Living with a Wall (Berlin) 2010
A life size model of a section of the Berlin Wall built into my room / studio in Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany. The object was framed with wood strapping and covered with black and white digital prints depicting various sections of the wall. The room was only 3 meters high and the wall is 11 which is why it appears to be cut off.
The Berlin Wall “fell” more then 20 years ago. Sections of it still exist throughout the city and now function as a monument, memorializing a history many would like to forget. This project begins to look at the relationship between public monuments, memorials, and the private lives of people who live with them. The Berlin Wall is unique among other monuments because it was not pre-designed as such. Its shift in function is solely due to a change in ideology.
Living with the Wall was in part a response to living in Berlin but was also a response to the events of the June 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto, specifically the aesthetic and physical presence of the “security fence” created for the event. It is also a response to the global prominence of such separations walls and the absurd reality that similar structures continue to be built.
Exhibition history: Takt Kunstprojecktraum, Berlin, Germany, 2010