Sunday November 8, 2009
Knocking down divisions
By PRIYA KULASAGARAN
An unusual exhibition is part of the ceremonies for the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall tomorrow.
WALLS are tricky things,” muses Goethe-Institut’s Communications and Internet Staff department head Prof Dr Michael Jeissman.
“The walls of your home protect you from harm and intruders, but they could also serve to isolate you from what’s outside.”
Some of the Wall in the World project’s ‘bricks’ that will be toppled like dominoes at tomorrow’s ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. – Goethe-Institut As Germany marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall tomorrow, such poetic philosophising about the nature of walls is hardly a novelty. How people choose to express and communicate their views and history, however, can lead to fresh revelations – at least, that’s what the Goethe-Institut’s Wall in the World project hopes to elicit.
Headed by Prof Jeissman, the initiative is an art installation that explores the significance of divisions and borders in the world today. The key elements are 1,000 symbolic “bricks”, each bearing visual interpretations of living with physical and metaphorical walls. Currently lined up along the former route of the Berlin Wall, these bricks will come tumbling down tomorrow, celebrating freedom in an almost 2km-long run of dominoes.
Although most of the bricks were designed by German artists and youth, 20 were worked on by people from seven other countries: China, Cyprus, Israel, Mexico, Palestine, South Korea and Yemen.
The international collaboration appears to reflect Germany’s soul-searching as a unified nation trying to find its place in the global community.
“This is our way of saying thank you to the world,” says Prof Jeissman in a recent telephone interview.
“The dismantling of the Berlin Wall happened with the support of so many other countries, so now it’s our duty to highlight the issues that are affecting other societies.”
While the Iron Curtain phenomenon may be relegated to dusty textbooks nowadays, newer and stricter divisions are being erected in this supposed era of interconnectivity.
As he passionately discusses the Wall in the World partner countries, Prof Jeissman sounds like he is poised to tear down the very notion of borders with his bare hands.
“Even as (South) Korea still grapples with an old political constellation, the Mexico-United States wall reinforces economic difference.
“Yemen, meanwhile, had a political frontier just like Germany, but now they have a new division between the fundamentalist Islamic north and the more secular south.
“And at a time when globalisation is in vogue, the Chinese ‘wall’ poses the deeper question of how a country should regulate its relationship with the rest of the world.”
Prof Jeissman concedes that there is still somewhat of a divide in Germany, but believes that 20 years is too short a time to accurately assess the situation.
“A lot of mistakes were made after the unification because we were trying so hard to erase the past instead of acknowledging that it happened,” says the historian.
“It’s true that older East Germans sometimes feel that they were ‘conquered’, but the current generation doesn’t share the same outlook.”
He adds that the current divide lies in the influx of immigration and the way Germany is dealing with an increasingly multi-ethnic society.
“This is why we need to have avenues like Wall in the World, to allow the exchange of ideas and knowledge, as well as offer hope for a better world.
“As with needing the walls of your house for security, you also need doors and windows which let people in and allow you to breathe.”
For more information about the ‘Wall in the World’ project, go to tinyurl.com/ylqtnks. Goethe-Institut Kuala Lumpur can be contacted at 03-2164 2011 or info@kualalumpur.goethe.org.
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