Striking resemblance to her great idol Marilyn Monroe: Suzie Kennedy in the Berlin lookalike show “Stars in Concert”  (Photo credit: Stars in Concert)

When Suzie Kennedy walks into a room, everyone in it takes a trip back in time. With her bleach-blonde hair, bright red lips and porcelain skin, she’s the spitting image of Marilyn Monroe. The similarities are not just skin-deep; she sings, speaks and even moves just like the glamorous Hollywood star. All in all, the resemblances pay off, not least when portraying Monroe in the internationally-renowned tribute show “Stars in Concert” as Kennedy has done for the last eight years.

“Acting was never my dream job”, Kennedy says. She wanted to be a vet, but her family couldn’t afford the tuition. She was born to a teacher and a draughtsman in Grants Pass, a city close to the Californian border in Oregon, USA. Kennedy’s parents separated when she was two years old.

She looks confusingly similar

She and her older sister grew up in London, and their father died when Kennedy was just a teenager. Her talents for singing and dancing were discovered by sheer stroke of luck, when, at the age of 15, she applied for work experience running errands for a dance school. The school let her take free ballet classes every day as payment. Afterwards, when Kennedy was studying for her A-Levels at college, people began commenting on her likeness to the Hollywood icon. An agent sent her to an audition, and she landed her breakthrough job: filming an advert for Nestlé with supermodel Naomi Campbell. From then on, the jobs came rolling in. Kennedy has worked for the likes of Citroën and Pepsi, and has appeared in international theatre, TV, and film productions. Acting alongside stars such as Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, she’s had roles in the documentary “Who Killed Marilyn Monroe”, the Italian film “Io & Marilyn” and “Blade Runner 2049”.

In 2016, Kennedy modelled Monroe’s iconic clothes for the auction house Julien’s Auctions. By happy coincidence, she is the same size as Marilyn was. The star was known for her curvaceous figure, but, as Kennedy stresses: “Marilyn was actually very delicate. She almost had a fragility to her.” Kennedy drastically changed her diet several years ago. Today, she is a vegetarian and stays trim thanks to her discipline, daily jogging, and working out with weights. Maintaining her flawless alabaster skin is simple in comparison: She doesn’t smoke and religiously applies a cream with SPF 50.

“I can’t just take off this look”, Suzie Kennedy says. (Photo credit: NOVA Productions)

Kennedy’s wardrobe contains 40 replicas of the Hollywood legend’s iconic outfits. Her collection includes a dress identical to the one Monroe wore when she famously sang “Happy Birthday, Mr President” for the former U.S. president John F. Kennedy: a skin-tight silky number with thousands of crystals hand-sewn onto the fabric. The original sold for 4.8 million dollars at an auction to Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in America. Kennedy – the name is another happy coincidence – is regularly booked to perform the birthday song, with audiences including American TV star Eva Longoria and British businessman Sir Richard Branson.

In 2017, Kennedy won the accolade “Best Female Double” in Las Vegas for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe. It was also in L.A. that she was discovered by “Stars in Concert” producer, Bernhard Kurz, back in 2010. Since then, she’s appeared regularly in the line-up of the internationally-renowned tribute show.

Kennedy becomes Monroe on-stage, but even off-stage, she lives and breathes the spirit of the Hollywood icon. She has read every biography and watched every film Monroe has acted in. “Marilyn is my soul mate. I’m just like her: vulnerable and a little shy, but I know exactly what I want.” They also share a difficult childhood; both women grew up without a father. “I admire Marilyn for the uncompromising willpower that helped her become the most famous woman of her time.”

Marilyn, her soul mate

Six years ago, Kennedy got her first tattoo out of gratitude towards her idol – a portrait of Monroe on her right wrist. “Marilyn changed my life. Everything I do, I do because of her.” Since then, the Hollywood star is always with Kennedy. “While I was getting this tattoo, I could feel her becoming a part of me.”

Kennedy has a twinkle in her green eyes when she confesses that there are, of course, some differences between the two women. For one, Monroe’s eyes were blue, and Kennedy believes that her idol got mixed up with the wrong crowd. “I’m lucky to have such wonderful friends, not to mention a great relationship with my mother”, she reflects. “But for me, the most important thing is my faith in God.” Even when she’s performing in Berlin, Kennedy prays every day and goes to Sunday services at the American Church.

Kennedy regards Berlin as a home away from her real home in London, where she lives with her pug dog and two cats. She loves the cosmopolitan vibe of the German capital, which is relatively affordable compared to London. Her favourite spot is the “Thai Park”, where an informal weekly food market sells fresh Asian delicacies for just a few euros.

Six years ago, Kennedy got her first tattoo out of gratitude towards her idol (Photo credit: NOVA Productions)

Does she always channel Monroe in her day-to-day life? “I can’t just take off this look”, Kennedy says. She is often mistaken for Monroe when she’s out and about in the supermarket or in restaurants. “It has its benefits. I always get a table”, she laughs. However, her sensuous look has its downsides, too: some see her as a “blonde bimbo”, a stereotype that Monroe also struggled against all her life.

Is it difficult, always pretending to be someone else? “Lots of people would probably be happier if they were able to escape themselves now and then”, Kennedy answers with a smile. She has been portraying Monroe for over two decades now, but she won’t be able to play the starlet forever. Although she looks much younger than her 42 years, Kennedy is now older than her idol ever was – Monroe died at 36 under mysterious circumstances. Kennedy is well aware that the bookings will eventually dry up, marking the end of her career as a look-alike. Marilyn Monroe is her defining role, and she can’t imagine ever playing another person. “Being Marilyn isn’t a job, it’s an honour.” BvH

Suzie Kennedy hopes to perform as Marilyn Monroe in the Berlin “Stars in Concert” show at the Estrel Hotel soon again (Photo credit: NOVA Productions)

Contact and Infos:

stars-in-concert.de

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“The picture with the ice bubbles was taken on the lake “Lake Abraham” in Canada. Despite the warnings of the lodge owner I went to the lake with its almost black ice. The picture is quite abstract, could also be pop art,” says Tom Jacobi

It’s Gallery Weekend in Berlin! Already last week the Hamburg photographer Tom Jacobi opened his exhibition “Into the Light” in the Berlin gallery SRC. Some of his large-format, black-and-white photographs were printed on silk by the Paris luxury label Hermès, which is unique to date. Tom Jacobi was a fashion photographer and art director for Stern magazine. Thereby he almost lost his passion for photography.

