Everyday life with the Berlin Wall

Take time for a visual and emotional journey into the recent past: Berlin, separated by the wall. American and Soviet tanks faced each other right at Checkpoint Charlie, the city and the world were on the verge of a possible Third World War, this border crossing and the museum there tell of the extremes in the history of Berlin.

And Yadegar Asisi’s imposing panorama of the divided Berlin also shows an artistically shaped view of the Cold War period, in which its residents had to come to terms with both sides of the wall. A “everyday wall life” is presented, documented on a fictional autumn day in the 1980s. “The Asisi Panometer Berlin: The Wall” shows how banal actually and at the same time subtly gruesome “life” was in the middle of the divided city. “West Berliners” were able to take a look over the Berlin Wall into the eastern part from the stands, and the people there, including perhaps relatives or friends, and their lives in “real-existing” socialism. While East Berliners not only blocked their prospects, the wall also looked into an “alien” world. This ambivalence can now be experienced again by visitors.

Incidentally, Yadegar Asisi explains his approach as follows: »I lived in Kreuzberg in the 80s on and with the wall. The panorama bundles my experiences and tells the viewer detailed stories that would not have happened at the same time. The many everyday stories in the panorama picture show that the residents come to terms with the circumstances. «