02.04.2012 Labyrinth Kindermuseum Berlin - Fresh Ink, Cornelia Funke

Exhibition section dedicated to the story Reckless by Cornelia Funke. This is the Hungry forest in the middle

This museum was described as a place for children to learn and discover by engaging different senses through play. Sounds pretty cool right? "To learn by doing" is their motto and their exhibitions are always geared towards promoting social and cultural education of children.

The current exhibition was titled "Fresh Ink - Reckless and what happened before, The experience exhibition on the stories by Cornelia Funke". A German author of children's fiction. (She is like the JK Rowling of Germany, and wrote Inkheart!) Different stations were set up relating to these different stories and there are worksheets to promote reading and writing skills.

In the exhibition FRESH INK children go on a literary adventure-trip, they play and conquer tales of Cornelia Funke, they continue the yarn and display themselves as storytellers.

Even the façade has a sort of castle look to it, but actually this is a part of a factory/workshop. I entered, thinking that this was going to be a super cool and interactive and fun exhibition sharing the works of this children's author. So I was not expecting what I saw and could hear from the entrance. 

no shoes allowed. # of shoes = # of kids

Upon entering, I noticed the sound of a million kids shouting and playing around. It's the sound of a kindergarten or primary school during recess time. I took peek and saw a few kids chasing each other, and then apprehensively asked the front desk if this was, in fact, the exhibition, and if there was, maybe, a booked event for the day-- an excuse for the manifestation of so many free roaming kids.
"No," she replied, and a tall pirate in a purple polka dotted shirt stopped by to welcome me. "This is our regular Saturday!" he chimed. I just stared at the both and them and breathed, "There's a lot of kids..." quietly enough so only they could hear me.
Anyway, I was already there, so I paid my dues and walked in. This place turned out to be kid heaven, you can dress up, climb things, pretend to be a pirate, have a tea party, listen to a story and just be caught up in another world. It was all very exciting and I was totally out of place because I was more than double the age of everyone there. Not only that, I didn't have an excuse of supervising a child. I just hovered around trying not to be creepy and tried all the little games without pushing kids out of the way haha. If this was in the states, I would totally not be allowed in.

Listen to a story, maybe watch a clip?, the sheets on the wall are worksheets to gear children towards learning specific things. Like reading comprehension perhaps.

There are little nooks and crannies where you can listen to excerpts of the story. Just sit down, push the button, relax, and you will hear a voice reading aloud in English or German.  

1. Listen here, behind the kitchen,                                             2. Stick your head in and have a listen.

Dress up as characters from the stories.

In each themed section, you can dress up as characters from the story. The section above is for Funke's latest story, Reckless. I haven't read any of her books so I cannot relate to any of this, but if I did, I'm sure I'd be pretty much through the roof. 

In the world behind the mirror of the story "Reckless"

1. Play food!                                                                   2. Dwarf city

Everything is moveable, and of course, everything is a mess. The food in the kitchen may end up in the cabin "next door", and the pots in the cave may end up in the "forest".

1,2, The big palace

1. Miracle chamber?                                 2. I think this is part of dwarf city

The witches house with an (fake) herb garden from Reckless

This house has a very small and narrow door, and I hardly saw a single kid use it. Instead, they were pouring themselves out of the windows and throwing things into the garden. I thought it was pretty funny although I didn't try to see if I fit through the window myself.

A legit bed!

From the story, "The Dragon rider" This is the Djinn with the thousand eyes

If you look inside some of the eyes, you can see an image. These are pieces of a puzzle I think.

dominoo!

From  "The Dragon Rider", I think this is the "Dragon's cave at the rim of heaven"

fun and games for all

From Captain Firebeard, Captain Firebeard's ship

Learn to tie a fishing net.

Adapted from "The Monster of the Blue Planet" This is Gobo's spaceship where you can build towers and etc.

angle cut bamboo pieces with a velvet edge that allows you to build cool things

From Where Luck Grows is Marie's Puppe theatre. The cast of puppets for the puppet show strewn on the ground backstage.

1. Adapted from Emma and the blue Djinn, we enter Khalif of Barakaschs' palace.                  2. dressing up is always an option!

Here, (reminds me of NY's imagination playground) build up the fallen down palace of the Yellow Djinn. (from Emma and the Blue Djinn)

Gather round, let me tell you a story. This secret room is based on the story "The Theif lord" and this is his star hide-out

The space.

This interactive museum was more like a giant play house. The space used to be an assembly hall for match machines so it's really open. Adults can sit in the middle and have a coffee and just watch their kids from afar. I bumped into the friendly purple polka-dotted pirate again and he told me that at the end of each exhibition, they auction off all their pieces. Pretty awesome right? If only I was actually living here. I would take the pirate ship, and the pillows (after disinfecting them), and the fake taxidermy, and...