MyStylery: Congratulations on your coup with Hermès! How did that happen?
Tom Jacobi: Everybody takes photos on paper and so I had the idea to print on fabric, because I always look for a relation to nature. Silk was an obvious thought. Talks and tests followed and Hermès gave me an unexpected promise. Now the pictures are produced on original silk by Hermès in France.
MS: How old were you when you first held a camera in your hand?
TJ: 14 or 15. I was given a Novoflex and photographed the cat on the windowsill and sunsets.

Tom Jacobi: Peaceful Mind

MS: Back then, did you already have the idea of becoming a photographer?
TJ: Not until I was 17, when a photo of me was published in a book. It showed a Kendo master fighting with a Japanese sword. A sport that I practiced myself at that time. When you see a picture of yourself printed on paper for the first time, it’s a magic that I still feel today.
MS: Do you still print private photos?
TJ: Oh yes, I made a serious mistake when I gave my wife a photo album for her first birthday after we met, with self-adhesive photos, created layouts and handwritten comments. Since then I have been obliged to document our entire private lives and travels in old-fashioned photo albums. (laughs)

Tom Jacobi: Black Line

MS: Your father was the legendary journalist Claus Jacobi, editor-in-chief of Spiegel, Stern and BILD-Zeitung. Did that stop you from going into journalism yourself?
TJ: Totally. I would have exposed myself to the constant comparison. Through my friendship with Sven Simon, the son of publisher Axel Springer, I came to Bonn and worked there in his photo agency. I primarily photographed politicians such as Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl. Later I was a photographer for the “Stern”. With all the risks. During a reportage in Iran they put me against the wall and wanted to shoot me because I was considered a spy.
MS: Was that the reason why you haven’t photographed for 14 years?
TJ: No, that developed during my time as a fashion and advertising photographer. This commercial work and the wishes of the customers, to shoot the coat from the left or rather from the right, the car from above or below, completely drove me out of passion at that time. And why should a well-filled bank account be of any use if all creativity is lost? I just wasn’t happy with it anymore and even sold all my cameras because I was convinced that I would never photograph again.

Tom Jacobi: The Majestic

MS: Now you’re back with the camera. For the current exhibition “Into the Light” you even travelled around the globe for two years together with your wife Kati.
TJ: That was an exciting time, also for us as a couple. We love to be together. Kati also has a big influence on what I photograph. She is my corrective. (smiles) You become humble when you are travelling in the White Desert of Egypt, camping there with two Bedouins, without worrying about safety. In retrospect, it was risky.
MS: It happens that you sit on a cliff for five hours waiting for the right light. What is the right light, the right moment?
TJ: That I cannot say. It’s a feeling. My work has a lot to do with patience and discipline, often I wait days for the right moment, although I have researched the motifs very carefully before.

Tom Jacobi and I in front of a photo in the Berlin gallery SR Contemporary Art, which shows a huge salt desert in Bolivia at an altitude of 4,000 meters. Only during the rainy season water stands on the salt and creates this perfect mirror effect

MS: You are often far away from everything. How do you bear silence?
TJ: I like that very much. Not everyone can stand silence. Once I was accompanied by a friend who got nervous after a short time, which stressed me again. At that moment, I decided not to take anyone with me anymore. I am completely one with myself, there is something very contemplative about it.
MS: Was there a dangerous situation on your journey?
TJ: As a photographer, you’re always a hunter who takes risks. In Iceland, I wanted to go to a waterfall, where I fell several times over an icy surface and slid down a slope. A wasteland without a mobile phone net or the chance to be found. Then I bought a satellite-supported emergency call system. To die because of a broken ankle is quite unnecessary. BvH

Exhibition “Into the Light”

Tom Jacobi’s art exhibition in the Gallery SR Contemporary Art, Niebuhrstraße 11a in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Until May 20

Contact Tom Jacobi

tomjacobi.de

More art stories you can find here.

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Meet me for Tea with H.P. Baxxter, Frontman of Germany’s most successful band Scooter

He has been mixing up the Techno scene like no one else for 25 years: H.P. Baxxter and his band Scooter. When the native East Friesian, who in real life is called Hans Peter Geerdes, enters the stage and roars “Hyper, Hyper” and “How much is the fish”, there is nothing stopping him. Then the crowd rages and 13,000 fans of all ages in the sold-out Berlin concert hall “Velodrom” get into happy frenzy. Who gets to know him, is sometimes surprised: H.P. Baxxter, who has invented shouting for his hits, is rather cautiously quiet and very polite in private. Meet me for Tea with the hydrogen-peroxide-blonde successful musician and a strong East Frisian mix in the cup.

H. P. Baxxter prefers East Frisian tea, a blend of Assam, Ceylon and a dash of Darjeeling, a very strong tea. Cream and candy are needed for refinement

MyStylery: Does the East Friesian make East Friesian jokes all the time?
H.P. Baxxter (laughs): The East Friesian drinks tea, however making the jokes is not true.
MS: You are an enthusiastic tea drinker since childhood. What brought you to the taste?
HPB: As long as I can remember, we had tea after lunch. I thought that was the case all over the world. In the morning for breakfast black tea, in the afternoon also with friends a cup and then for dinner. Black tea never prevented me from falling asleep either.
MS: So tea is strongly linked to your childhood memories …
HPB: Exactly. As a child, I liked to have a sleepover at my grandma’s. I was allowed to stay up late there. And it was our tradition to sit in the kitchen just before going to bed and drink black East Friesian tea, but with lots of candy and cream.
MS: This reminds of English tea drinking habits …
HPB: I also like to take PJ Tips tea bags from England. Especially when we are in the studio and the leisure is missing. At least there are tea mugs with the likeness of the Queen and Prince Charles (laughs). At home I especially like to drink the mixture “Bünting Privat Ostfriesentee”. This is a very high quality tea, which is important in the rather moderate, very calcareous water quality of Hamburg. In East Frisia, the water is much softer. I drink coffee very rarely, for example on Sunday afternoon with the cheese-cake.

