Re-discovered Rubble, pt. II

As I mentioned in my last post I rode my bike along the edge of Wedding and the Mitte a few weeks ago unknowingly retracing the path of the Berlin Wall. This was an unconscious bike ride following the next point on the horizon that caught my attention. Also, because the wall is almost entirely gone it makes it hard to follow its path, but the void it created still remains in many parts of the city.

There are still a few sections of the wall standing, the longest is the East Gallery that runs along the banks of the Spree River and acts as a canvas for a rotating selection of graffiti and murals. There is also a few slabs standing in the middle of Potsdammer Platz, the epicenter of 'new Berlin', and on this day I discovered the second largest remaining section of the Wall. This section is the official Berlin Wall Memorial and is unmistakable. This location consists of a chapel, a time line billboard, a documentation center, and a memorial that includes a section of the wall.



It is unmistakably a memorial because the 50 meter section of the wall is bookended by two enormous slabs of steel, similar in appearance but larger than any of Richard Serra's work. The elements of a raw iron wall lined with aluminum and the concrete section have a certain rhyming but they are both outdone by what was the most impacting feature of the wall, the 30 meter void that ran along the original wall and cut through the city. This area know as the 'death strip' or 'no man's land' has been recreated and sealed in by walls on four sides creating a literal time capsule. It is a time capsule that exists in real time, experiencing the same air and weather that we do but is sealed off to stand in for an eternal emptiness.



Peering through the cracks in the make shift wall and staring into this void was an incredible experience. There was something almost literary about it, my thoughts came in fragments. First, as nouns. Gravel, ground, stone, sky, barricade. Then the thoughts came as adjectives. Grey, cold, endless, empty. The words never fit together just laid in front of me like lifeless objects, I was speechless. My mind wandered through the architecture of Samuel Beckett's writing, the coffins, the cabins, the trenches and a number of other post-war books that I read in school as a child but whose names escape me now. One story in particular about a man who lived in a bunker who was waiting for the call to push the 'button' but the call never came, leaving you to wonder if he was the last man on Earth.



editorial comments:
The recreation of the death strip is a rare specimen of Berlin history, even down to the zen garden-like raked gravel that spans between the walls. This gravel was raked to make any traces of footprints easily visible and from what I understand was often laced with explosive mines to further detour anyone from trying to cross the wall. The memorial only has one identifiable object inside the deathstrip, it is a burnt electrical box full of bullet holes. I think it is probably necessary but has the air of a re-enacted afterthought. The most bothersome thing about this decision is the suggestion that in the future people might re-fabricate sections of the Berlin wall because the original pieces have almost all been destroyed. Rebuilding the Berlin Wall sound frightening to anyone else?

Re-discovered Rubble

Recently the weather has been getting much warmer and one of these days I rode my bike around to run some errands and go to the studio. First, I headed up to Wedding district to got to the OBI Baumarkt to look for building materials. They did not have what I was looking for and I never would have expected that German hardware would be so different than American hardware. The variety of screws are different, sheetrock comes in different sizes and forms, and there is a whole range of garden tools that I have never seen before. After leaving I was slightly distracted by the sunshine and decided to ride my bike around these neighborhoods I had never visited.

I ended up crossing from former East Berlin into West Berlin and from West back into the East again. Unknowingly following the path of the wall I was attracted to these wide swaths of undeveloped land and how they have been repurposed, as a beach volleyball center, new loft housing developments, future parks, a Berlin Wall memorial. Yet they currently exist as these great points of rest, of calm and of history in a rapidly changing city. Near one of these empty lot fields, I found a rare specimen of something I have only heard about. One of the many abandoned buildings that populated the city during its division and since the wall came down. I have heard it described that when the wall came down people flooded out of east Berlin leaving behind fully furnished apartments. Later, people began to repopulate these apartments using them for housing or turning them into underground clubs and bars.

There are very few of these sites left in the center of the city, but here are pictures from the one i explored that day near Nord Bahnhof.

I know that the blog has been a little slow lately.

One of the reason's is that I am preparing for an exhibition in Malmö, Sweden. I was asked by the Danish art collective Koh-i-noor to represent them in an upcoming exhibition in Sweden. It was short notice, opens May 9th, but will be my first solo show in Europe so I am preparing the work and organizing plans to take it to Copenhagen and then Malmö for the exhibit.

