A collaberation of minds and spaces in the theme of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, curated with Katharina Child Atelier Stroud, Jo Leahy the SVA and Uta Baldauf supported by Charles Landry. We have created a program to mark the Fall of the Berlin Wall, which looks at different thematics through the medium of film, talks, walks, art and performance. All Happening now in October to December 2019, in Stroud and Cheltenham. Bristol coming soon.

Berlin Zeitgeist Program:  Berlin Zeitgeist in Stroud 

We are still open for submission for our mail art exhibition Exhibition. For more information and how to send your work to us: https://www.sva.org.uk/events/2019/11/1/falling-walls-mail-art

I was born in East Germany 45 minutes drive from Berlin. I was 7 when the Wall came down. My mother was 8 when the wall was built. My grandmother was 19 when the second World War started. I left Germany when I was 17. I turned 34, 3 days after the Brexit vote. We all carry pieces of history.

The Berlin Zeitgeist idea started last autumn. One day whilst driving home I listened to a radio program about the fall of the Berlin wall and Radio 100 and how a radio show had a deep effect on people’s lives before the Fall. A few weeks later I listened to a program about Poland and how hostile it has become for some artists. I have been feeling paralist by the recent political landscape in the UK. I reflected on my families past in the context of a huge political transition. This inspired me to use my freedom of expression to mark the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall as an indirect response to Brexit and to start a conversation about the effects of politics  have on every onces life.

Every historical event is a part of another with plural realities. Nothing is black and white. My experience of the fall was that everything changed and yet it was like it was happening to me  instead of with me. Since starting this project people have told me their memories and relationships to the Wall. Berliner Zeitgeist project is growing and is taking many exciting path. And instead of feeling paraliced I am able to share an ongoing conversation about shared historical experience.

This is going to be an ongoing investigation and building of relatioships with places in Berlin and beyond.