Me and H.P. Baxxter in his suite at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin

MS: Does anyone still call you Hans-Peter?
HPB: Yes, my mother. Mostly. Sometimes she says HP. The name Hans-Peter was a problem for me as a child. I was so glad when my chemistry teacher in the 11th grade came up with the idea of ​​calling me “HP”. I suspect the idea came to him through the TV series Dallas and the villain JR. (Laughs)
MS: Are you checking in at the hotel under the name Geerdes or Baxxter?
HPB: When I’m officially with the band, always under Baxxter. In such a moment I get angry, when it says Hans-Peter Geerdes. This is private and is used when I order a craftsman for home. Although at first I always had to laugh when my manager at the front desk asked if the suite for Mr Baxxter was ready. In the restaurant I get the better table, if I order under the name Baxxter.
MS: Does your popularity sometimes annoy you?
HPB: When I’m stressed out, arriving the airport last minute and just then get into a bachelor party, where I’m asked for selfies and autographs, then that’s exhausting. On the other hand, of course, an indicator that you are still on the radar.

“The cups from KPM would also do well at my home,” says H.P. Baxxter

MS: Scooter has been Germany’s most successful band since 1993. This year you have the 25th anniversary. You are still the only founding member. Actually, you could sit back and relax now.
HPB: Music has always been my life, which I have never considered work, but always a great pleasure and a lot of fun.
MS: You always have to come up with something new …
HPB: Like the co-operations with Vicky Leandros or Status Quo, which are mostly spontaneous. We used to go back to the studio immediately after each tour and continue to work. Sure, there were phases when we could not think of anything. We then took nine month-break. A creative break, so to speak. Why didn’t we do that more often? I wonder.
MS: With the end of the “Love Parade”, some also saw the end of the Techno era. Is Techno still up to date?
HPB: Techno has changed a lot, but is still a matter. And this since more than 30 years now. There are different currents like Minimal or Electro House. In the clubs in Ibiza like the Pacha exactly these beats are played again. The sound of the gigantic open-air festivals eventually has its roots in Techno.

H. P. Baxxter remained on the ground: “It was a stroke of luck that we had slaved away without success for a long time, and when success came, it did not seem natural to us.”

MS: How do you explain the great success of Scooter abroad, of all things in Scandinavia or Russia?
HPB: In Russia with the political circumstances and the euphoria caused by the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Wall. Our sound was and is the connection between East and West. The Russian fans are also very loyal. They have heard us in their youth and still do today. And younger ones come after.
MS: Children want to become locomotive drivers or astronauts. You dreamed of a career as a musician.
HPB: I was totally fascinated by the glam rock era of the 70s, by bands like Sweet and T. Rex. The highlight of the week for me was when the shows like Beat Club or Disco with Ilja Richter came on German TV. At 14, I had my first student band. There was no one in my hometown of Leer who took this as seriously as I did. Some lacked the discipline to rehearse three times a week. For many it was just hobby-like rumbling. There I sometimes stood alone with my guitar.
MS: Can you actually sing properly? You have never been in the church- or school choir, right?
HPB: No. I always refused. My singing, the shouting, was the inspiration of a spontaneous idea. I actually saw myself as a great guitarist. When I became interested in electronic music and New Wave, like Depeche Mode or Simple Minds, I could not do anything with my guitar. So I switched to singing, although I had never sung at the time. The advantage of the 80s was that everyone had sung wrong. Expression and stage presence were crucial. So I became a frontman and a little later we founded Scooter.

H. P. Baxxter has a preference for the English way of life: “Last year, I made a dream come true and drove the Oldtimer through the Highlands, descended in old castles and drank a Scotch whiskey by the fire in the evening.”

MS: Many musicians take drugs. How do you manage to keep your hands off?
HPB: I’m watching the Narcos series on Netflix right now. Insanity, if you imagine how many tons of coke alone the Pablo Escobar clan has shipped and to what extent the people have always been taking it. For me, that was never an issue, even if I sometimes felt like the stupid, clueless redneck. Sometimes I regret that I’ve never been so Rock’n’Roll, not someone who just blew up all conventions. I do not have this self-destructive gene of an Amy Winehouse. I’m just too conservative for that.
MS: And you live that way too. Have you always been so Anglophile?
HPB: As a child I loved English series, “Captain Weasel”, “ Upstairs, Downstairs“, “All Creatures Great and Small“. I have always liked the dignified English way of life. Rock musicians like Mick Jagger then lived like English landlords, drove Rolls Royce and were simply cool. At the age of 16, I was in England for the first time, where I made a bike tour to London with a buddy. That blew me away.
MS: Some interpret this as a petit-bourgeois way of life. ‘HP and his stuffy antelopes’ was the title of an article about you.
HPB: Many have this pigeonholing. Does a musician always have to live in a minimalist industrial loft? I like to break with conventions. I do not consider gnu, tiger or zebra as hunting trophies, with which I adorn myself, but as part of my furnishing concept. I love this bizarre.
MS: And you find that in Hamburg-Duvenstedt? Why do you not live in Berlin?
HPB: I need the rural as compensation. I’m rarely home enough. Last year I was on the road for months straight. I really enjoy sitting around the fireplace for five evenings in a row, watching shows and drinking my tea!

“I need the rural as compensation. I really enjoy sitting around the fireplace for five evenings in a row, watching shows and drinking my tea”, says H.P. Baxxter

MS: Your career is interesting: You were a law student in Hannover …
HPB: That was the only way to get out of the small town. After all, I was in college for three weeks. (laughs) Then I decided on a commercial apprenticeship, two and a half years in a dental wholesaler. I would recommend anyone an apprenticeship as a professional basis.
MS: Did you ever think that you would also be a member of the TV casting shows DSDS and X-Factor jury, as well as having guest appearances in some German TV series?
HPB: No and I will certainly not start as an actor. These were not character roles. (laughs) Rather short appearances where I say, “How much is the fish”. But it’s fun to get involved in something new.
MS: You were married twice. Will there be a third time?
HPB: Three times is “East Frisian right”, is a saying in East Frisia. I would not bar it. I also believe in fate and do not do anything compulsively.
MS: You are a family man with close contact to your mother and the children of your sister. Do you regret not having your own children?
HPB: It just didn’t come about. Sometimes I find it a pity not to have a son with whom I could do pub tours today.

