East-Side-Gallery, International Memorial for Freedom at the Berlin
Wall.
Ignasi Blanch, a resident in Berlin during the fall of the wall, was chosen as the only
representative from Spain as part of the international project - The East Side Gallery.
I moved to Berlin in the year 1988, with the desire to take a risk and provoke new
situations which would be suggestive for me in my work and my own private search.
Having just recently finished my degree in Fine Art, it was a decisive moment for me
in my artistic career.
Berlin during this time was a city with some peculiar characteristics, in part due to its
political and social situation. It had been divided into two parts since 13th August
1961, the day in which construction began on the famous wall. It was a characteristic
symbol of the city and was a physical barrier seperating the city into two politically
differentiated parts. The wall converted part of the city into a Federal Republic of
Germany island in the middle of the old German Democratic Republic.
Immigration started to come to Berlin: exiled Soth Americans, Polish refugees, Turks,
young people from different countries, etc. This movement was accentuated in the
seventies with the intention of getting to know the German city which offered the
most freedom. In the eighties the Western government maintained an atmosphere of
constant renovation in terms of culture. Berlin continued offering a different
atmosphere with the alternative movement of young squatters and creative types in
the neighbourhood of Kreuzerg
EAST-SIDE-GALLERY
On 9th November, 1989, while I was living in Berlin, the wall came down.
The East-Side Gallery was a cultural iniciative that emerged from the demolition of
the wall, with the intention of conserving part of this both spectacular and painful
canvas, as a witness and reminder of what it signified. The East-Side Gallery, was
the idea of the private association WUWA and gallery director Christine MacLean.
The idea was to save 1.3km of the old wall and to hand this over to artists from all
around the world, chosen by means of a public competition. This was with the aim of
allowing artists to express their feelings about this concrete partition, which during 28
years divided families, friends and, in a word, a whole city.
The part of the wall chosen for the project was the span between Oberbaumbrücke
and the Central Station of East Berlin, on the bank of the River Spree.
To enter the competition to form part of the project, artists had to present a design for
the wall and examples of their work. In the end, 100 artists from all over the world
took place in the project. In the summer of 1990 I was chosen as the only
representative for Spain. The East-Side Gallery was officially opened on 28th
September, 1990.
To paint my part of the wall, I chose an image linked to a collection of lithographs
which I was making at that time at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien centre, Berlín.
Together with the slogan “PARLO d’AMOR” (“I speak about love”) appear three
faces in various states of mind. Using black, grey and ocre tones I tried to express my
own particular feelings and my experiences lived during a very long and fruitful
period in the city.
In 1996 some of the wall paintings were restored, and my painting “PARLO
d’AMOR,” was amongst these, as shown in the short film “Künstlerinitiative EastSide-Gallery”, directed by Betul Tolke in September, 1996.
10th Anniversary
On 28th and 29th August, 1999, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the fall of
the wall, the East-Side-Gallery staged a public event allowing artists from all
different countries who had participated in the original project to meet up again. This
event included artists such as Kani Alavi from Iran, Thierry Noir from France,
Gabriel Heimler from Hungary, Cesar Olhagaray from Chile, and Günther Schaefer
from Bavaria amongst others.
The opening was also held for the collective exhibition “East Side Gallery-10
years”. There were concerts, shows and a series of conferences led by celebrities
closely related historically to the Berlin wall such as, for example, Hayan Koch - the
ex DDR soldier, who had just published a book looking at the history of the wall. In
short, it was a question of a public event which was integrated into the celebrations of
the city of Berlin for the start of the new German Parliament and the recovery of its
capacity as political capital.
The Berlin wall paintings are still in Mühlenstrasse. They currently have protection,
which was gained with the East-Side-Gallery being declared a Protected Historical
National Monument.
Tarragona County Council and the City Council of Berlín-Reinickendorf presented
the exhibition “The Berlin Wall – 10th Anniversary of its fall,” in the Courtyard of
the Tarragona Council Palace. It included photographic documents from Christian
Boruguignon and Ursula Eckertz-Popp and also ten original fabric paintings – which
were reproductions of the originals created by ten of the artists from the East-Side
Gallery. The travelling exhibition visited different European countries.
In 2000, the German Consulate, Tarragona County Council, and Roquettes
(Tarragona) Town Council had the iniciative of producing a life size reproduction of
the painting “PARLO d’AMOR” from the East-Side-Gallery in the entrance of the
Meteorological Observatory in Roquettes, the town where I was born. The opening
was held on 26th February, 2000.
20 YEARS of the EAST-SIDE-GALLERY
Objective: REPAINT THE BERLIN WALL
2009 will see the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin
wall. The artists who took place in the East-Side Gallery project back in 1990 will
reunite again in Berlin to restore all the paintings to their original state, with the
support of the German government and the “Deutsche Klassenloterie.” Kani Alavi
continues to be the president of this collective of artists and is the coordinator of all
the events which will be celebrated in the city of Berlin on the occassion of the 20th
anniversary.
The aim is that all the paintings in the East-Side Gallery will be restored to their
original state and just like new, ready for when the 20th anniversary of the fall of the
wall is celebrated in November, 2009. This initiative also forms part of the
renovation of the Friedrichshain neighbourhood and the lifeless zone between
Ostbahnhof and the Oberbaumbrücke, a place with great tourist attraction.
I am going to take part personally in the various celebration events for the 20th
anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall and in the restauration of my painting “Parlo
d’ Amor.”
My experiences gained from living in this city, the East-Side Gallery project and my
painting on the wall will stay with me forever.
Berlin will also hold a place inside, the Berlin in which we lived and will carry with
us in our hearts.
Ignasi Blanch