art objects? Does it help our understanding to witness the same sights and environments? Have we changed at all since the Ice Age, or is progress a deception? What do we really know about our past and why do we want to believe that our ancestors were primitive? Is the camera so different from a carving knife?’
Such profound questions are adroitly addressed in A Horse With Wheels. Made over the course of seven years, the film takes us from prehistoric caves in France, following a herd of 1000 reindeer in Norway, to the vast expanses of the Scottish Highlands and an anthropological museum in Germany. An intriguing question is posed, ‘How did such an unforgiving, albeit awesome, landscape give rise to and affect the very earliest efforts by mankind to produce art, that practice which researchers call the ‘useless tool’, art as a tool for not just representation but thought and reflection?’ A 13,000-year-old mammoth tusk carving of a swimming reindeer is a mind-boggling artefact. Seeing Wilhelm’s Nordic sequences shot in the Arctic, featuring steep hill terrain inhabited by reindeer – where no sky is visible, just the elegant beasts traversing scrub and rock – and suddenly ice age cave art on rocky walls look more like literal rather than abstracted representations.
From the genuine wilds to a cynically constructed reality: The End of Something (2022) records time spent in a park adjacent to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. During the last summer before the Coronavirus turned ‘normal’ life upside down Wilhelm’s depiction of the daydream of mass tourism – the blessing and curse of France’s capital city – shines a light on late capitalism’s contrived distractions. “It’s like the tower of Babel, people from all over the world gathering to enact a prescribed leisure, recording sundry moments on their smartphones and thereby feeding the algorithm around this monument to tourism. It’s strange, almost like a religious festival.” In amongst the seemingly mundane pleasures there are moments of poignant disquiet. A woman is seated on the grass drinking from a wine bottle and feeding bread to birds when a figure whose face we can’t see steps into the frame and motions towards the bread, then puts her fingers towards her mouth. At first the seated woman waves away the stranger’s request but then – maybe realising the irony of feeding park fauna for fun but refusing to share with a fellow human – she breaks off a chunk of baguette and hands it over. It’s a moving scene amongst very many vignettes that are attendant on this touristic ritual. Asked how he captured so many intimate moments in public space Wilhelm explained, “While I didn’t ask permission to film, I was out in the open with a pretty big camera! People are so used to being under surveillance they barely see cameras. So yes, it’s a way of working that does capture affecting moments, gifts that arise if you just sit and observe for a long time. Real life happens when you wait.”
For his collaboration with UNCLE Wilhelm revisits an ongoing project that began in 2008. ‘MACHT NICHTS’ is an ambiguous German phrase. It can be understood as a pacification: “It’s not so bad, it doesn’t matter.” Or it can be read as an order: “Do nothing!”, “Stay passive.” And then, when it appears as a message trailed behind a plane or illumines the city via a huge digital display on a decommissioned gasometer or takes up residence in a trendy Berlin bar or features on a pair of badges – one of which we see handed to the ex-German chancellor Angela Merkel – ‘MACHT NICHTS’ evolves into a discombobulating utterance, an uncanny invitation/instruction that without knowing who the ‘sender’ is becomes a sort of doublespeak. Akin perhaps to language deployed by wily politicians et al who disguise their agendas with mealy mouthed words.
There are two versions of the poster appearing on the streets of Berlin: white text on a black background and vice versa. Displayed alternately and in a chequered formation the stark design and intriguing message seeds the urban environment with ambiguity, a subtly disarming intervention that echoes extreme ends of ‘Don’t worry/Do worry’ tactics used to pacify/scare peoples variously excised by issues such as immigration, the sharply rising cost of living, eco-crises, social cohesion, the effects of AI on employment, etc., etc. UNCLE are excited to support an artist/filmmaker whose work is visually seductive, mesmeric and then goes much further to explore key socio-political, psychological and philosophical concerns.
Berlin ist eine Stadt mit einer innovativen Kreativszene, die von Musik über Kunst bis hin zu Mode reicht. An der Spitze dieser Szene steht die Modemarke IMPARI, die von der Designerin Jana Heinemann geleitet und gegründet wurde. Die Marke setzt auf Farbe und Ausdruck und will “Menschen durch Kunst verbinden, die Vielfalt der Welt veranschaulichen und zur Einheit ermutigen”.