“When it comes to cars, everything stands still for me. That’s my biggest passion after the music. I have four vintage cars, two old Jaguars, a Rolls Royce, a lime green Bentley.”

MS: Do you feel a bit alone in your big house? You do not even have pets, you just hang around with those stuffed things.
HPB: Yes, that’s the way it is. Sometimes I have to talk to my gnu. (laughs) In my time as a single, there was one or the other lonely moment. But I am in a new relationship since a year and a half.
MS: Your girlfriend is 26 years younger than you. Not just a slight age difference…
HPB: It makes a difference whether your partner is 18 or 28. A certain life experience is certainly not a disadvantage. My previous partner was the same age as I, and I thought, she knew about life with her maturity. Everything would be relaxed, I thought. The opposite was the case. I need a woman by my side, who also has power, likes to go out and has a certain independence.
MS: How important is the encounter at eye level through similar experiences? You can look back on moments, where your girlfriend was not even born.
HPB: Yes, I agree with you. But after three years you do not talk about it anymore. Common interests are much more important to me.
MS: Speaking of planning for the future: Scooter and no end in sight?
HPB: I do it for as long as it’s really fun, full house, people are having fun and everything feels good. It was a long way to be able to perform at major mainstream festivals like Highfield. Traipse round discos with my hits that I played 30 years ago would not be my world. I think I’ll just fall dead on stage someday.  BvH

Info H.P. Baxxter and Scooter:

No German band ever had as many top ten hits as Scooter. With 30 million records sold in over 50 countries, Scooter is the most successful German band – consisting of H.P. Baxxter, Michael Simon and Phil Speiser – at all.

13.000 Fans – and me – at the Scooter concert in the Berlin concert hall “Velodrom”

Dates for the anniversary tour „100% Scooter – 25 Years Wild & Wicked Tour“:

Fri            08/17/2018          Hamburg (Trabrennbahn Bahrenfeld)

Sa            08/18/2018          Dresden (Elbufer)

Sa            08/25/2018          Beverungen (Weserufer)

The interview series “Meet me for Tea” is sponsored by KPM – Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur Berlin.
More interviews you’ll here.

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The Livingroom of Thomas Dellert-Dellacroix in his Loft in Berlin-Kreuzberg

In the 70’s, Andy Warhol decided that Tommy Dollar sounds better than Thomas Dellert. That was the time of the ‘Sex Pistols’ and Dellert was a punk rocker and follower of Warhol. Wether ‘Phantom of the Opera’ or ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’: The multi talent Dellert left out hardly any art- and music genre. Since five years, the native of Stockholm, with compassionate connections to the Swedish royal house, lives in Berlin Kreuzberg. The 120 square meter loft of the former Berlin Wall painter is full of memories and dedicated pictures from Yoko Ono and Michael Jackson to Nina Hagen. One isn’t surprised that the antique Samovar was a present of the Russian tsar family to one of Dellert’s ancestral and that he enjoyed the, meanwhile empty, caviar cans together with the erstwhile Shah of Persia and his wife, Empress Farah Diba.

Multimedia-artist, actor, singer, painter & film maker: Thomas Dellert-Dellacroix

MyStylery: Your life took you to many different cities, Paris, London, New York. Today you live in a former chocolate fabric in Berlin. Does an artist have to be here nowadays?
Thomas Dellert: No, to me, Berlin is only a stopover. I’m restless and in thoughts already somewhere else. Maybe I’ll go back to Paris or Stockholm next.

Highheel on telephone: Artpiece by Thomas Dellert

MS: In your loft you live with your wife and two children. And you also work here…
TD: I never separate work and privacy. My life is my work.

This is what the home of a manic collector looks like

MS: Two times within five years you got robbed. Do the things that stayed with you become a different meaning?
TD: Yes, such as Miles Davis’ trumpet or my collection of stockings from the 30s and 40s. Among is also a pair that Marlene Dietrich gave to me in 1973. Especially the things that can’t be replaced are the important ones. Therefore I saved all my projects on harddrive, which I keep in a hundred years old, very thick steal-safe.

Dellert loves provocation – even and especially in his art

MS: Wherever you look around here, you always find something new. Have you always been a collector?
TD: Yes, a passionate one. My style is creative and full of love. The carpets I designed myself. But I also like Danish design, such as the chair from Kjaerholm.

The black leather chair is by Kjaerholm, the carpets are Dellert-Design

MS: How did you get the idea of wallpapering your bedroom with a leopard print?
TD: (laughs) Since I was 18 I always had a leo-wallpaper. It’s the energy from back then, which I hope for and thereby get back. Now I am 60, three times divorced, survived fires and car accidents. Today I’m standing in the Autumn of life and look back.

Wherever one looks, there is always something new to discover

MS: Kitchen furniture, floor, lampshades, nearly all walls are black here. Why?
TD: I never really thought about this. Black isn’t a color, it’s a powerful basis, a symbol and has something sedative. When I close my eyes, I see black, but also all the other colors. Actually black is the beginning and ending of everything.  BvH

Besides Andy Warhol, Dellert is the only artist who ever designed a SL-Edition for Mercedes

Thomas Dellert’s likeness as a bottle label – also an expression of his versatility

Dellert – who was named Tommy Dollar by Andy Warhol – was enthusiastic about pop art and inspired Warhol to his camouflage series

VIP toilet: On the walls pictures, autographs and dedications from Nina Hagen to Michael Jackson

Former Berlin wall painter Dellert, who was born just eight years after the end of WWII, deals in his works with the war theme, the Holocaust and the division of Germany

Thomas Dellert in his bedroom: Here he also keeps treasures of his collection such as the snakeskin-heels of Leni Riefenstahl or a stage outfit of Jimi Hendrix

Dellert’s art is represented among others in ‘The Absolut Vodka’ Collection and ‘The Heinz Collection’ and the Holocaust Memorial Museum

Dellert was already fascinated of leoprints as a jung man. Today his entire bedroom is papered with it

Memories of Africa. Dellert lived in New York, Barcelona, twelve years in Paris, eight years in London, in Barcelona and in Stuttgart

Customized workplace

Dellert has a certain penchant for the morbid

And again Leo: this time not a print, but a real one

Contact Thomas Dellert:

www.thomasdellert.com

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Having a tea with Judith Milberg, whom I’ve met for the shooting in the Berlin “Regent” Hotel

Judith Milberg is multitasking and multitalented. She studied art history and Egyptology, was an art manager and designer. And has her own TV shows. And yes, she is also the wife of actor Axel Milberg and the mother of three sons. In the exhibition “Aus der Mitte”, Judith Milberg has just presented 40 of her paintings to the public. I meet the lively, cheerful artist for a tea at her home in Munich. Passing her studio, with which she spread out over the entire ground floor over the years, we go up to the kitchen, where Judith Milberg pours the tea water into her favorite pot. In the living room of the Milbergs, which is arranged in a creative mix of old and new, with many books and pictures, one chats like with a familiar friend. “Meet me for Tea” with a very likeable woman.

