East Side Gallery

After the last renovation in November 2009, I photographed the newly renovated East Side Gallery in more than 450 individual shots and created a coherent panorama photo with impressive dimensions: 655,000 x 3,500 pixels. In other words, the photo could be printed 110 meters wide - still in fine art quality. Based on the giant panoramic photo, I created two video installations which provide an impression of a walk along the East Side Gallery. A 15 minute video version and a very special 20 minute version with music especially composed for this video installation and recorded at "Funkhaus Berlin", the former headquarters of the "GDR Broadcasting Corporation". ------------------------------------------------------- The history of the East Side Gallery: Walter Ulbricht says on June 15, 1961, that nobody has the intention to build a wall. Two months later, work on the construction of the Berlin Wall begins. A wall that separates not only the two German states, but also the peoples of the world. A wall on which at least 138 die between 1961 and 1989. On November 9, 1989, the wall falls. In December 1989, the two artists' associations VBK (GDR) and BBK (FRG) propose the project "East Side Gallery" to the GDR Council of Ministers. As of January 1990, less than two months after the fall of the Wall, the first artists began to paint the former wall between East and West. It is an irony of fate that the opening of the East Side Gallery is one of the last official acts of the Council of Ministers of the GDR. The East Side Gallery will open on September 28, 1990 - on October 3, 1990, just five days later, the GDR is history and the two German states are reunited. A wall that separated the peoples of the world for years now unites the peoples of the world over the arts. Up to 10,000 visitors a day watch this 1316-meter-long original wall piece and an international history and art monument. According to press information, parts of the East Side Gallery were demolished at the wish of an investor in 2013. It is a further irony of fate that this investor, according to press information, was an "IM" in GDR times - an unofficial employee of the GDR Ministry of State Security. 'East Side Gallery Berlin' is the longest coherent and still preserved piece of the wall of the former wall between East and West Berlin. In 1990, this piece of the Berlin Wall was painted by 129 artists from 20 countries on the initiative of the two artists' associations VBK (GDR) and BBK (FRG). -------------------------------------------------------