Heinemann selbst begann schon früh mit dem Modedesign. Bereits im Alter von 12 Jahren benutzte sie die Nähmaschine ihrer Großmutter, um Accessoires zu entwerfen. Daraus entwickelte sich schnell der Wunsch, ihre Leidenschaft dafür zu nutzen, Menschen zu ermutigen, ihren eigenen, einzigartigen Stil zu leben und einen positiven Einfluss auf die Welt zu nehmen. Ihr Design ist geprägt von Farben und Mustern, und sie entwirft ihre Kleidung so, dass sie auffällt und sich nicht einfügt – “eine farbenfrohe Kapsel der Street Elegance”.
Impari ist auch eine Marke, die für Nachhaltigkeit steht und einen Zero-Waste-Ansatz verfolgt. Bei ihren Entwürfen werden alle Schnitte aus früheren Entwürfen für künftige Entwürfe wiederverwendet, was mit ihrem Mustermix und den auffälligen Silhouetten übereinstimmt. Indem sie sich auf die Umwelt konzentriert, können Gemeinschaften zusammenkommen und sich wieder miteinander und mit der Erde verbinden – Jana hofft, eine treibende Kraft für dieses Ergebnis zu sein.
Berlin hat einen großen Anteil an ihrer Entwicklung als Designerin: “Die größte Inspiration bekomme ich von den Menschen in Berlin, aber auch vom Nachtleben, den Veranstaltungen, Kunstausstellungen und Märkten. Vor allem durch den Austausch mit anderen Künstlern”. Die enge Verbundenheit mit der Stadt hat ihren Entwürfen eine frische Note verliehen, die sich innerhalb der Grenzen der urbanen Metropole relevant anfühlt.
UNCLE hat mit Impari zusammengearbeitet, um die Straßen so bunt wie ihre Mode zu machen, mit Wildpostings und Plakatwänden in der ganzen Stadt. Wir sprachen über ihre Anfänge als Designerin, ihre Inspiration und ihre zukünftigen Ziele und entdeckten, dass ihre optimistischen Antworten genauso mystisch sind wie ihre Kleidung.
WAS INSPIRIERT SIE?
Die Wahl des Stoffes ist mir sehr wichtig – er sollte nicht nur so nachhaltig wie möglich sein, sondern die Stoffe selbst inspirieren mich oft dazu, wie ein Kleidungsstück ausfallen wird. Aber natürlich inspiriert mich auch alles, was mich umgibt, Berlin, Menschen, Freunde, Farben, Reisen, die Kunst- und Musikszene.Außerdem entstehen viele meiner Ideen wenn ich tanze. Besonders das Reisen und die verschiedenen Wesen, die ich auf den Reisen treffe, inspirieren mich. Auch die Gespräche mit Freunden und mit meinem Freund inspirieren mich sehr.
WIE SIND SIE ZUR MODE GEKOMMEN?
Ich habe mit der Nähmaschine meiner Großmutter angefangen zu nähen, als ich 12 war. Dann habe ich während meiner Banklehre Schals genäht und sie verkauft. Von da an habe ich gemerkt, dass die Menschen es lieben, wenn verschiedene Materialien und Drucke aufeinander treffen. In der Modewelt bin ich 2015 angekommen, als ich meine Schneiderlehre auf dem berühmten Boulevard “Ku’damm” in Berlin begann.
WAS WAR DAS ERSTE, WAS DU ENTWORFEN HAST?
Eine Handtasche, als ich 12 jähre alt war, die eher wie ein Jutebeutel mit einer großen Schleife aussah. Ich war super stolz, und es hat sich herausgestellt, dass Taschen in jeder Form und Farbe immer noch eine große Rolle in meinem Leben spielen.
BESCHREIBEN SIE IHREN DESIGNPROZESS?
Ich produziere jedes Stück so abfallfrei wie möglich, indem ich alle Schnittreste für zukünftige Stücke weiterverwende. Alle meine Kleidungsstücke werden vor Ort hergestellt. Ich benutze verschiedene Maschinen, darunter eine alte Tretnähmaschine. Ich liebe es zu nähen und am Ende des Tages etwas mit meinen eigenen Händen hergestellt zu haben. Meine Drucke werden von mir selbst kreiert, dabei versuche ich immer, verschiedene Materialien zu verwenden, um sie herzustellen. Zum Beispiel für die ,,ONT_KOP”-Kollektion habe ich den Prozess mit Wandfarbe begonnen. Das Finishing der Druckproduktion ist immer gleich, ich zeichne mit einem digitalen Programm 3D-Elemente oder andere Zeichnungen über meine Drucke. Die Produktion erfolgt im Digitaldruckverfahren, da ich auf diese Weise die beste Qualität garantieren kann. IMPARI glänzt mit Farbe und Prints durch eine nachhaltige Produktion.
