RAF SIMONS TRANSMISSION1 BERLIN

Here’s how the Berlin story goes. In early May, Raf Simons’ assistant emailed me asking for my phone number, which I duly sent. Little did I know that a few days later Raf himself would call me and ask if I wanted to participate in an event that he was putting on in Berlin in July. For me, the enormity of the call alone is incredible. Being such a big fan of Raf Simons, I nearly had a heart attack when I warily answered the call from an unrecognised international number and suddenly found myself shaking, talking to my all-time fashion hero for the first time. I am not ashamed to admit that I almost cried afterwards. I accepted straight away, even though the details about the event were all secret at the time. Over the course of many emails to and from the creative agency in Berlin which was managing the production, I found out that the event would be a three day ‘avant-garde’ festival, curated by Raf Simons and sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, at which I would live blog, alongside Begüm of Dandy Gum blog.

I cannot stress enough how incredibly honoured I was to be chosen by Raf Simons (Raf Simons!) to participate at his event, alongside infinitely bigger names, like Peter Saville, Tim Blanks and These New Puritans, but I’m going to be as objective as possible discussing the three days. I was flown to Berlin in business class, put up in one of the most expensive hotels in the city, and driven everywhere by a uniformed driver in a very luxurious Mercedes car. This immediately underlined an interesting (and sometimes slightly uncomfortable) juxtaposition between the creative energy from Raf Simons and his chosen participants (and indeed from the city of Berlin), and the corporate big money and marketing aims of Mercedes-Benz.

The amount of money Mercedes-Benz must have spent on the event is extraordinary. A large number of journalists and editors were also flown to Berlin, chauffeured around and accommodated in the same hotel as me, so that they could witness the opening night and an odd PowerPoint presentation given to the press in which a wonderfully ‘mad professor’ type from Mercedes’ marketing department went through the brand’s cultural significance over the years. There were billboards up all over Berlin advertising the event, and anyone in the city who had earlier collected a free ticket from the modernist Congress Centre, where the event was held, had free access to all the performances, as well as unlimited drinks once inside. Standing alongside the event, which Mercedes plans to repeat in other cities with different curators and participants, is the on-going Avant-Garde Diaries website, which will feature short films on creative people and places, constantly updated. This seems to be a major commitment for Mercedes, because an office is opening in New York to house the Avant-Garde Diaries team, and making the videos is a serious business. The video of me was filmed over the course of a day in London with a team of three, and many hours of editing were subsequently put in to produce the polished end piece.

The intended outcome of all this spending for Mercedes is to endear itself to a younger, hipper audience, and to introduce its new concept A-Class car (which was presented in a sleek light and smoke ‘cube’ in the centre of the venue, created by Germaine Kruip and Thierry Dreyfuss). A car which, incidentally, very few young people will be able to afford, at least in the West. Perhaps Mercedes is taking a longer term view, hoping that when the time comes to buy a comfy family estate car, or a big-bonus lead sports car, Berliners will remember the great night out they had on Mercedes back in 2011. You can’t, however, doubt Mercedes-Benz’s commitment to marketing via the fashion world: the official name of New York Fashion Week, for example, is actually Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week – New York.

My live blogging was not as successful as it might have been for two reasons. The first was that, understandably, people didn’t seem that interested in standing up watching me blog live on a big screen; you normally read blogs when you’re seated at your computer or with your iPad or whatever, not with drink in hand as a secondary attraction to a performance by Fischerspooner or These New Puritans. The second was that my creative energy was diminished by the odd surroundings and context. Berlin is probably the most alive, cutting-edge city in Europe, but on this visit my impression of it was almost entirely from behind the blacked-out windows of my car (which was uncannily always waiting as soon as I stepped out of the hotel or venue). Berlin is full of ‘happening’ places to stay, but I was cutting this strange figure in an incredibly grand, traditional hotel in the business district. I felt more like a visiting head of state than a 20 year old blogger. In the venue, Begüm and I had these plush ‘blogger rooms,’ in my case furnished with thousands of euros worth of vintage Eames furniture, in which we were seated with our laptops. It was a surreal environment, not least because visitors weren’t really sure if they could come in or not, or interact with us, so it ended up being a ‘come and see what a blogger looks like then leave’ sort of thing. There was also a menacing-looking security guard in a black suit with an earpiece standing by the door watching us (and the expensive furniture) all the time.

The other participants’ performances and installations were, however, definitely worth seeing. There were fantastic performances by Belgian electro-rock band Goose and the Michael Clark Dance Company, and very good performances by These New Puritans (who seemed just slightly bemused at the whole car showroom thing) and Fischerspooner. Konstantin Gricic’s ‘360’ chairs were placed around the venue, with the addition of flashing LED lights on their pedestals giving an otherworldly effect in the darkened space. Peter de Potter showed an edited selection of his photographs all around the upper floor of the space, which really appealed to me with their grainy angst and strong youth themes. Jo-Ann Furniss, Tim Blanks and Paul Morley held an interesting panel discussion about pop culture. Begüm’s live blogging was much more successful than mine, because she had prepared a few of her stunning visuals before the event, including a genius film which interposed Raf Simons’ work with stylish mechanical and automotive footage. I was thrown by Peter Saville’s contribution: his personal Mercedes from 1998 parked inside the venue, with Joy Division and New Order playing on the radio. Was he laughing at the whole thing, by providing nothing more than the ultimate, marketing-appropriate readymade installation?

So there you have it, a suitably surreal, amazing but odd, once-in-a-lifetime experience. The latent awkwardness was really emphasised on the first night when Mercedes’ distinctly un-rock’n’roll Vice President took to the stage, microphone in hand, to welcome the assembled crowd of Berlin cool kids, and introduce These New Puritans. Most of the journalists I spoke to had picked up on this, but were reluctant to dwell on the tensions in the concept of the event because, as one put it, “Mercedes takes a prime double-page advertising space in every issue.” I didn’t speak to Raf much, partly because he was always very busy with interviews, and partly because I think I like him being slightly distant to me. The risk of meeting your heroes and all that. I cannot emphasis strongly enough how much I admire his approach and his work, and I didn’t want to conflate that with the slightly weird Mercedes connection.

My blogging room:

Peter Saville's car:

Peter de Potter's installation:

The car:

Never come across transparent touch screens before:

Goose on stage:

Drivers and security outside the hotel: