Marco Kaufmann’s great passions are photography and painting. Born in 1975 in Pasewalk, he has made a name for himself with his expressive photographic projects and works of art that have been exhibited in both private and public collections. His painting “High Tide” hangs in the TOWN BAR at ARCOTEL Velvet Berlin. “I chanced upon the structure on the beach at Essaouira during a trip to Morocco. A house had burnt down nearby and the black ash was falling down onto the beach. The high tide had taken the ashes with it, leaving behind this washed-out trace of black, like the sediment from a river. This image spent quite some time floating around in my head before, many years
later, I was finally able to put it to canvas.” His painting “Berlin by the Sea” can be admired in the gallery of the FOREIGN AFFAIRS restaurant. “It captures the magic of that moment in which time appears to stand still, in which the boundary between light and water begins to dissolve. The outline of shadows emerges from the empty white of the sandy hill against the blue of the sea, as if discerned for the fraction of a second from out of the corner of the eye, free from any meaning. The wild top of grass on the tip of the dune could just as well be a green eruption if this explosion of midday light was not so infinitely relaxed and free of all earthly gravity.” LOC is a young and dynamic team of creatives focused especially on artistic prints. Inspired by architectural analysis and an urban development approach, LOC shows people in their urban environment. The collective’s members, Lukas König, Olga Weber and Christoph Schulz, are constantly on the lookout for new approaches and new materials to work with in their own signature way. Art or design, each work is preceded by extensive material research. The series of bar cards for ARCOTEL Velvet Berlin, for example, was strongly influenced by the use of metallic materials. The formal approach was inspired by the unique façade of the hotel building, the proportions of which were transferred to the material. Using various etching, coating and bleaching processes, the trio created a series of individual copper cards that together form a set of individual cards suitably representative of the different facets of the hotel.
ARCO TEL John
www.marcokaufmann.de www.raum303.de
F Berlin
ARCO TEL Vel 22
vet Berlin
STORIES №18
Must be!
Photos: LOC
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ne thing that is really special about Berlin is the presentation of art in the public space. With modern hotels a natural choice of venue. The contemporary architecture of such hotels can serve as a suitable setting that is itself noticed and appreciated by the art-savvy public. By people who prefer to reside surrounded by style and design. ARCOTEL Velvet Berlin, the other 4-star hotel in Berlin-Mitte, is such a symbol of urban and urbane living. Berlin-Mitte is where the German capital truly comes alive, every day, with start-up businesses, coffee to go, pop-up bars, restaurants, cafés and galleries. The morning is full of young creatives on their way to create. ARCOTEL Velvet sees itself as a natural part of the art and culture scene near Friedrichstraße and Hackesche Höfe. Exhibitions include works by artists like Marco Kaufmann or the art collective LOC (Lukas König, Olga Weber and Christoph Schulz).