WAS BEDEUTET MODE FÜR SIE?
Mode ist überall in meinem Leben. Sie ist mein Beruf, meine Leidenschaft und meine Sucht. Für mich spielt sie eine so große Rolle, weil sie die Hülle ist, mit der ich mein Inneres nach außen tragen kann. Ich kann meine Kreativität und meine Persönlichkeit zum Ausdruck bringen. Außerdem kann man mit Mode Statements setzen, anderen ein Lächeln schenken, andere inspirieren und sie davon überzeugen, dass sie Individuen sein dürfen. Mode kann einen selbstbewusster machen und einem Kraft geben. Wenn man seinen Stil gefunden hat, gibt einem die Mode Freude und das Gefühl, man selbst zu sein.
WAS GEFÄLLT IHNEN AM MEISTEN AM BERUF DES DESIGNERS?
Jeder Tag ist anders und NEU. Als Designerin fühle ich mich frei und obwohl der Job alles andere als ein 9 bis 5 Job ist, liebe ich ihn. Der beruf begleitet mich eigentlich jede Minute meines Lebens. Denn alles ist immer inspirierend und designen bedeutet für mich, dass alles, was mich umgibt und bewegt, meine Arbeit beeinflusst. Ich mache diesen Beruf, weil er aus mir herauskommt und mit mir wächst. Alles, was ich erlebt habe, insbesondere während meiner Zeit bei IMPARI, hat mich zu dem gemacht, was ich bin. Das macht mich unheimlich stolz. Ich nenne mich Ms. Impari, weil es ein Geschenk ist, die Designerin meiner Marke sein zu dürfen – das erfüllt mich mit großer Dankbarkeit. Ich kann mir keinen anderen Beruf vorstellen.
WIE WÜRDEN SIE IHREN PERSÖNLICHEN STIL BESCHREIBEN?
Ich würde meinen Stil als eine farbenfrohe Kapsel der Straßen-Eleganz bezeichnen. Ich liebe es, alle Farben und Prints miteinander zu kombinieren, wobei es bequem und außergewöhnlich sein muss. Außerdem kann ich nie genug Accessoires tragen. Das macht ein Outfit meiner Meinung nach noch viel wertvoller. Deshalb lege ich auch bei IMPARI sehr viel Wert auf Accessoires. Natürlich dürfen bei meinen täglichen Looks ausgefallene Schuhe und Sonnenbrillen nicht fehlen. Mehr ist mehr, nur so fühle ich mich vollkommen.
SPIELT FARBE FÜR SIE EINE GROSSE ROLLE? UND WARUM?
Farben sind alles, ohne Farben wäre da Leben grau und eintönig. Leider verlieren wir durch die Fast Fashion Industrie die Farben oder haben sie schon verloren. Alles sieht mehr und mehr gleich aus. Es gibt fast keine Einzelstücke mehr. Die Leute denken, es sei normal, 5 Euro für ein T-Shirt zu bezahlen. Ich finde es traurig, dass die Handarbeit so sehr an Wertschätzung verloren hat. Deshalb versuche ich mit IMPARI, die Farben zurück auf die Straße zu bringen. Wir brauchen mehr Freude und Abwechslung in dieser schnelllebigen Welt. Ich denke, je mehr wir zeigen, wie bunt die Welt ist, desto mehr Menschen werden sich daran gewöhnen. Für mich ist es das Schönste, mit anderen Menschen in Kontakt zu kommen und mehr Geschichten und Lebensweisen zu erfahren. Es ist einfach das größte Geschenk und die schönste Inspiration, die wir haben.
ERZÄHLEN SIE UNS ETWAS ÜBER DIE GESTALTUNG IHRES KUNSTWERKS?
