book called runaway horses by a controversial german martin virus. but first as i mentioned earlier jim i mean you know as my guests in just a minute he's a painter and straighter who is possibly the most prolific painter in the world his style is very recognizable and i was a lot of street art. and his influence in my humble opinion biasses from picasso to keith haring and beyond let's see is very individual out. big bright and fun fun fun jim avignon paintings grab your attention but he's entertaining pop patients also deal with serious topics capitalism and gentrification avignon averages about four works per day he gets some of the way and others he simply tells are. avignon is self-taught and his art career began in the early nineteen nineties when he built stage sense for raves 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 for almost thirty years he's lost none of his spirit of adventure and still has that some 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 spend in the world in fact it was me it was my me myself were 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 correct or not so i thought what could be the most absurd and i invented

the facet pains and i thought it was invented 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 new and see the internet go out talk to people i think you have a big cocktail of input and then you know remake the ideas 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 fountains of yours 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 of how to make it different i try to keep the prices small but you are getting more and more popular. actually goes up and that is you could ranking see rankings on internet and i've been more popular ten years ago and i will say 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 in woolwich divided east and west over thirty years ago painters revise it to paint parts of the world one of those invited and which he did and then a few years back it was in

a pretty sorry state for various reasons we go into it 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 paint it but. 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 his sketch it was like that for twenty years. 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 then 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 the secondary 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 public opinion was that i should get punished for having painted a new painting on my own but you didn't get punished where there was actually it was a big buzz in the media it wasn't a couple of pages from from the newspapers in the end nothing nothing howard's 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 you know thanks very much for being next having me. now artists have been involved with our next topic not just designing and i so tell right off in the freezing cold arctic circle village in swedish. the oldest ice hotel in the world. has to be rebuilt every

year but they've been doing it for that is 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 tony river it feels like minus fifty degrees celsius on our way to a spectacular. cell 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 exposed the ice hotel and every year is unique we never pete. we don't even.

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 four thousand tons of ice from the nearby river are turned into beds and sculptures beginning we had this eagle we just more bar and we made some small beds sold so inside there. and then people stayed inside our cottage is here. to stay overnight in saigon and they were so enjoyed of that. the projects kept gaining momentum. the

ice of tell me around here is. minus five degrees even if it's thirty degrees so warm outside. today however the temperature in your 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 to pack up and head back to warm up crying it's. cold but very beautiful now every week our resident bookworm 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 to know you better hold on tight.

runaway horse by my team is about two middle aged men who still don't have a clue about life there's a well paid teacher because that exists here in germany i moved in 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 envy 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 adventure 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 virus i just turned fifty himself when he came out with this book clearly he did a little personal research vides i 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 must reads 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 judgment literature d.w.

dot com slash culture that's the websites where everything interesting in the world of arts and culture is to be found. but not so old for now thanks so much for watching thank you for the crew here in berlin with i have who makes that truck join us again at the same time tomorrow if you can.

who holds the power in germany we asked voters. the corporations the capital the ones with the money what do lawmakers think about vote rigging it. functions big business and the business leader those of us with money have to get involved we are the state holds the power in this land of inequality. if you don't leave. fear of morning chris. christie of britain from actually catching the fish shipyard workers fear for the. punchiness transaction. people are scared of further russian aggression. power the lives affected as the battle continues over the sea of a self. most of the museum in a small w.

. much smaller city. tomorrow to. w. . how about taking a few risks you could even take a chance on one. don't expect happy ending. the church.

this is news coming to you live from british lawmakers take matters into their own heads the house of commons votes to overrule the prime minister. and take control of the process m.p.'s want to find a way out of the crisis through a series of indicative focus also coming up a cease fire fails to take hold in the.