Achtung! Achtung! Baby turns 30

Original Story by Harry Kantas (2021-11-19)

Turning 30 is a big deal.
It’s that transitional age, going from Innocence to Experience.
It is certainly not a smooth transition though. You still have more innocence that you’d like, and less experience than you think..!

I remember my 30th, where I had to go away and “dream it all up again” one way or another. Didn’t you?
U2 did the same in their 30s, and ended up in Berlin, where Achtung Baby was conceived, to be later born in Dublin.
This week that baby turned 30, so we went away for its birthday party.
Back to Berlin, for a day.

U2 X THIERRY NOIR at Hansa Studios

Thierry Noir is the artist behind the original trabants seen in all Achtung Baby artwork, videos, as well as hanging in air during the ZOO TV Tour. For the 30th birthday party, he did one more!
The new pink trabant, with a mysteriously looking, matching record and sleeve on the passenger seat, is now parked inside the Hansa Studios main entrance.

Other than the trabbie, the installation includes a CRT TV playing various U2 bits, a young ZOO TV of sorts, as well as a mirrored wall sign, describing the event.
While the sign is in German, there is a QR code at the bottom right of it, that once scanned with your phone’s camera, leads to a web page with the English version of the text.

Thierry was also the first artist to paint on the Berlin wall, and for that, a section of the wall featuring a new mural has also made its way to Hansa Studios.

And since it’s a birthday party, the folks from U2tour.de made sure to bring the cake!

The exhibition will run until November 26th, and admission is free, you just need to register for your 30 minute slot on the event’s site.

MARK FISHER: DRAWN SHOW at Tchoban Foundation
To keep the party going, we took a short drive by the Brandenburg Gate and over to the Tchoban Foundation, where an exhibition around Mark Fisher is running.
Mark Fisher was a true rock architect, having designed revolutionary stages for U2, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Jean Michel Jarre among others. He is the genius and mastermind behind some of U2’s greatest stage designs: ZOO TV, POPmart and U2360 were all designed by Fisher (with Willie Williams at the helm for lighting).

In this exhibition you will see artwork from very early designs of all these tours, some of which are surfacing for the very first time, and give some great insight on the various phases the ZOO TV stage went through before it becoming the standard for any other rock show that we know today.

Can you imagine what ZOO TV could have been, if the trabants hanging in the air were to go through a metamorphosis and turn into giant inflatable babies throughout the show? Or if the set was to get flooded by Acrobats? It certainly would have affected the setlist quite a bit..!

All of the above, as well as many more POPmart and U2360 early designs can be explored in this 2 floor exhibition, ending with a documentary film about Mark Fisher’s life and work, which also heavily features the band.

Drawn Show will run until January 16th. Opening hours are: Monday-Friday 14:00 – 19:00, Saturday-Sunday 13:00 – 17:00, and it is highly recommended for any U2 fan that may find themselves in Berlin any time soon.
Tickets are 5EUR, and while COVID-19 has caused online bookings to be suspended, you can still book a visit by emailing the Tchoban Foundation at guide@tchoban-foundation.de, or calling +49 (30) 43 73 90 90.
The Tchoban Foundation is located at Christinenstraße 18 a, 10119 Berlin.

Special thanks to our friends at U2tour.de for the invite, and for all the cake!
Alles Jute ooch zum Jeburtstach, Bay-bi!

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