The capital city,
with a high concentration of
construction sites in the last twenty years, is fervently
construction sites in the last twenty years, is fervently
rebuilding itself as the centre of Europe.
Topographie des Terrors
Apart from being an outdoor
museum on location where the Gestapo and SS Headquarters once stood, it also lies adjacent
to a long stretch of the Berlin Wall, forming a time-space continuum. The Documentation
Centre, designed by Heinle, Wischer und Partner, houses an extensive permanent
exhibition of atrocities committed under the police state.
This is one of the programme types in Germany that can be measured up as an architecture of dignity.
(images ∣
www.archilovers.com)
What was buried permanently in history includes the original design by an enigmatic Peter
Zumthor in 1993. The construction works
was grinded to a halt, left idled for ten years and eventually demolished in
2004. Few know if the existing architectural end product, somewhat unfinished in appearance due to its prefab-looking structure and the overstretched site, had been a backlash of the aborted scheme.
Holocaust-Mahnmal
(drawings
∣ Peter Eisenman)
The 2711
concrete blocks, sitting on an undulating terrain has an absorbing
presence even after years of coverage in media. Unlike other works by Peter Eisenman, the memorial’s
abstract configuration might have saved this project from datedness. (The sculptor - Richard Serra collaborated on this winning entry but withdrew after the competition. Little had changed on design after it was built.)
(image ∣
chrisps@flickrs.com)
The
subterranean gallery – “Place of Information” designed by Dagmar von Wilcken, is
worth the wait despite queuing up in the cold open air. The exhibits, common in most Holocaust
exhibitions in Germany, are organized in a matter-of-fact approach that do not
evoke sentimentalism.
Jüdisches
Museum
Daniel
Libeskind’s one-hit wonder seems to have himself obsessed with the theme of
fragmentation that the architect is stuck with this expression in his later
projects. Admittedly this language is
well suited for the museum extension programme; and both the architect and institution have
fittingly received acclaims.
While the museum deserves better engagement with the exteriors, the
Garden of Exile and Holocaust Tower conceived for visitors' experiences of concrete and steel, are too deterministic from the
architect to create drama. The contrived
play of imagery through architectonic manipulations alone could hardly resonate to
produce true reflections.
One has
to be there to experience Shalekhat
(Fallen Leaves) by Menashe Kadishman.
The installation is beyond what words can describe. The combined effects of the environs, tactility
and sound imprint upon people anguish, if not indelible memories, associated with human-inflicted sufferings.
Reichstag
Foster
sketches - the architect’s fundamental design
inspirations based on a mentality of problem-solving, not vision.
inspirations based on a mentality of problem-solving, not vision.
(sketches
∣ Norman Foster)
The
German parliament building, renovated by Norman Foster, is manifested through
an empiricist intention of demonstrating transparency of governance. The nature of goodwill is noted. Nonetheless, it would be naïve to believe
that government institutions are simple guardian angels of the people; the fact is they can only be open and transparent as far
as conditions allow. You only see what you are supposed to see.
The glass
dome is accessible to the public amid tight security measures and only after filing personal details through on-line registration. In so far as personal
experience tells, it is only a horizontal Ferris wheel that resembles a stage-setting.
Museumsinsel (Museum Island)
The
original Egyptian collection at the Neues Museum in 1943. No barricades could stop the Allied bombing
that almost levelled the building. (image ∣ German government archive)
The restoration
work (completed in 2009) by the so-called minimalist architect David
Chipperfield is an outstanding case of contemporary heritage preservation.
Guarding
lions in the style of the Ptolemaic era. The sandstone sculptures, with
fracture in places, were completely charred during WWII.
Regiment
of stone carvings.
The sun god
of Helios.
L’age d’airain
(The Age of Bronze) by Rodin at the
Alte Nationalgalerie – a demeanour full of ambiguities.
Alte Nationalgalerie – a demeanour full of ambiguities.
Unknown
angel at the Altes Museum. Could anyone
provide its proper information?
The angel
that sparked the mental connection had its origin in Wim Wenders’ “Wings of
Desire”, shot in the pre-unified Berlin, 1987.
This dramatic shot is Ola Mafaalan’s adaptation of the film into a play
for the American Repertory Theatre in 2006.
(image ∣ www.berkshirefinearts.com)
The magnificent
content of the five houses at the island museum is undeniable. The Altes Museum, Alte Nationalgalerie and Neues
Museum are exemplary efforts to re-vamp old establishments. However, the Bode-Museum and Pergamonmuseum seem not to fare as good. The
latter has such stifling air quality that I had to make my exit within thirty
minutes.
The
original masterplan of the museum island conceived by Chipperfield in coordination
with O.M. Ungers and other architects in the 1990’s. The reconfiguration project is still
undergoing construction phase.
(image ∣ David Chipperfield Architects)
(image ∣ David Chipperfield Architects)
Museum für
Gegenwart (Hamburger Bahnhof)
“Cloud
Cities” by Tomas Saraceno is a summation of earlier works including the rope
formation of “14 Billions” and inflated cocoon of “Girasol (Turning City)”. The work at the main hall is almost
monumental yet overly suggestive with the deployment of water and plants on the
discourse of habitable space.