Click the link to see the announcement:

Unten Drunter

Frozen Wasteland

For the past two months there has been a pavilion errected outside of the new Alexa mall on Alexanderplatz. The pavilion hosted a seasonal exposition of Ice Sculptures, that were carved to resemble monuments from around the world. The works were all one or two storys tall, including the Jesus statue from Rio de Janero, Brazil, a cathedral facade, etc. It was described as "more than 30 fading works of art...50 international artists build a blinking world of wonders out 500 tons of snow and ice, that invites you on a ramble through 4000 years of history and over all continents".

I never went inside because the €13 ticket price was a bit steep, however I did peek in as they were disassembling the pavilion. The above photo is the aftermath of the exhibition, where I like to think that they created a new sculpture representing the present point in this 4000 year history. An ice sculpture of all of the packaging waste that Alexa produces.

Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking...into the future.

Time seems to be going on quickly these days.

Week before last, we spent 'Kunst-Tag' at the Hamburger Bahnhof. This is great venue but we had waited until the new exhibition came up to visit. They have a rotating collection and the major show up right now is a huge! (more than 200 works from 20+ years) show of Wolfgang Tillmans' photographs called 'Lighter'. In general, it was nice to see someone with such a wide ranging practice. We both commented on how this survey was kinda-like seeing everything that has ever been done or considered with photography, especially in relation to pop culture, but by one person.



I think we were most interested in the works that treated photography as sculpture...either literally as pictured above, or by rephotographing photographs.



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The weekend before last was pretty low key (see previous posting) but it was really nice weather-wise. On Monday, we headed out to the edge of town to finally have a day trip to the lake. This was a very nice adventure, the weather was fantastic, and I was able to find some public beaches were people go to swim once it gets a little warmer. We walked around the area a lot and had a little picnic on this ridge overlooking the lake.





The building in front of R near the water is part of the public beach area (not open yet apparently) with sunning decks and other facilities I imagine. You can kinda see the beach in front of it, but it is the same color as the building. This lake is easily accessible by S-Bahn, and is actually just on the edge of the 'B' zone (not even as far out as 'C'). The closest station is about a 10-15 walk from the beach. I look forward to heading back here this summer.

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Last Thursday we went to see a Friedensreich Hundertwasser show at Schloss Britz, which is on the far south side of town. This guys is pretty interesting and I suggest reading about his many involved projects. He was Austrian artists and architecture who was a very early environmentalist. He called 'straight lines the 'devil's tools'. Perhaps his most well know project is the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna.

Later that night we went to WN's opening at Magnus Muller...and the 'Anonymous Drawing Show' that we didn't get into. They had a ton of drawings and it was obvious they picked the widest range possible to present in the exhibition...


Anonymous Drawings

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Friday (April 5th) was the opening of the Berlin Biennale and PE was back in town for her opening. She hooked us up with tickets to go the opening and the after party, but unfortunately she was feeling sick and wasn't up for going out later.



It was a hugely crowded event...from the 4th (?) floor I was able to take a photo out of the window of the courtyard below. I had to blow out the color so you could see all the people because it was pretty dark down there.

It was great to see PE's work, but in general I wasn't impressed by the work or the show at this venue anyway. This part was at Kunstwerk, but there are 3 other venues around the city so maybe those spaces are better.


after party at nearby warehouse
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Also, my friend KM came into town (from Amsterdam) to see the show this weekend, but missed her train so she didn't make it until Saturday morning. We hung out on Sunday and had a great time but she left back to Holland on Monday. This was also the final week for all the visitor's that Ryan's studio-mate were having from CA. One, DB, R also works with though so we know him more and hung out a few times over the month that he spent in Europe...in Germany but also the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.

It was a nice week to have some visitors from various places. We also are starting to make our plans from traveling in the spring over the next few months and coordinating with other visitors coming to Berlin to visit. We have a couple of weeks before our first trip though so I am trying to focus on getting some work done before that all starts. Recently, I have been working on a new website for myself and yesterday I rearranged our bedroom to make it more of a functional space.