Absolut Berlin celebrates the nonconformist spirit that makes the city unique

Today Absolut is proud to announce Absolut Berlin, the first ever Absolut City Limited Edition in Germany. Absolut Berlin features the artwork of Berlin-based artist Zhivago Duncan, known for his messy, anarchic, multimedia creations. Duncan’s design turns the iconic Absolut bottle into a window looking onto one of Berlin’s own iconic Monuments – the Fernsehturm. The bottle features a magnified image of the Fernsehturm’s famous sphere, with a Dick Flash quote done graffiti-style: “Es ist nicht einfach immer ein Rebell zu sein” – “It’s not easy to always be a rebel.” A perfect expression of the spirit of a city that has long been at the forefront of contemporary art and culture.

“As a brand known for promoting a spirit of independence, Absolut is thrilled to celebrate a city of immense energy that has long been a trailblazer in the arts. Perhaps no city better embodies the sense of transformational possibility,” says Franz Drack, Global Marketing Director at Absolut. “Absolut Berlin is an homage to a multicultural and artistic mecca and to the people who fuel it with talent, ideas and energy.

”To capture the spirit of Berlin in the bottle design, Absolut turned to Zhivago Duncan, an artist whose work displays a dazzling energy and virtuosity. Born in the United States, studied in the U.K., and now based in Berlin, Duncan, who speaks six languages, and works in as many artistic mediums, is a global citizen with a unique perspective on our contemporary world.

“Painter, sculptor, mixed media and installation artist Zhivago Duncan is a true original,” says Franz Drack. “Like Absolut, Duncan never shies away from pushing the boundaries. He’s drawn to those abstract areas of culture where the future can be glimpsed and created.”

“As soon as I moved to Berlin, I fell in love with it,” says Duncan. “It’s a vibrant city directed towards the future. A place where people work hard and play hard, and where you don’t have to yield to all the conventionalities that other capitals have given into -- where at 2 AM you may be at a club or in your studio working. But wherever you are, the creative energy of the city blasts through the windows. For me the idea of tagging the Fernsehturm suggests how the creative impulse can lead to remarkable feats, or a spray can mounted on a drone. Berlin is known to have always been a free and creative city.

This open-mindedness and sense of adventure underlies the rebellious spirit that fuels the
fire of the creative heart.” The color palette reflects aspects of Duncan’s own experience of Berlin: gray for the old cement structures, green for the urban forests, turquoise for the oxidation of old statues, cadmium yellow for the golden bricks during a Berlin summer sunset, and pink for the sunrise after a long night out engaging the city and its people.

Absolut Berlin will be available in a limited edition and for a short time only. The German launch date is May 15, 2014. Austria and Switzerland will launch on June 1. It will not be available in travel retail.

For information on Absolut products, please visit www.absolut.com or youtube.com/absolut.
For imagery, please visit press.absolut.com.
For further information, please contact:
Andrew Rozas, PR Manager
Absolut
andrew.rozas@pernod-ricard.com
+46 70 919 53 25