Pushing limits,
his latest work of “On Space Time Foam” in Milan 2012 is quite remarkable -
personal experience pending.
(image ∣ www.domusweb.it)
Joseph
Beuys, Das Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts
(The End of the 20th Century),
1982-83
As controversies
subside over the years, Beuys’ oeuvre - progressive as much as mythical, has
become for most readers a preference based on taste rather than ideology. The permanent exhibition also accompanied the
show “8 Days in Japan and the Utopia of Eurasia” recollecting in video format the
artist’s visit of Japan in 1984.
It is one
of the six cells supposed to be lived in by the artist in six cities. His untimely death in 1993 renders this incomplete project an open case for imagination.
Referring
this project and modern architect, he said: “The great difference between a
modernist and me is that a modernist thinks about the world, how to make it
better, how to sort it out. Whereas I am
not thinking about changing the world, like the avant-garde might have done, I
am thinking about changing my life.”
Bruce
Nauman, Room with My Soul Left Out, Room That Does
Not Care, 1984. (Exhibited under the new title: Dream Passage)
Not Care, 1984. (Exhibited under the new title: Dream Passage)
Nauman’s
effort makes an absorbing comparison with that of Absalon in the sense that he was trying to deal with space-time from a mind-to-matter approach, whereas Absalon seemed
to investigate the subject in reverse order.
Interesting enough, the works themselves are
uncannily transpired with opposite visual attributes.
Eye of the beholder: Substituting Mao’s head with that of Stalin
or Ceausescu, one would be able to see Warhol’s giant print in different light. This work is only more relevant in Germany.
I am
almost convinced of his works especially after the monographic video documentary
“Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow”. His
latest series “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom” have been succumbed to full-blown
enterprising exploits most famous artists are tempted with.
“Diamat” –
the bicycle weighed with oversized lead books
and in front of the painting at
White Cube Hong Kong.
(image ∣ www.ocula.com)
Berlin Philharmonie
for free
It is
worth everyone’s effort to attend the free lunchtime concert at the foyer, scheduled and
published in most “what’s on” magazines in Berlin. The quality of music and spirit of anticipation was amazing.
Walking with architecture
Apart
from those described above, there are some other buildings as seen from the “pedestrian”
level.
Park
Kolonnaden, Potsdamer Platz
(typical floor
plan ∣ Giorgio Grassi
architetto)
Few
renowned architects realize less works than Giorgio Grassi (1935- ). The contentions surrounding the architect is
largely based on his formal approach to architecture, uncompromising to the
verge of being labeled a reductivist.
His architecture represents a small but stern opponent to commercial
tastes.
Presentation
drawing by Rossi indicating
attempts to blend in with the surrounding.
(image ∣ Aldo Rossi archive)
Although sympathetic
to his historicist discourse in Italy, Aldo Rossi’s palazzo styled Quartier
Schützenstraße looks passé and out of place in a German context. However it is yet in better shape than his
corner block at Wilhemstrasse – a state of dilapidation comparable with its
architectural merit.
Street Scenes
One of
the prominent relics that survives the DDR era - the television tower (the
Fernsehturm). At 368m, it could well be the
tallest communist structure in the world.
Japanese
students in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
They have a lot to learn from the host country on the attitude of facing
up to history.
The remodeling
of the Potsdamer Platz has been marred by a series of bad judgments since its
drawing board stage in the early 1990’s. Propped by a stellar line-up of designers, many buildings here have demonstrated over time to be a huge disappointment, the urban space a characterless
wind-sweep.
Potsdamer
Platz and the adjoining Leipziger Platz according to Giorgio Grassi. Common to most competition schemes, the chosen
entry designed by Renzo Piano and Christoph Kohlbeckers could not elevate
itself from historicist dogmas.
(drawing ∣ Giorgio Grassi architetto)
(drawing ∣ Giorgio Grassi architetto)
Still,
construction works remain unabated. Disposing ground water, the painted
drainpipes steal the limelight more effectively than the renewed urban landscape.
The Neue Synagogue
at Oranienburger Straße – a street with smart collection of bars, restaurants
and shops. The neigbourhood is also well-known
for its prostitution rackets.
Berlin
street walkers portrayed by Kirchner in “Potsdamer Platz, 1914”. More Expressionist paintings by Die Brüke are displayed in the Neue
Nationalgalerie and Brüke Museum.
(image ∣ songkran@flickr.com)
Badly
neglected during the DDR period, the Hackesche Höfe courtyards have been revamped with
Jugendstil detailing. The district of
Mitte also bears witness to the construction of many tenement blocks to meet
the influx of migrate workers in the 1900s; traces of these utilitarian brick
buildings can still be found.
Galleries
and restaurants are now packed in this gentrified courtyard district.
Bike shop
at Oranienburger Straße. The neon delivers casually as a joke on ‘Riding Bikes’ by Robert Rauschenburg, which is located at the Potsdamer
Platz.
One year
on since this photo was taken, the Syrians are still fighting for
freedom.
Some of ‘who’s who’ in Berlin
K F Schinkel (1781-1841), the cemetery at Dorotheenstadt
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), the cemetery at Dorotheenstadt
Copper
plaques (stolpersteine) with names and descriptions commemorating Nazi victims including gays, invalids, gypsies, communists and Jews.