25th anniversary of the wall -Lichtgrenze

Berlin's infamous wall just celebrated the 25th anniversary of the day it all finally came tumbling down. I spent a few hours exploring the installation of balloons along the inner city area of the wall. The project was inspired by an idea from Christopher Bauder and Marc Bauder and the Kulturprojekte GmbH. More info here


  The idea is good and the installation looks great at night but suffers a bit by day. Of course the best way to look at this project is from a symbolic point of view and in this regard its effective. In most parts of the city the wall is long gone so this ghostly reminder of what once divided serves to cause one to pause and think of what happened here. At all too many locations, there are memorials for the people who died trying to flee the East. In some places its a plinth or plaque or simply a subtle cross incorporated into a railing.

  The big event on the last evening was the release of balloons as a symbolic fall of the wall. I think most were expecting all the balloons to go at once rather than a slow release so it was a bit anti-climatic. There was a light inside each stand so as each balloon left it also left the light and disappeared into the black sky disappointing many photographers :) Considering the incredible speed the wall actually fell, basically a few hours after the news conference, it seemed more apropos to have all the balloons go at once. But that would mean a shorter show for the home audience I suppose...

  Later in the evening a sizable number of people were walking home with as many of the balloon towers as they could carry. I expect a few front gardens to have new architectural details, perhaps a few artists will create something with them as well.

Until next time,
Andy

Berlin's 775 Geburtstag (Birthday)

In 2012 Berlin celebrated its 775th birthday. That age depends on when you consider Berlin to have been founded but the first documented mention of the town of Cölln in 1237 is considered a dependable date. However the oldest church still standing in Berlin (Nikolaikirche) celebrates its 800th anniversary this year.... and I come from Canada which began its formal existence in 1867:)

  A number of events were happening in the city and I went to see a fire performance around the old city centre. At the same time, the Titanick street theatre group had a number of performance areas in Alexanderplatz where they created medieval versions of the “beyond” as well as interpreting the nightmare world of Hieronymos Bosch and Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. I found this next to the French fire performance troupe, Compagnie Carabosse. I didn't follow what the theme of these performances was at the time so to come across this was interesting, surreal and curious.

I need to brush up on my Dante I think.

  Across the platz was an amazing looking fire and water creation with someone dressed in a large head dress. By the time I got over there it had finished unfortunately. Below is the stage with water cannons and fire mortars around.

 After the performance.

  Part of the fire performance area was in a large field next to the Berlin Dom. There were numerous furnaces with funnels operated by performers who would send giant fire balls into the sky.

Strings of fire pots.

A mechanical array of fire pots. It raises to this position and then unfolds down to a large circular shape.

  Titanick was interesting but if I knew the theme I'm sure it would have been better. The Compagnie Carabosse performances were visually great, I hope to see more of them another day. -Andy