Hong Kong and Berlin-based art, fashion and culture writer and gal about town Diana d’Arenberg has worked with galleries and written for publications all around the globe. Her secret (or not so secret) side stint as a singer in the band Belfies means she also channels a sultry Nina Simone. Here’s what she had to say…
Berlin artwork not to be missed?
Check out the collections at Hamburger Banhof, Neue Nationalegalerie and Gropius Bau (I recently saw a great exhibition of German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder there). Berlin has tonnes of galleries, so walk around and pop into a few.
Book a visit to the Boros Bunker collection, housed in an old Nazi-era concrete bunker. It’s a fabulous collection and the space itself is incredible.
Walk alongside the remaining section of the Berlin wall at Eastside Gallery in Friedrichshain and check out all the murals on the wall. Berlin is a city of street art and walls.
Most Instagram-worthy spot in town?
I love the Oberbaumbrucke, the bridge connecting East and West Berlin over the River Spree. It used to be the border crossing from East to West Berlin. Have a drink on the Spree at FluxBau and you have a beautiful view of the Oberbaumebruck to the right and the sunset over Berlin with the Alex Fernsehturm, to your left. Iconic Berlin photo!
And of course, the mural of Brezhnev and Honecker in their ‘deadly embrace’ at the East Side Gallery, if you can get past the hordes of tourists now clogging the path.
Childhood ambition?
I’m an Eastern European cliché. Olympic gymnast or professional ballet dancer. I trained for both.
Spirit animal?
A wolf.
Three fantasy dinner dates (dead or alive), and what would you serve?
Marchesa Luisa Casati, Aleister Crowley, and Oscar Wilde. Three people who flouted conventions and lived as they pleased. Served with generous helpings of wit, a wicked sense of humour, irreverence, and a lot of good red wine.
Most unusual possession?
I think I’m in the habit of collecting what would be termed the unusual. Maybe the strangest would be an original C.17th text on witchcraft, and a monkey skull with horns from the Burmese Naga tribe, which used to practice headhunting. I wear it as a necklace. I also recently acquired a new pet, a Rusty Tarantula we call Amy. She’s quite low maintenance as far as pets go.
In a past life you..?
Probably burnt at the stake
Travel is..?
Freedom!
