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Vanished Berlin Wall: Eun Sook Lee
I was riding home from a visit to the Nordic Embassies the other night when I cut through to the Brandenburg Gate and collided with the installation of Eun Sook Lee’s “Vanished Berlin Wall’. Lee's project intends to provoke comparisons between the former divided Germany and the currently divided Korea.
This installation is built to the same dimensions of the last incarnation (Grenzmauer ’75) of the Berlin Wall and located in the former location of the Berlin Wall. The installment and duration of this project coincides with the historically relevant events from Nov1-9, 1989 that led to the removal of the Berlin Wall. The “Vanished Wall” however is constructed of plastic fluorescent light boxes with Korean text as well as German text displaying names of Koreans effected by the draconian separation of North and South Korea.
Incidentally views with the Brandenburg Gate in the background are the views from a West Berliner’s perspective. East Berliner residents had a series of buffer/protection zones that prevented them from actually getting close enough to see the wall. This last image has the Tiergarten in the background.