Beyond Visibility: Inside Ex to X, the FLINTA*-Led Infrastructure Redefining Berlin’s Creative Economy

KALTBLUT: Ex to X has a massive connection to music. What’s a moment from your past that you remember when you think of your first touchpoints with the music industry?

ANGIE: What comes to mind first is my very first festival: Rock am Ring. I skipped school on the Friday and jumped in the car with one of the “older guys” I was too shy to actually talk to. It was raining like crazy. Pete Doherty rocked up 3 hours late to his gig, coming on just before Marilyn Manson started screaming into his knife-shaped mic. I jumped off a lighting tower and crowd surfed to Billy Talent, lost my phone, and my friends. Long story short: I was hooked and into rock, haha.

KALTBLUT: Short answers: two artists you’d love to see live?

ANGIE: Celine Dion, and I would have LOVED Amy Winehouse. I remember exactly where I was and what I did the moment I got the news of her passing. What a legend.

KALTBLUT: With Ex to X, you’re referencing past to present. Everything in your past (ex-partner, ex-friends, ex-version of yourself) that led you to “X” – the here and now. What’s here? What’s now?

ANGIE: Here is me – still figuring things out. And now? I think it’s about choosing what stays, what goes, and what I want to build next. X is the in-between, and I actually quite like being there for now.

KALTBLUT: Ex to X is all about red. Speaking of that, what are your red flags?

ANGIE: As in myself? Or others? Shout out to my therapist; we’ve been putting in the work, haha!!

KALTBLUT: Others! What is an absolute no-go?

ANGIE: Oh wow. So many, and why do they keep getting more, aaaaah. First of all, everything comes down to communication for me. Saying one thing, but doing another. No proper self-awareness and not seeing yourself and where you’re ACTUALLY at. Not being kind and respectful – I’m very sensitive to that, especially in our industry when people want to be surrounded by “someone”. And the right tone & treatment that comes with that. Be nice, and curious, and interested – no matter who sits at the table. Also, having no drive and motivation – very unsexy to me.

KALTBLUT: And now onto you—what’s yours?

ANGIE: Spicy, haha. I’m struggling with a few things, amongst them being able to be vulnerable and actually open up, setting healthy boundaries and sticking to them – and I think one of the biggest ones is that I can be too self-reliant. I’m very used to figuring things out myself, so my instinct is always ‘I’ve got it.’ I’m learning that letting people in and asking for help isn’t losing control, but sometimes it’s actually the smarter & more efficient thing to do. And I do love being efficient.

KALTBLUT: With Ex to X, you keep reinforcing people to focus on their own strengths and ask for help when needed, making sure people share the strongest version & skills of themselves. What’s yours?

ANGIE: I think back on the above, and also my red flag – I think at the same time my greatest strength is also that I am self-reliant, and that I will always figure it out. I might not always know how I’m going to get somewhere, and sometimes I properly panic on the way, but I will get there eventually. I’m quite resourceful, and I think I’ve learned to trust myself to find a way through things even when I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.

KALTBLUT: Stefanie, daytime culture requires a different kind of presence than red carpets or late-night events. How has hosting people at EX TO X shifted your personal relationship with vulnerability and daily connection?

STEFANIE: I think my job has taught me to be very comfortable with being seen, but being seen isn’t necessarily the same as being known. There can actually be quite a lot of distance in being a public person. At Ex to X, that distance disappears very quickly. Someone sits next to you, you start talking, and suddenly you’re having a really personal conversation with someone you didn’t know twenty minutes ago. I love that. It reminds me how much I need connection that has absolutely nothing to do with an image, a job or what either person can offer the other.

KALTBLUT: You’ve spent a massive part of your life in front of the lens in high-profile fashion environments where your image is constantly being curated. What did it feel like to step out and build a tangible, physical space like EX TO X where you control the narrative?

STEFANIE: I started modelling when I was 13, so for a huge part of my life I was the person entering someone else’s world. Someone else chose the clothes, the image, the location, the story. And I learned a lot from being in those rooms, but at some point I realised I didn’t only want to be invited into other people’s worlds anymore. I wanted to create my own. With Ex to X, Angie and I get to ask completely different questions. Who hasn’t been invited into these rooms enough? What happens when we introduce these two people? What kind of energy do we want people to leave with? There’s something very empowering about going from being looked at to creating something for people to experience.

KALTBLUT: Berlin can be fiercely protective, and sometimes sceptical, of its local spaces when high-profile names are attached. Stefanie, how did you navigate building genuine trust in the community to ensure EX TO X was felt as a real cultural hub rather than a celebrity project?

STEFANIE: By understanding that my name can open a door, but it can’t create a community. And I think it would be arrogant to assume otherwise. The most important thing for us was never to build Ex to X around me or Angie. It’s about the people who enter it, perform in it, exhibit in it, work there and introduce other people to it. We want to use whatever access or visibility we have to make that circle bigger. Trust also takes time. You can’t announce that you’re a cultural space and expect people to believe you. You have to show up consistently, listen, collaborate with people who are actually shaping the city and allow the space to evolve beyond your own taste and perspective.

KALTBLUT: Stefanie, from model and public figure to hands-on hospitality entrepreneur: what has been the most humbling part of dealing with the unglamorous day-to-day realities of running a space in Berlin?

STEFANIE: I think the most humbling part is realising that you can’t curate how people experience something. In fashion, so much is about creating an image and having control over how that image is presented. With a physical space, you can create the conditions, but then you have to let go. People will use it differently than you imagined; they’ll love things you barely thought about and sometimes completely ignore something you obsessed over for weeks. I actually really like that. It teaches me to listen more and control less. The space becomes its own thing through the people in it.

KALTBLUT: What is a personal detail or touch in a space, whether it’s a specific drink on the menu or a corner of the interior, that screams pure Stefanie?

STEFANIE: Probably the fact that there has to be really good matcha, haha. That was never negotiable. But beyond that, I think it’s the contrasts. I love things that feel considered and beautiful without becoming too polished. Something can be raw and still sensual, minimal but warm, serious and a little weird at the same time. I think there are quite a few contradictions in my taste and in me as a person, and I like that you can find some of them in the space.

KALTBLUT: Looking down the line, when people talk about the spaces that defined this era of Berlin’s community culture five or ten years from now, what do you want them to say about EX TO X?

STEFANIE: I hope they don’t only remember what the event or space looked like. I hope they remember who they met there. That someone found their future collaborator there, their best friend, maybe the person who gave them their first real opportunity. That an introduction at Ex to X changed the direction of something. I’ve experienced firsthand how one person opening a door for you can change your entire life. If, in ten years, people tell us that Ex to X created some of those moments for them, that would mean much more to me than being remembered as another cool event in Berlin.

Discover more about Ex to X and register your portfolio at ex-to-x.com. Follow @ex.to.x for future chapter announcements.