site-responsive performative research
‘The Building has a Shape of The River’ is a site-responsive performative research in which I commemorated the historical Berlin Wall escape route, by exploring western facade of Am Flutgraben eV building, digging out of mud and water a variety of stuff, including bricks (that have been laying in the canal since the Fall of the Wall, Nov 9, 1989), and swam over the Spree River flood trench.
This was the only building that was not blown up on the Mauerweg, instead, at the time of Berlin Wall, it was fortified, barricaded and used as a factory for repair of East Berlin’s public transportation busses. All windows of the western facade were blinded out by bricks and metal panels, to prevent employees finding the escape route. After the wall, some of the windows have been gradually freed while apparently bricks ended up in the flood trench.
While elaborating on bodily contact with the facade, the surrounding water, and layers of history, I found out that some of the windows are still covered by bricks, and that many bricks are still to be found in the water.
The work poetically highlighted the Flutgraben e.V building’s river-like shape, commemorating its position on what once was a peace of nature, as the building was in part constructed inside the river, while the walls and materials at the bottom of the canal witness shadows of the past, due to its location on the historical borders of the Berlin-Wall.
The performance was developed in the frame of IMPORT/EXPORT Berlin, residence (Sept 16-19.2024) and performed on September 20 and 21, 2024.
Performance assistant: Aleksander Zain
Photos: Nihad Nino Pušija, Claudia Calderano, Mathias Krause, Tanja Ostojić
TANJA OSTOJIĆ 