Die kreative Richtung/ihre Bedeutung? Wie schon gesagt, Impari ist anders, es soll jedem die Möglichkeit geben, sich selbst zu finden und sich wohl zu fühlen. Meine Kunstwerke sind meine Prints und die ungewöhnlichen Farbkombinationen. Außerdem achte ich darauf, dass meine Schnitte speziell und bequem sind und jeder etwas Passendes für seinen Körper finden kann. Ein wichtiger Teil meiner Arbeit sind auch meine Modenschauen. Ich liebe es, das Publikum zu überraschen, zum Beispiel mit einer Tanzeinlage oder einem musikalischen Auftritt. Meine Shows erzählen immer eine Geschichte und sind abwechslungsreich. Ich möchte, dass sie das Publikum berühren oder zum Nachdenken anregen.
WOHER NIMMST DU DEINE INSPIRATION IN BERLIN?
Die größte Inspiration bekomme ich von den Menschen in Berlin. Aber auch das Nachtleben, Veranstaltungen, Kunstausstellungen und Märkte. Vor allem durch den Austausch mit anderen Künstlern. Wie schon gesagt, einfach von allem, was mich umgibt.
WAS LIEBST DU AN BERLIN?
Berlin ist eine Stadt mit tausend Gesichtern und noch mehr Geschichten. Ich liebe es, dass man in Berlin nie alles gesehen haben kann. Das ist unheimlich inspirierend und super spannend. Außerdem hat man so viele Möglichkeiten, verschiedene Kulturen und Orte zu erleben, zu denen man sonst erst reisen müsste. Wenn man modisch sein will, hat man in Berlin unbegrenzte Möglichkeiten.
WIE HAT BERLIN SIE ALS DESIGNERIN GEPRÄGT?
In Berlin habe ich meine Schneiderausbildung gemacht und dann auch mein Modedesignstudium. Berlin hat mich also von Anfang an begleitet. Die Stadt hat mich geprägt, durch ihren ständigen Wandel und auch durch die vielen unglaublichen Persönlichkeiten, die ich hier kennenlernen durfte. Viel Inspiration habe ich auch vom Berliner Nachtleben bekommen. Alles in Berlin ist für mich so wandelbar und ausgefallen. Es ist keine perfekt saubere deutsche Stadt, und das ist es, was mich am meisten reizt und was ich an Berlin liebe. Es ist anders, rotzig und wild. Ich kann mich sehr gut mit Berlin identifizieren.
WARUM SIND IHR LADEN UND DIE VERANSTALTUNGEN, DIE SIE DURCHFÜHREN, SO WICHTIG FÜR SIE?
In meinem Laden kann ich den persönlichen Kontakt zu meinen Kunden genießen und habe Raum für meine Kreativität. Auch die Gestaltung meines Arbeitsumfeldes kann ich selbst kreieren. Ich mache gerne Maßanfertigungen und da ist mein Laden, meiner Meinung nach, ein unglaubliches Geschenk. Außerdem werden Menschen auf Impari aufmerksam, die mich vielleicht nie online entdeckt hätten.
Meine Veranstaltungen sind mir besonders wichtig, weil ich einen Raum für Kreative, Künstler und Modeinteressierte schaffen möchte. Ich möchte, dass wir uns gegenseitig mehr pushen und unterstützen. Jeder ist so individuell und ich denke, dass Konkurrenz nur ein Wermutstropfen ist, der wirklich altmodisch ist. Gemeinsam können wir alle schneller und nachhaltiger wachsen.
WIE WÜRDEN SIE IHRE MARKE DEFINIEREN?
IMPARI bedeutet “ungleich”. Ungleich drückt für mich Individualität aus. Selbst entworfene Prints in Kombination mit einer großen Vielfalt an Materialien und Farben prägen die Handschrift meiner Designs. Das Wichtigste ist, dass ich einen neuen Blick auf die Nachhaltigkeit in der Modeszene setzen möchte. Ich möchte zeigen, dass nachhaltige Kleidung modern sein kann und dass Freude, Individualität und Verbundenheit durch bunte Farben ausgedrückt werden können. Das Wichtigste in meinem Designprozess, das sich auch in allen meinen Entwürfen widerspiegelt, ist die Vielfalt. Die Werte von IMPARI sind Nachhaltigkeit als Schlüssel zum Label und das Einbringen von echter Diversität in die Welt der Mode. Nicht nur im Designprozess, sondern auch bei der Auswahl der Models und Künstler, die ich ausstatte. Es ist mir wichtig, dass sich diese Vision durch alle Bereiche meines Labels zieht: IMPARI verbindet Menschen, und es geht um mehr LIEBE und BEWUSSTSEIN.’’
WAS STEHT BEI IMPARI ALS NÄCHSTES AN?
