I was recently asked to paint a section of the Berlin Wall to be
displayed at the "Freedom Park" on the Friedrichshain side of the
river Spree.
For me, involving the word "freedom" with a barrier built around one
half of a city, a barrier involving not just a wall but barbed wire,
guard dogs, machine gun implacements, search lights, and soldiers with
the instructions "shoot to kill", doesn't make sense, and I wanted to
use this opportunity to remind people of just how disgusting it is to
divide a city and it's people. The barrier built between the Russian
sector and the British, American and French sectors of Berlin was, in
many cases, built down the middle of streets, dividing friends,
families, and whole communities. Over night on August 12th 1961
relationships were destroyed and freedom, a natural human right, was
viciously snatched away from millions of German citizens, people just
like you and me. I tried, in my simple way, to show this with one of
my "one line" drawings. I hope it will stand as a reminder of the
reality of the Berlin Wall, and of the walls dividing people in other
parts of the world.
The other side of my wall is a little lighter, showing the words
"Every Wall Is A Challenge". This is both intended as a reminder of
the many people from the East that escaped, and of the teams of West
Berliners who dug tunnels and found other ways to rescue and reunite
families, and as a cheeky nod to the graffiti writers of the city
today.
-- Chimp
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