The art historian, artist and TV presenter Judith Milberg loves tea

MyStylery: Judith, you are a typical Munich child. Did you ever live somewhere else?
Judith Milberg: I am like a wren, when ignoring short stays in New York and Berlin. I love my Munich. Here I know my baker already since childhood. This familiarity is also a feeling of home. The time of TV series “Monaco Franze” and the Munich of the 80s I still find in many places again.
MS: Your husband is from Kiel in Germany’s North.
JM: Axel has been here for 35 years, naturalized so to speak.

Women talking over a cup of Earl Grey tea. Black and without sugar

MS: How is a typical day at the Milberg’s?
JM: When my husband is at home, the common breakfast means the greatest happiness. We enjoy our common moments, which are not disturbed by anyone. Actors are working both on days where there is no filming as well as on shooting days. Without a break, the phone rings with requests for interviews and synchronizing. After breakfast, Axel reads new scripts and I go to my studio. For lunch and dinner we get together again. The shared meals play an important role for us. Here, the mobile phones are turned off and it is spoken.
MS: Your youngest son lives with you. Your older sons are already grown up …
JM: … and they’re very tall guys. Hence, there are conclusions drawn to my age quickly. I always say: one will be 14 in two weeks and the other 15. You can imagine the confused faces of my counterparts. (Laughs)

Typical for Judith: Temperamental, cheerful, easy-going and very humorous

MS: With my daughters, the looks no longer apply to me, but to my girls. There is also a need to get used to it.
JM: Oh, that’s bad. But then there is compliments: who is the mother and who the daughter.
MS: True, but I’m not sure if I want to hear that. By the way, when you google, interesting terms pop up: patchwork family, multi talent, celebrity wife. You do not seem to be the type that can be reduced to the latter.
JM: Not at all. Axel and I are on the same level in every respect.
MS: You are together since 25 years. Was your man back then already as prominent as today?
JM: When we met, Axel was at the “Münchner Kammerspiele” theatre and had a name as an actor here in Munich. I am proud and humble about his great success, Axel is simply an expert.

There is always something to laugh about: Judith Milberg and I

MS: You were then set up by a friend and you married in 2004, you have already been together for eleven years at that point. Did you need so long to be sure of each other?
JM: Axel proposed to me every year. And I did the same. But every time something intervened. This has already become the ‘Running Gag’. When our son August was born, we wanted to get married at the end of December 2004. Then there was this terrible tsunami. We thought, “It can not happen”, and cancelled the whole thing. In the last minute however, we got married in a small circle.
MS: Many celebrity marriages are breaking apart. What is your secret?
JM: We are the most important people to each other. Partners in thought exchange, confidants, consultants regarding topics. With Axel, I feel complete. Life is a single madness, the more important is the mutual pause and exchange. And we quickly get to the point.

Standstill is a foreign word for her: Judith Milberg is always in motion

MS: Your husband is a so-called person of public life. How is that when you are on the move together?
JM: He’s someone who makes himself almost invisible. He does not need the big performance. When he enters a room, then quietly. Of us, I am the extrovert, the lute, always right in the middle and in the conversation. My husband looks at everything from the side, but very curious.
MS: Was it difficult to find and position yourself with such a successful partner?
JM: We have such different professions and I am endowed with a healthy self-confidence so that there has never been a competition for me. This is also due to him and his attitude towards himself and his profession.
MS: Do you measure yourself at the success of the other?
JM: I think that is a problem for many couples. I am fortunate that my husband appreciates what I do, supports and encourages me in my projects as an artist, art historian and in my TV shows such as “Milberg & Wagner”. If I decided tomorrow to become a dairy farmer, Axel would be glad to go with me. We are passionate about one another.

Here you can find the article about Judith Milberg’s art and her exhibitions

MS: You’ve been painting for many years, recently one could see your pictures for the first time in exhibitions in Munich, Kiel and Berlin.
JM: Actually amazing, because I’ve been working on my whole life with art and painting since my childhood.
MS: Have you settled with your painting or is there something new coming?
JM: It has always been painting. Although I have also pursued different career paths, for example as an art manager, the bottom line is always my passion for images.

“I adore Baselitz.”

MS: Do you have an artistic model?
JM: I adore Baselitz. And this is not negotiable. When I meet him, I get snapping. (Laughs)
MS: Does your husband share your passion for art?
JM: Since Axel and I know each other, we go to every museum and talk about pictures. He often sees the pictures differently, approaching them intuitively, sometimes also strictly logical, like a crime scene. We often stand for hours in front of a single picture, talk about it and then go back.

Judith Milberg is enthusiastic about the cups by KPM: “Finally a good size for a teacup.”

MS: Are you so harmonious in everything?
JM: Axel does not drink tea. That annoys me. I used to think I can never be with a man who firstly smokes and secondly does not drink tea.
MS: And, does he smoke?
JM: No.
MS: When I met my husband, he was a chain smoker with up to four packs a day. Can you imagine that?
JM: Wow. As a younger person you are probably more likely to be addictive. I never smoked.
MS: Me neither. Never.
JM: I also could not smoke weed. I can’t even inhale.

“I never smoked weed.”

