and in our series one hundred most reads a book called runaway horses by the controversial german martin virus. but first as i mentioned jim i mean you know as my guest in just a minute is a painter. who is possibly the most prolific painter in the world his style is very recognizable and i was a lot of streets are. and his influence in my humble opinion biasses from picasso to keith haring and beyond let's see is very individual out. bryant's and fun fun fun of unknowns paintings grab your attention but he's entertaining pop creations also deal with serious topics capitalism and gentrification avignon averages about four works per day he gives some of them away and others he simply tears up. avignon is self thoughts and his art career began

in the early nine hundred ninety s. when he built stage sense for raids in twenty third saying he was asked to restore his own painting at the east side gallery a remnant of the berlin wall that's now a designated historic monument he created a completely new work instead destroying the original and causing quite a scandal jim avignon has been making the art world bright for almost thirty years he's lost none of his spirit of adventure and still has that streak. and you know george will not thanks very much you've been called the fastest painter in the world do you consider that a compliment. i think i like being the first spent in the world in fact it was me it was my myself we invented that phrase at a time when speed had nothing to do in art and i had a feeling i want to become

a cartoon character not so i thought what could be the most absurd and the facet pains and i thought it was a venture by the press now where do you get the ideas from your i mean you're very prolific the paintings of full of political statements sometimes societal whatever it is i mean is your head buzzing constant well i think you can collect ideas just like food from the tree you have to just walk around with your eyes open. way instead of the taxi watch the people read in their faces what's going on in their minds to meet the news see the internet go out talk to people i think you have a big cocktail of input and then you know remake the ideas are but there is also another idea behind it and that you want to keep prices down you want your art to be available for everybody done in it not to cost thousands of euros i think that's

very admirable absolutely i think for me everybody who buys a painting should want to buy it because he likes the painting and not as an investment and unfortunately most of that gets bought these days gets bought as an investment and therefore as an example how to make it different i try to keep the prices small but you're getting more and more popular. actually it goes up and then. you could ranking see rankings on internet and i've been more popular ten years ago it's a so. now let me ask you i want to ask you about the east side gallery which was mentioned very briefly in the report first i should explain to our viewers that this is an open air gallery here in berlin which consists of thirteen hundred meters what remains of the former wall which divided east and west over thirty years ago painters revise it to paint parts of the world one of those

invited and which you did and then a few years back it was in a pretty sorry state for various reasons which we won't go into and you decided to repaint the picture we didn't repaint it you painted a brand new picture but you got into trouble what happened well first of all i wasn't invited to painted. like we're not many people interested in painting the wall and then like. everybody could do it i don't i didn't even have to show a sketch it was like that for twenty years it got more and more trashed and you grow as a painter and it feels kind of like renovate your painting that you've done twenty years ago and my paintings many years ago was about like how i see bill and i thought it would be nice to have an update and just do a new version of how i see bill and now twenty three years later. i did that but in

the meantime there is a gallery had become a monument and therefore everybody who touches the monument gets risky to get into prison for that and suddenly i was in the situation that in the newspapers and . the public up to public opinion was that i should get punished for having painted a new painting on my own but you didn't get punished what i was actually it was a big buzz in the media it was in a couple of pages from the from the newspapers but india and nothing happened nothing hard jim good luck with all your work in the future we haven't even mentioned your music i know you're a great musician as well we'll have to do that another time. thanks very much for having me. now artists have been involved with our next topic not designing an ice hotel right up in the freezing cold arctic circle a village in swedish is home to the oldest ice hotel in the world. has to be

rebuilt every year but they'll be doing it for nearly thirty years now and it's made from thirty thousand tons of snow ice that's a mixture of packed snow and ice. the best way to get to this destination is to speed along sweden's frozen river it feels like minus fifty degrees celsius on our way to a spectacular. built from ice and snow. every year some sixty thousand visitors from across the globe come here to spend a night in the world's largest ice hotel. is the hotel's creative director he says the structure has to be rebuilt. this is actually a big art explore the ice hotel and every years unique we never repeat. we don't even copy ourselves.

has a different thing. from. the village means coming together by the river meeting place because it used to be the song the people that came together here in this village and now it's an international meeting place. every year thousand tonnes of ice from the nearby river turned into beds and sculptures beginning we have this eagle we just more bar and we made some small beds also inside there. and then people stayed inside our cottage is here. to stay overnight in saigon and they were. back. in the

projects kept gaining momentum. the first ice of tell me around here is. minus five degrees even if it's thirty degrees so warm outside. today however the temperature and you can hear the is closer to minus thirty but that won't keep our reporter from heading off with joel sachs vic in search of the famous northern lights. after about forty five minutes they reach the destination and sure enough they spot the amazing northern lights. time to get back to the ice hotel for a good night's sleep. the moment of truth has arrived.

and after a good night's sleep their trip to the frozen north comes to an end time to pack up and head back to warmer climes. cold but very beautiful now every week our resident book david leavitt's has a look at a classic german book in our series one hundred must reads this week a book called runaway horses by the controversial author martin virus he started his life very left of center politically but meanwhile the sometimes very very right of center so he's definitely caused controversy down the years with his controversial views. having a midlife crisis isn't as easy as it looks and if your friend is having one ten zero you better hold on tight.

runaway horse by much is about two middle aged men who still don't have a clue about life there's has a well paid teacher because that exists here in germany i moved and his wife are in their mid forties and they're spending their summer at the same lake they've been coming to for eleven years it's calm and quiet i don't know boring exactly how i move likes it or so he thinks enter his old classmate klaus a journalist who sees life as an adventure and turns up with his new wife eighteen years his junior how moot can't stand the guy and yet. i moved felt a burning and he had virtually never lived there was nothing left over behind him there was practically nothing if he tried to remember he saw motionless images of streets squares rooms no action his memory images were pervaded by

a lifelessness as if in the wake of a disaster he felt that in him it venture had once and for all come to an end. of course the brave adventurer klaus is an even bigger mess who's just as terrified of getting older as everyone else author martin vives i just turned fifty himself when he came out with this book clearly he did a little personal research visor was one of post-war germany's top authors but since the one nine hundred ninety s. a lot of readers have avoided him because of some controversial comments he made about holocaust remembrance consider yourself warned runaway horse isn't about that though it's about getting older and about the lies we choose to believe about ourselves and others. i'm there's a lot smaller websites about one hundred plus range including the whole list

compiled here at the w. so you can take a choice if you want to get into some of the best german literature d.w. dot com slash culture that's the web sites where everything interesting in the world of arts and culture is to be found. but not so old for now thanks so much watching thank you so the crew here in berlin with i have to make such a joiner's again at the same time tomorrow if you count. the.

fear of war in ukraine. fishermen forbidding from actually catching fish shipyard workers fear for their jobs until trade faction a few. people are scared to fathom russian aggression. power tonight's effect is as the battle continues over the senior. most of the thirty nine s. w. . first student school. first clueless and. then doris grand moment

arrived joint direct attack on her journey to. introduce. entering into and returns home. for her. president to hamas. head of the london patriotic front to include the rebel army and in the one nine hundred ninety four china saw it wasn't when. there wasn't doing to us could be used in top out need to reinforce that. they needed to use blood was up and he was not for a. controversial new leader who successes beyond question. time. wanted tragedy starts people fifty long t w.

this is g.w. news live from berlin tonight israel striking back after walking fire from gaza. israeli warplanes and level an alleged hamas headquarters in.