Virtual Berlin Wall

"Virtual Berlin Wall: View from the Bruno-Taut-Haus in East Berlin onto the Engelbecken Death Strip"
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"View out the window of DAM Projects space. The monitor under the windows shows the exact same view in the 1980s, at the time of the Berlin Wall."
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"Virtual Berlin Wall: View from Engelbecken guard tower, looking east onto the Death Strip"
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"Virtual Berlin Wall: Graffiti on the West Berlin Wall at Waldemar Bridge, south of the Engelbecken"
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"Virtual Berlin Wall: Bird’s eye view from West Berlin onto the Engelbecken Death Strip. St. Michael’s Church West in the foreground, St. Michael’s Church East in the far distance"
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The Berlin Wall separated West Berlin from East Berlin from 1961 - 1989. As part of the “inner German border” it was a symbol of the Cold War and the division of large parts of the world into two opposing political systems. By now, most traces of the Berlin Wall have been eliminated. In 2008 the artist team T+T (Tamiko Thiel and Teresa Reuter) brought out their VR artwork “Virtuelle Mauer/ReConstructing the Wall” (www.virtuelle-mauer-berlin.de) to provide an interactive 3D encounter with a 1 kilometer long section of the Berlin Wall and its adjacent neighborhoods. This work creates a space of memory in which users can experience the physical, political and social effects of life “in the shadow of the Wall.”

A central part of the artwork's project area is the Engelbecken Park at Michaelkirchplatz. During the time of the Wall it was filled in to form a huge Death Strip between the East Wall and the West Wall, but has now been restored to its former function as a park with water basin. The images in this series are renderings from „Virtuelle Mauer/ReConstructing the Wall“ showing views of the Engelbecken, not visible in the VR experience itself, that demonstrate the dramatic effects of the Wall on the urban space in Berlin.