MS: Haha, I feel the same way. For me, tea is my daily drug. How do you like your tea?
JM: I drink it black without milk and sugar. However, I drink different teas at different times of the day. At the moment, I have a very bad addiction, which holds also already very long: the “BB Detox” tea of ​​Kusmi. I think there’s something in it that makes addicted. There must always be enough of this tea in the house. I also like green tea very much, in the afternoon I drink Earl Grey and in the evening ayurvedic herbal tea. When Axel shoots in Kiel, I let this tea blend with Paul Heyck, a splendid teashop in Kiel. It’s a combination of “Wohlfühlen” and “Seelenharmonie”. You did not know before that I was so crazy about tea, right?
MS: No, and I am totally happy to have found a soul-mate in you.
JM: Really too funny. You and I, we are the same year, the guys we both have since the same time, we both never smoked cigarettes or weed, and both love tea. That cannot be a coincidence.  BvH

Judith Milberg pours hot water into her “Minuet”- teapot from Bredemeijer: “I’ve looked for a thermos pan that looks like a teapot. It is shapely and does not drip. It accompanies me through the day.”

Contact Judith Milberg:

judithmilberg.de

The interview series “Meet me 4 Tea” is sponsored by KPM – Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur.

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Steel giants: the 200-ton installation “Effondrement of Arcs”

When I recently spent a birthday weekend in the South of France with my friends, art collectors and patrons from Recklinghausen, I met a special encounter: The French artist Bernar Venet, one of the internationally outstanding sculptors of the present. His monumental steel sculptures adorn the metropolises around the world – from New York to Paris. Since 1987 the steel arch “Arc de 124,5°” has been located in Berlin at Urania place, a gift from France for the 750th anniversary of the city.

When I look at Bernar Venet’s colossal steel sculptures, the question arises as to how the individual, heavily torn, intertwined fragments are bent. Probably hardly by hand. Bernar Venet’s answer: “With the crane.” Accompany me and Bernar Venet on an exclusive walk through his art foundation in Provence.

In the former factory hall you can see early works by Bernar Venet from 1961 to 1966, pictures and reliefs from 1976 to 1984 as well as the “Indeterminate Surfaces”, which were created between 1995 and 1999

Three years ago Bernar Venet, who decided in 1963 to remove the “d” from his first name, founded his foundation. The artistic retreat of the sculptor, who, alongside Pierre Soulages, Martial Raysse and Robert Combas, is one of France’s post-war empires with the highest auction results, is off the beaten track of the Côte d’Azur in Le Muy, a small town above Cannes and Saint-Tropez.

“I work 28 hours a day, nine days a week,” says Bernar Venet, who exhibited at the Documenta in Kassel in 1977 and the following year at the Venice Biennale

On the site of a former factory and a water mill from the 16th century, Bernar Venet found a place that allowed him to combine three things: firstly, to exhibit his gigantic works in a hangar-like hall and a sculpture garden. Secondly, to show his important, minimalistic art collection for the first time publicly. And thirdly, to produce such large formats as never before.

My hosts Bernar and Diane Venet

Bernar Venet and his wife Diane, with “Venet Foundation”, made it their task to make accessible and show the work of other artists friends like Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt and Dan Flavin, to the public. On our walk through the five-acre property he bought in 1989, we walk past work by Anthony Caro, Carl Andre, Richard Long, Tony Cragg, Tony Smith, Philip King, Robert Morris, Larry Bell, and Ulrich Rückriem – and the chapel built by Frank Stella for the sculpture garden and decorated with metal reliefs.

In 2017 also the US artist Fred Sandback is honored with the solo exhibition “Pedestrian Space”. And occasionally the collection of Bernar Venet is supplemented by new exhibits. The largest work in the park was created by Venet himself: a 200-ton sculpture of steel arches, which, by the way, are not the result of a mathematical calculation, but are followed by chance. There I stand, dive into the landscape of the South of France, listen to the sound of the river, notice the chirping of the crickets, and can not turn my gaze from these steel giants.  BvH

In the former factory, the visitors always open up to surprising vistas

Visit to the Venet Foundation:

Guided tours are offered in the summer (until 15 September) Thursday afternoons and all-day Fridays. Duration of guided tours approx. 1.5 hours. Only possible with online pre-registration on pre-defined dates. Entrance fee 15 Euros. More information at venetfoundation.org.

The Solo Exhibition 2017:

In the gallery, the solo exhibition “Pedestrian Space” by the US artist Fred Sandback is shown in 2017 …

… view from the gallery to Bernar Venet’s monumental works outside

The Sculpture Park:

View to the former factory, today the center of the Bernar Venet Foundation – infront the work of the artist

The pool is a design by the artist François Morellet in 2008

“Each of my works starts with a 30 to 40 centimeter model. I can see what is artistically interesting. I am looking for aspects that have not existed before, and how I can push the boundaries of sculpture a bit.”

Venet, who lived in New York for almost five decades, described his basic concept as “undefined lines”

Nestled in a romantic park in the South of France …

… is the 16th century mill, which contains parts of Bernar Venet’s collection as well as his private rooms

The Endre, a 29 kilometer river in Le Muy, a place in Provence. The romantic park of the Bernar Venet Foundation stretches on both sides

A tunnel with an “aww”: Through the corrugated hallway of rusty Corten steel, visitors reach the Endre river, which runs along the five-hectare park

“When the sun is at the right angle, there are hundreds of light bubbles glittering inside,” says Bernar Venet, describing the walls perforated by holes

In the studio of Frank Stella, Bernar Venet was inspired by six imposing wall reliefs: “I had a huge respect for him, he was already a giant back then. Still, I wrote a number on a piece of paper, Stella added 40 percent, and I collected the sum within a year.”

Now the reliefs are part of this chapel in the sculpture park and Stella the best friend of Venet

“The collection represents the history of our lives”, says Venet about his works shown here and those of his friends, who are all unsalable

“There are many people who are able to experience access to art only in the public space and discover with pleasure, what contemporary art is and can do.”

A new addition: This work of art will still find its place in the sculpture park

Larry Bell: Something Green, 2017, laminated glass, 244 x 1219 x 244 cm

Robert Morris: Labyrinth, 2012, Fencing, 213 x 1371 x 427 cm

A work of iron chains by the French artist Arman, a close friend of Bernar Venet – the 16th century mill in the background

Steel giants: The biggest work in the sculpture park comes from Bernar Venet himself

The tree trunks are produced in China with a lead alloy, each weighing six tons. Other objects are also produced in France and Hungary

Everything is ready for a lunch with friends on a perfect summer day in the South of France

Bernar et moi: Merci beaucoup!

