Boating news

If the Berlin Biennale is one thing, it’s a lot of fun. There’s a toy train to ride on, a canopy bed to sprawl across, entertainment on videos everywhere, VR headsets, twisted digitally inspired incarnations of the familiar, and a boat ride. With so much art now riding hand-in-hand with the experience business (a partygoer in one video claimed, ‘If it came to having a job or having an experience I’d always go for the experience.’ - OK robots OTY). 

And so onto the water in one of Berlin’s tourist boats decked out as a post-apocalyptic relic. In the company of a large mutant rat, mud and artificial orchids we cruised up the river Spree with Berlin sliding past in its contrast and glory. To seal the relational aestheticness of it all Rirkrit Tiravanija was onboard as well as the voluable artist. It was quite a ride topped off when Moby Dick, another tour boat elaborately decked out as a killer whale, sailed by. Everyone in the post-apocalyptic vessel waved and cheered in admiration. 

As it passed we heard the artist mutter, ‘That’s my boat, that’s the one I wanted.’ He could have been quoting Melville himself, ‘”What do ye do when ye see a whale, men?” “Sing out for him!” was the impulsive rejoinder.’

Images: top, Korakrit Arunanondchai / Alex-Gvojic boat instalation There's a world I'm trying to remember, for a feeling I'm about to have (a distractedpath towardextinction), Middle, Moby Dick and bottom, fellow traveler Rirkrit Tiravanija