Impari hat gerade die erste Online-Kollektion ONT_KOP herausgebracht. Der Sinn der Kollektion ist, dass wir Menschen uns mehr und mehr von der Erde abkoppeln. Wir sind nicht mehr mit unserer Umwelt verbunden. Ich habe alle Materialien aus zertifiziertem, recyceltem PET hergestellt. Die Mission von Impari ist es, nachhaltige Mode mit sozialer Verantwortung zu verbinden. Deshalb hat Impari eine Zusammenarbeit mit Code for Afrika, einem Projekt in Ghana, begonnen. Wir werden vor Ort Workshops anbieten, um neue Produkte aus Fast Fashion und Abfällen herzustellen. Und Künstlern neue Möglichkeiten zu geben, ihr eigenes Geschäft nachhaltig zu entwickeln. Außerdem möchten wir in Zukunft mit Recyclingunternehmen zusammen arbeiten, um neue Materialien aus Abfällen herzustellen. Die Modeindustrie schafft immer neue Materialien aus neuen Ressourcen, und dabei wird der ganze vorhandene Müll vergessen. Davon müssen wir unsere Erde erst einmal befreien.
Berlin is a city that is home to the cutting-edge creative scene spanning from music to art to fashion. At the forefront of this space is fashion brand IMPARI lead and founded by designer Jana Heinemann. The brand prioritises colour and expression, aiming to “connect people through art, illustrating the world’s diversity and encouraging unity”.
Heinemann herself got an early start in fashion design, at the age of 12 she was already using her grandmother’s sewing machine to create accessories. This quickly turned into aspirations to use her passion is to encourage people to embrace their own unique styles and make a positive impact on the world. Her design is driven with colour and pattern, designing her clothing to stand out and not blend in – “a colourful capsule of street elegance”.
Impari is also a brand synonymous with sustainability, using a zero-waste approach. Her designs reuse all cuttings from past designs in future ones, which aligns with her pattern mixing and striking silhouettes. By focusing on the environment communities can come together and reconnect with each other and the earth – Jana hopes to be a driving force in this outcome.
Berlin has been a huge component in her development as a designer “the biggest inspiration I get from the people in Berlin, and also the nightlife, events, art exhibitions and markets. Especially from the exchange with other artists”. Being tied so intrinsically with the city has given her designs a fresh edge that feels relevant within the confines of the urban metropolis.
UNCLE collaborated with Impari on a mission to make the streets as colourful as her fashion with wildposting and billboards across the city. We discussed her design beginnings, inspiration and future goals and discovered her optimistic responses are as mystical as her clothing.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
The choice of fabric is very important to me – not only should it be as sustainable as possible, but the fabrics themselves often inspire me about how a garment will turn out. But of course, also everything that surrounds me – Berlin, people, friends, colours, traveling, the art scene, and the music scene. Many of my ideas arise when I dance and especially travelling, meeting different beings, the conversations with friends and with my man too.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO FASHION?
I started sewing with my grandmother’s sewing machine when I was 12, then I sewed scarves during my bank apprenticeship and sold them. From that moment on, I realized people love it when different materials and prints meet each other. I arrived in the fashion world in 2015 when I started my tailor apprenticeship on the famous Boulevard ‘Ku’damm’ in Berlin.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING YOU CREATED?
A handbag when I was 12 looked more like a jute bag with a big bow, but I was super proud, and it turned out that bags still play an enormous role in my life, in every shape and colour.
DESCRIBE YOUR DESIGN PROCESS?
I produce each piece with zero waste by reusing all my cuttings in future pieces and all my garments are produced locally. I use various machines, including an old treadle sewing machine – I love to sew and producing something with my own hands. I design 3D elements with a digital program or drawings for my print production.
WHAT DOES FASHION MEAN TO YOU?
Fashion is everywhere in my life – it is my profession, my passion, and my addiction. For me, it plays such a big role because it is the cover with which I can carry my inner self to the outside world. I can reflect my creativity and personality. Also, with fashion, you can make statements, give others a smile, inspire others, and convince them to be allowed to be individuals. Fashion can make you more self-confident and give you strength. When you have found your style, fashion gives you joy and the feeling of being yourself.
WHAT IS THE THING YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT BEING A DESIGNER?
