Mr. Villaraigosa, Tear Down This Wall!!!
On November 7th, KUSC Associate Producer Katie McMurran and I visited the Wende Museum’s Wall Project, an anniversary celebration of the fall of the Berlin wall. Festivities were scheduled to begin at 8pm and were initially pretty small but would soon grow. My anticipation of food trucks/currywurst/music or even leftover Oktoberfest beer went unsubstantiated, although the crowd was authentically German. There was even a man prancing around in full GDR Stasi gear, riding boots and all.
Although the wall seemed solid from its better angle, it was actually a wooden construction, with only a small Styrofoam soft spot engineered to “fall” at midnight. During the hours leading up to the event, workers tirelessly added to the construction at little improvised workstations. It might have gone unnoticed, but the majority of the crowd obviously stood on the painted side - a peculiar reflection of the scene around the original wall twenty years ago.
The crowd started to grow as it got closer to midnight. Around eleven, Executive Director/Founder of the Wende Museum, Justinian Jampol gave an energetic speech augmented by a few words from LA City Councilmember, Tom LaBonge. Also a highlight was the prerecorded message from Berlin’s mayor, Klaus Wowereit.
Artists lined up for a little photo-op while Ute Lemper, the German chanteuse and actress, sang a jazzy overlay.
A lot of visitors seemed to be interested in watching the event through a screen. Probably to update blogs… the irony of this is not lost on me. In any event, the Germans kept to the back where arguably more interesting conversations were taking place, leaving the news crews to fight their way to the front.
A peal of thunder rang over the heads of the crowd and fires raged. Just kidding, the bricks were styrofoam; the smoke was likely some kind of particulate released into the air or from a smoke machine to deepen the effect.
KUSC associate producer, Katie McMurran, stands in front of the largest intact portion of the original Berlin Wall. The artwork, however, is significantly younger than twenty years. LA and Berlin artists collaborated to redecorate the piece.
~ Cameron Carlson
