Heinz J. Kuzdas

Introduction by Heinz J. Kuzdas

At the exhibition 1989 – 20 years fall of the Berlin Wall Art – 2009

in the ICD – Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, Nov. 2009

The Berlin Wall was also a unique collective artwork, which changed daily and often overnight – paint actions disappeared the next day by somebody’s new work of art or was modified in new surprising ways. There was of course controversy – some people saw in painting the Wall only disgusting cosmetics, others similar to the historical wall-newspapers in China, a somehow index of “Zeitgeist” – mood index continuum – as one wrote on the Wall. But here we observed colorful, new irony art, misusing and transforming a depressing horrible perfected inhuman and dangerous borderline and turning it into the longest canvas of art. Something came into existence for what we owe recognition and gratefulness to the many known and unknown who participated. So far there was no such intention from the official public. There are so many who only desire to keep alive the memory of the Wall of death and barbed wire.

Berlin will be Wall free

The prophecy scrawled on the Wall in 1988 “Berlin wird mauerfrei” (Berlin will be wall free) came to pass at midnight on November 9^th, 1989. The Government of the GDR in those days, yielding to pressure from the people, announced unrestricted freedom to travel, effectively immediately. That very night, Berliners from both East and West danced on the Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Politicians of all parties and countries were equally surprised by the course of history. For months there was only one word heard so often: “Wahnsinn” (insane). Souvenir hunters and other “wall peckers” made the wall practically thread bare. The Wall was soon pockmarked and perforated. Steel reinforcement plates were needed to prevent the Wall from collapsing. The Berlin Wall, for 28 years the physical proof of division and political oppositions, became a place of meeting and of the opening and unification of Germany and prepared at least the path to a really united Europe.

CV of Heinz J. Kuzdas

He was born in Kuenzelsau, in South-West Germany. He has been residing in Berlin since 1972 and has lived in France, the USA, Canada and South America. Kuzdas studied Philosophy and Medicine at the Free University of Berlin, has worked as a medical coordinator, as a journalist and photo journalist and has organized and curated several exhibitions abroad and within Germany.

www.kuzdas.eu

Photos by Heinz J. Kuzdas of murals along the Berlin Wall till the final moments

Keith Hearing paints the wall near Checkpoint Charlie 23.10.86

"Fast form", Waldemarstrasse - Kilometerart by Thierry Noir 1987

Pas Attendre, Waldemarstrasse by Thierry Noir/Kiddy Citny Fauxpas 1986

"Hommage a la Fontaine" by Christophe Bouchet / Thierry Noir 1985

Humpty Dumpty at Zimmerstrasse/Enckestrasse 1984

sat on a wall

had a great fall... and all the pieces could not be...

Fragments of the Berlin Wall have spred nowadays throughout the world. Slates of the wall have become a part of the Sylvestre Verger collection with famous artists painting one piece.