Contact Bernar Venet:

bernarvenet.com

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Judith Milberg’s exhibition “Out of the Center” at HypoVereinsbank, Leibnizstraße 100 in Berlin-Charlottenburg from July 18th to August 10th, 2017

Looking at the images of the Munich artist Judith Milberg, the eye looks at finely-drawn lines, which meet in color patches, and from there, spin around fantastic formations in powdery color sequences such as spiders. One associates blossoms, branches, fruits, crystals, cancer scissors, stones, dandelions, fabulous beings from underwater worlds. At first I do not think of lace doilies at all. But this is precisely what Judith Milberg uses in the works of her current exhibition “Aus der Mitte” (Out of the Center), which was first shown in Munich and can be seen in the HypoVereinbank from July 18th.

The artistic multi-talent Judith Milberg explains her works gesticulating with hands and – if needed – with use of the entire body

MyStylery: Judith, what was the impulse to use lace doilies in your pieces?
Judith Milberg: I ​​love the overlooked things that have fallen out of time, and I especially like the philosophy of the lace doily: a complex, symmetrical form follows the laws of nature, from a flower to the universe.
MS: My grandmother used to decorate her kitchen with them, which we laughed at as children.
JM: Yes, and I’m interested in that. The craft, the tradition and what is the story behind it. I am interested in all the craft techniques, I also know a lot of them. Only welding I can’t do. But I’m learning it this summer. (Laughing).

The paintings by the Munich artist Judith Milberg fascinate with the abundance and variety of ornamental and floral motifs

MS: For many years, you have been collecting items that are used in your pictures and objects. With you, even the ordinary plastic fly clapper has a chance.
JM: The art is to recognize the beauty and poetry of the objects, I then transform them in my artistic work. It is my love and affinity for the seemingly banal that drives me to collect these things.
MS: You hear colors and you see tones: When did you realize you were a synaesthetic?
JM: Even as a child, I just did not know the term for it back then. I thought everyone would see like that. For me the letter ‘P’ is a pigeon blue, ‘A’ a dark blue, and ‘U’ is yellow. Even when listening to classical music, the colors shoot into my head. That’s why I cannot listen to music when painting. I believe this is the reason why I cannot give my pictures a title. I just cannot find words.

In the work process, Judith Milberg superimposes and abstracts its structures in many layers and fuses them together into poetic surreal works of dynamic elegance

MS: What would you like to be measure with your art?
JM: I would like to be perceived as an artist who works independently of trends. I am very glad to have taken the first step into the public with my pictures and I am grateful that people like my pictures and want to talk about it with me.
MS: You’ve been painting for so many years. Why do you only show your pictures now?
JM: I wanted to be sure I knew I was ready. I am now.  BvH

40 new paintings and works on paper are exhibited by Judith Milberg in the Berlin exhibition

About Judith Milberg:

Born in Munich, Judith Milberg studied art history, Egyptology and communications science. While still studying, she founded her company for art management, curated exhibitions, issued books, and archived private art collections. In addition, Judith Milberg designed and realized numerous art and cultural projects for business, museums and cultural institutions. She was also an author, designer and TV presenter. With paintings and works on paper, the artist presents herself for the first time publicly.

Often Judith Milberg uses acrylic, linoleum paint, print, spray and crayon on canvas

 In Judith Milberg’s Studio:

Judith Milberg: “I want to encourage people to discover something extraordinary even in the seemingly invisible.”

A visit to the artist’s studio in München-Nymphenburg: Here Judith Milberg’s work is made

Judith Milberg shows me her finds, which are often used in her works, like this treasure chest with old pens

Judith Milberg keeps her rarities on long shelf-meters

Often they are bizarre everyday objects that Judith Milberg collects manically and gets inspired by them

Contact Judith Milberg:

judithmilberg.de

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Haralampi Oroschakoff in his studio …

The atelier of artist Haralampi Oroschakoff is located in a 30’s building of an industrial district in West Berlin. Although I know the Austrian-born for many years now, this is my first visit to the nearly 300-square-meter studio, which offers huge windows with a view into a garden settlement. Light shines into the loft-like rooms in which the largely sized pictures of Oroschakoff arise. The avowed Wiener comes from the Old Russian noble family of the Boyars Haralamow-Oreschak, which can be traced back to the eleventh century. For 16 years the internationally successful artist lives with his wife, Countess Diana von Hohenthal und Bergen and the joint children in the German capital. His works hang at the walls of celebrities like Vicky Leandros, Jette Joop or Princess Firyal of Jordan. Nevertheless, his artistic career has always been a struggle for recognition.

… which is located in a 30’s building of an industrial district in West Berlin

MyStylery:  An artist’s studio automatically associates the idea of creative chaos. I’m amazed by the tidiness of your place – it’s downright homely…
Haralampi G. Oroschakoff: To me the atelier is not only a think tank, but also the last place that offers me some personal freedom. I also need to feel comfortable and this is why the rooms haven’t been reduced in their expediency.

“I need to feel comfortable and this is why the rooms haven’t been reduced in their expediency.”

MS: What does the initial ‘G’ in your name stand for?
HGO: Georgijewitsch.
MS: Your father was a successful steel producer in Vienna, where you spent parts of your childhood. You could have followed his footsteps.
HGO: My father never got over the loss of the Russian Empire and the fall of the aristocracy. I should have taken over the factory, but after a year it was clear that this wouldn’t be something for me. I often overslept, thought it’s more amusing to go for Lunch instead of driving to construction sites. My father was also a mathematician and structural engineer, for example he built the Franz-Josef train station in Vienna. I, however, was an incredibly bad student who flew from ten boarding schools.
MS: Did your father make you feel that?
HGO: He never talked with me, only talked to me. Even when I exhibited at the Biennale in 1988, he remained implacable. Only when Forbes listed me as newcomer star next to Jeff Koons and Franz West in 1990 my father understood and even came to an exhibition in Belgrade.

