BERLIN/BERLIN
2009 / postcards,of elephants, coat check tags, loose planetarium bricks, coat hooks, cafeteria bread, chewing gum, opera feathers, doorstops, tower bolts, sticks chewed by animals, pretzels, knots
Paired, equivalent objects collected from unified Berlin's doubled institutions; Staatsoper & Deutsche Oper, Fernsehturm & Funkturm, Zeiss - Grossplanetarium & Planetarium am Insulaner and Zoo & Tierpark.
The wall that once divided Berlin indirectly multiplied its essential institutions, after reunification the city now has two television towers, two zoos, two planetariums and two national operas. Though the wall has gone, these duplicates remain working simultaneously, asking the residents of Berlin to choose between them, East or West? Fernsehturm or Funkturm? There are dual, mirrored routines occurring simultaneously each day by people with the exact same job, unbeknownst to each other. Two lift attendants both press numbered buttons guiding tourists to the two elevated restaurants, two Berlin lion tamers tame two Berlin lions. Berlin/Berlin was made slowly, travelling from East to West to East to West to East across the city until a matching pair was formed.
Exhibited in Reconstructed Zone, Kunstverein Wolfsburgh, Germany, curated by Anne Kersten.