Every day is different and new, I feel free as a designer. Even though the job is anything but a 9 to 5, it accompanies me every minute of my life because everything is always inspiring. Design for me means everything that surrounds me influences my work. I do this profession because it comes out of me and grows with me. Everything I have experienced, especially during my time with IMPARI, has made me what I am now and that makes me incredibly proud. I call myself Ms. Impari because being the designer of my brand is a gift – that gives me so much gratitude. I can’t imagine any other profession.
HOW HAVE YOU REFINED YOUR OWN PERSONAL STYLE?
I would call my style a colourful capsule of street elegance. I love to combine all colours and prints with each other – comfortable and extraordinary. I can never wear enough accessories, that makes an outfit even more valuable, in my opinion. That’s why I also put a lot of emphasis on accessories at Impari. Of course, my daily looks cannot be missing unusual shoes, bags and sunglasses – more is more, then I feel perfect.
DOES COLOUR MEAN A LOT TO YOU? WHY?
Colours are everything, without colours life would be grey and boring. Unfortunately, we are losing colour through the fast fashion industry, everything looks more and more the same. There are almost no more unique pieces. People think it is normal to pay five euros for a T-shirt, but I think it’s sad that handcraft has lost so much appreciation. That’s why I’m trying to bring the colours back to the streets with IMPARI, where we need more joy and variety in this fast-paced world. I think the more we show how colourful the world is, the more people will adapt. For me, connecting with other individuals is the most beautiful thing to experience, it is simply the greatest gift and the most beautiful inspiration we have.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR ARTWORK DESIGN? THE CREATIVE DIRECTION/IT’S MEANING?
Impari is different, it should give everyone the opportunity to find themselves and feel comfortable. My artwork are my prints and the unusual colour combinations. In addition, I make sure that my patterns are special and comfortable, and each person can find something suitable for his body. An important part of my work are also my fashion shows. I love to surprise the audience with a dance performance or a musical act. My shows always tell a story and is diverse, I want it to touch the audience or make them think.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT BERLIN?
Berlin is a city with a thousand faces and even more stories. I love that you can never have seen everything in Berlin. It’s incredibly inspiring and super exciting. Also, you have so many opportunities to experience different cultures and places that you would otherwise have to travel to. If you want to be fashionable, Berlin has unlimited possibilities.
HOW HAS BERLIN SHAPED YOU AS A DESIGNER?
In Berlin, I did my tailor training and then also my fashion design studies. So Berlin has been with me from the beginning. The city has shaped me, constantly changing and by the many incredible personalities I was allowed to meet here. I also get a lot of inspiration from Berlin’s nightlife. Everything in Berlin is so changeable and edgy for me. It’s not a perfectly clean German city, and that’s what excites me the most. It’s different, fresh, and wild. I can relate to Berlin very well.
WHY IS YOUR SHOP AND THE EVENTS YOU RUN IMPORTANT TO YOU?
In my store, I can enjoy personal contact with my customers and have space for my creativity. I can also let the design of my working environment speak for Impari. I like to make custom-made pieces there which is, in my opinion, an incredible gift. In addition, people notice Impari, who might never have discovered me online. My events are especially important to me because I want to create a space for creative individuals, artists, and fashion-interested beings. I want us to push and support each other more. Everyone is so individual, and I think competition is just a downer, and really old-fashioned. We can all grow faster together in a more sustainable way.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE YOUR BRAND?
IMPARI means unequal. Unequal to me expresses individuality. Self-created prints in combination with a wide variety of materials and colours characterised the signature of my designs. The most important thing is that I want to set a new view on sustainability in the fashion scene. I want to show that sustainable clothing can be modern and that joy, individuality, and connectedness can be expressed through bright colours. The most important thing in my design process, which is also reflected in all my designs, is diversity. The values of IMPARI are sustainability at its core and bringing real diversity to the outside world through fashion. Not only in the design process, but also in the choice of models and artists. It is important to me that this vision runs through all areas of my label, IMPARI connects individuals, and it’s about more LOVE and AWARENESS.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR IMPARI?
Impari just launched the first online collection ONT_KOP, all the materials used were certified recycled PET. The mission of Impari is to combine sustainable fashion with social responsibility. That is why Impari started together with Code for Africa, a project in Ghana. We will offer on-site workshops to create new products from fast fashion and waste, and to give artists new opportunities to develop their own businesses sustainably. The fashion industry always creates new materials from new resources, and thereby all the garbage is forgotten. We first must free our earth from that.