On the wall in Haralampi’s office posters of his exhibitions

MS: That must have been very sad for you to experience no recognition as a young person.
HGO: As a child I was a silent, soul-searching powerhouse. I have much compensated by sport, I played tennis, rode horses, later drove classic car rallies. And I painted. For me drawing was thinking with a pencil.

Haralampis great-great-grandfather was the Royal Regent of Serbia. On the left: “Different Worlds (17)” , 2013; On the right hand side: “Different Worlds (30)”, 2014

MS: Why did you quit the Viennese academy of arts after only three months?
HGO: The structures were too rigid. I always hated dogmas and ideologies. It’s an inner ambivalence in me. As an artist I have to destroy things to create something new. I have actually damaged my career three times itself.
MS: What do you mean?
HGO: In the 80s I got the needed media attention to be considered as successful. But this was not enough for me and in the 90s I felt I had to face up to Eastern Europe, also as a tribute to my roots. At the turn of the millennium I went to Berlin. However my gallerists didn’t support my decision. It was always a new beginning.

“True personalities only exist barely those days. Nowadays it’s all about consumption and verbal egalitarianism.”

MS: The extreme lifestyle and the provocation seem to be parts of your personality.
HGO (laughs): The dandy and aristocrat always irritated the art scene, merely by their appearance. I also maintained these relationships, including drinking bouts and brawls – but always with the necessary elegance.
MS: The ‘Paris Bar’ in Berlin has been your second living room for years. Nowadays you seem to be very brave. Don’t you miss something?
HGO: Let’s say it like that: I mostly said adieu to vodka. I’ll come back.
MS: You describe yourself as a family man. Does family play such an important role to you due to your childhood experiences?
HGO: I consider myself a “penultimate member” in the family series. That’s why I have to give more living tradition to the next generation. This does not only include friendship and respect, honor and responsibility. I also hope that later, my children are going to preserve my work. BvH

Argo 3, 2012

With the double-cross series Haralampi Oroschakoff succeeded an international breakthrough. With the historical fiction book “Die Battenberg Affaire” (“The Battenberg Affair”) Oroschakoff also made himself a name as book author

Today, paintings, drawings and texts are from equivalent expression for Oroschafkoff. Here the artwork “Different Worlds” (31), 2014

Haralampi Oroschakoff: A Dandy in the art scene, who turns up rock music of Lou Reed and Metallica whilst working

Haralampi Oroschakoff: I’ll come back

While the large-format works of Haralampi Oroschakoff arise in the studio in Berlin, he paints Aquarelle on the family estate in Cannes: “With a sea view and an incredibly beautiful light.”

A real Grandseigneur: Haralampi Oroschakoff speaks Russian, French, English, Bulgarian – and Viennese.

Contact:

www.oroschakoff.com

Merken

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The Kreuzberg near Krumau, 1910

During my last visit to Vienna, I went to the current special exhibition by the painter Egon Schiele. The Vienna Albertina has one of the largest collections of Schiele. At the beginning of the 2018 commemorative year, which marks the 100th anniversary of Schiele’s death, the Albertina now presents a comprehensive exhibition from its collection of Egon Schiele’s work. It presents 180 of his most beautiful gouaches and drawings, dealing with themes such as the existential loneliness of man in drastic contrast to the values ​​of the society of Fin de Siècle.

Self-Portrait with Peacock-Waistcoat, 1911

In addition to his memories of the time in the Austrian town of Krumau and various self-portraits, the Schiele exhibition contains numerous representations of children and acts of young girls. The children came from the street, from the working class milieu and Schiele staged them in his pictures as “aesthetic material”, not as an idealized form of eroticism. Although surprisingly many artists of his time – including the painters Oskar Kokoschka and Gustav Klimt – paid homage to the ideal of the child. In my opinion, this kind of representation has something disturbing and abnormal.

Seated Nude Girl, 1911

At the same time Schiele’s drawings reveal the suffering and the adverse living conditions of the poor population in the nineteenth century. His pictures are not pleasing, but go away from the aesthetics of the beautiful to the ugly. While Schiele is regarded as part of the artistic and intellectual elite of the turn of the century, the staging of the exhibition in the Albertina follows a different principle: large, floating pictures confront the artist’s radical work with the reality of his environment. They form the real background, which illustrates the discrepancy between Schiele’s work and the surrounding society. And that is equally impressive and shocking. BvH

About Egon Schiele:

Egon Schiele was born in 1890 in Tulln, Lower Austria. Early on, his painterly talent became apparent, and he was admitted to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1906, with just 16 years. After two years, Schiele left the academy – disappointed with the rigid Academy Day – and founded the Viennese Neukunstgruppe with some fellow students. In 1911 he moved from Vienna to Krumau, together with his most famous model, the then 17-year-old Wally Neuzil. An artistically productive period began. The old town of Krumau became Schiel’s favorite motif. His lifestyle, however, was regarded as offensive with Wally because of the “wild marriage”. The visits of children to Schiele’s studio brought him to trial for alleged abuse for 24 days.

In 1912 he returned to Vienna. Thanks to his patron and paternal friend, the painter Gustav Klimt, he was able to re-establish himself quickly in Vienna and again enjoyed great success in the Austrian art scene. In 1915 Schiele married his longtime friend Edith Harms. Edith demanded from Schiele the break with Wally Neuzil, which he did, with heavy heart. In 1918 Egon Schiele was dedicated to the 49th exhibition of the Vienna Secession, where he exhibited 19 large paintings and 29 drawings. Toward the end of the First World War the Austrian capital was overrun by the Spanish flu. Edith Schiele, who was pregnant in the sixth month, succumbed to this illness in the autumn of 1918. Schiele had stuck up and died only three days later with only 28 years.

Sunflowers, 1911

Standing Girl, 1910

Blond Nude Model on Brown Cloth, 1912

Triestinian Fishing Boat, 1912

Old Houses in Krumau, 1914

Old Gabled Houses in Krumau, 1917

Edith Schiele, 1915 …

… and her Sister Adele Harms

Female Nude

Reclining Female Nude with Legs Spread Apart, 1914

Three Girls, 1911

Poster of the 49th Exhibition of the Secession, 1918

Anton Josef Trcka: Egon Schiele posing, 1914

Egon Schiele in the Albertina

“Between Modernity and Tradition”: 22 February to 18 June 2017

Contact Albertina:

albertina.at

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