Monday, November 9, 2009

The Berlin Wall in Belgrade, or 'Gone with the Wind'

Like many other cities in Europe aside from Berlin, 'Berlin Walls' were constructed to be torn down today, November 9th, on the 20th anniversary of the real wall's fall. In cooperation with the Goethe Institute here, German artist Frank Betler constructed a heavy cardboard 'brick' wall on Republic Square over two days' time. It was 40 meters long and three meters high. On this link you can see the artist at work, on a bright sunny day. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for the wall, and right here you can see the result of strong winds and snow that hit the city on November 3rd. At that point, the wall was not completely damaged, and would have stood until the 9th when the rest would have been knocked down, but (and this is unofficial, but reasonably reliable), there were reports of late-night hooliganism that involved leaping over the wall and knocking it down.

So here you see the wall all packed up. Under the plastic are the remaining flattened cardboard boxes, and the poster panels are lying beside them.

Addendum: I'm adding this after the 8th comment. This morning I saw that now instead of the collapsed wall will be a 'Berlin Museum' that will be opened this evening by the German Ambassador. In this small 'museum' will be photographs of the original Berlin Wall and other memorabilia. If you want to see it, go:here.

MOTHER AND SON PIZZA

When hunger strikes...