Highlights of: Berlin 1989 – 2008 "Pictures from two millennia"

Photos by G. Schaefer - An exclusive part of the complete work exhibited in the Art Forum of the East Side Hotel.

10245 Berlin - Friedrichshain, Mühlenstr. 6. Open 7 days a week, 24 hours daily.

Berlin June 1990, Checkpoint Berlin Nov, 1989, Wall at Branden- Berlin March 1990,
Charlie, GI as wallpecker burg Gate, GDR borderguard on duty The Wall in the district Kreuzberg

Berlin, May 1998, "Think different ", Berlin, Dec. 1989, Brandenburg Gate Berlin, Jan. 1990, Wall at Brandenburg Gate

Pariser Platz at Brandenburg Gate EXIT / ENTRY Remains of a watchtower.

Berlin, December 22th 1989 - Opening of the Wall at Brandenburg Gate July 1997, Love Parade

The exhibition world tour “Berlin 1999 - 2008 Pictures from two millennia“

Concept and basic ideas of the author Guenther Schaefer

The now 18-years old cycle by Guenther Schaefer draws a visual line from November 1989 starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall to today, showing the development of this metropolis with all its aspects and all its “phenomena“ that this exiting part

of history produced within this city. G. Schaefer’s work shows Berlin as a vivid symbol for the breakdown of the „Iron Curtain“, the border of two systems, the fall of the “Border of the World“ in a way were men or the traces they leave are always in the centre of creative intention. As regards content, mayor events take turn with more quiet topics of no less importance. Philosophical point of view, aesthetic angles of vision, historical connections, and political aspects complement one another in the choice of pictures. One credo of the artist goes: “He who takes black and white pictures has to nail his colours to the mast,“ a form of expression that reduces the picture’s content to the essential. Another photographic stylistic device is the creation of series. Through many years of documenting heavily symbolic places and world-historic focal points of attention in this city the development of the metropolis becomes urgently clear while the documentation turns against “collective oblivion.“ Furthermore, the work intends to preserve one intense piece of history in an artistically aesthetic way and asks for a dialogue with the viewer in a compository imagery language without transfiguring. The complete exhibition work includes around 250 photos (chosen out of 50.000 negatives on this topic).

The complete exhibition work includes around 250 photos (chosen out of 50.000 negatives on this topic).

It will be published as a book in the near future supplemented by texts and comments of many personalities of contemporary history. In the past decade, phases of this project were to be seen in numerous, highly acclaimed international expositions (see biography.) The visitor’s reactions to those presentations were extremely positive and the public’s identification with the presented themes was surprisingly intense, especially abroad. The opening of the exhibition in the Venezuelan Embassy in Potsdam on November 9th, 2001 was the starting point to an exhibition tour through all continents. From September until November 2004 it was seen in the Hungarian Embassy in Berlin, followed 2005 by two exhibitions in the Netherlands and a big presentation in Potsdam again. 2006 / 2007 will follow shows in various East European countries. The touring plan, putting East European countries in the beginning, is chosen on purpose. It is a reference to the struggle for freedom of these countries which made the fall of the Berlin Wall only just possible at this point in time. From 2007 on, the exhibition will leave the European continent for several years in order to present this intense period of world history from a German point of view in a global tour. Depending on the exhibition forum it is possible to alter the work’s presentation. The number of photographs can vary from 60 to 250 without essentially changing the dramaturgy of the whole concept. Because the artist manages this global tour himself he is flexible in choosing places for exhibitions as well as the forum for a presentation. He is always interested in new suggestions and offers. The realization and financing of the whole concept is primary ensured through sponsoring.

Highlights from the complete work was already present in exhibitions in: Beirut, Tripoli / Lebanon, New York, Waco / USA, Berlin, Potsdam, Frankfurt, Bad Homburg, Eisenach / Germany and Maastricht, Hengelo / Netherlands.

The aim: A never ending tour!

The main motivation for G. Schaefer’s activities is to preserve a consciousness for the highest global good worthy of protection which is democracy by delivering picture contents that are always based on a liberal humanistic idea. Not only since the catastrophe on September 11 is this one of the greatest challenges of the free world in the 21th Century. Facing pictures of hollering neo-nazis at the Brandenburg Gate and recently even in the Scheunenviertel in Berlin (a district of Berlin that is traditionally influenced by a Jewish community) it is more than necessary to show the world documents that prove Germany’s and especially Berlin’s readiness to protect the basic concepts of freedom and democracy wherever it may be in peril. May this work be a modest contribution to this and may it serve as an example that also the individual according to his or her personal possibilities is able to make a difference, as long as they do something.

Schaefer achieved international fame in 1990 with his Berlin Wall-painting “Vaterland“ (Fatherland) which today is protected as a historical monument. The painting is a combination of the German and Israeli flags, 11 meters long and 3.5-meter tall, a symbol for peace and a memorial against any kind of fanaticism. It is a work that relates to November 9th in two ways: First, November 9, 1938, the day of the pogrom, the so-called “Kristallnacht“ (Crystal night); secondly, November 9th 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall. “Vaterland“ (“Fatherland”) is the most provocative contribution to the East Side Gallery, the last part of the Wall still standing. Since 1990, this painting has been destroyed 44 times by variously motivated fanatics. The artist keeps on answering these acts by renovating it, a form of non-violent resistance. In 1996 he became a co-founder of the artists’ initiative East Side Gallery e. V. As a member of the board he fights for the preservation of the unique decaying monument of German separation, which at the same time is the largest open-air gallery of the world. Since 1985, he has exhibited his works in more than 150 national and international art actions, group and single exhibitions. Since 1992, he has been a resident of Berlin-Friedrichshain. In 2000, he was nominated a Berlin-Ambassador whose duty is to act as a representative of the citizens of Berlin with the diplomatic corps.

In September 2004 the exhibition world-tour of the photo project: Berlin – “Pictures from two millennia“ commenced in the embassy of Hungary in Berlin with ceremonial opening addresses by the former Federal Chancellor of Germany Dr. Helmut Kohl and Miklós Neméth, the former Prime Minister of Hungary. Guest of honour at this ceremony was the Federal President of Germany Horst Köhler.

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