Berlin Wall，have we really ‘pushed it down ‘yet?

– A metaphor is a metaphor, an issue is an issue .

‘I, I can remember，

Standing, by the wall；
And the guns, shot above our heads ，
And we kissed,

as though nothing could fall
And the shame, was on the other side
Oh, we can beat them,

forever and ever
Then we could be heroes,

just for one day’

David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ has been my favourite song for many years. I used to fantasize a romantic scene in which me and my lover run across the Berlin Wall ruins holding each other’s hands and singing this song together. Of course it hasn’t come true yet.

This year marks the 28th anniversary since the ‘Mauer Fall’. Compared to the 20th and the 25th anniversary with great celebration, somehow I felt that the 28th year was more profound, considering the contemporary issues facing us now.

The Berlin Wall was built up after 28 years since Nazis took the office in 1933; it lasted for 28 years until 1989. And it’s already been 28 years since it was taken down. The number ‘28’ seems like a significant sign of reincarnation to Germany itself.

However, the life styles, political views and many other things on both sides of the wall haven’t been ‘merged’ properly from my perspective. In the east, the older generation people whose faith has been collapsed one after another live in their ‘ comfortable zone’ quietly while the old money keeps staying in the west. The younger generation, middle class, liberalists, artists and immigrants focus in the centre and south areas. Berlin was separated into many different districts just like other metropolitan cities.

In fact, the regional differences in Germany have naturally existed since the beginning of its history, so has every other country in the world. These artificial architectures, such as Berlin Wall or the Olympic Stadium were the prop or epitome under the extreme political circumstances. What the Berlin Wall really blocked was the natural demands of freedom, basic rights and communication desire as human being.

Nowadays we celebrate the Mauer fall for the victory of freedom and love, yet it is just a beginning of another era at the same time. The real problems haven’t disappeared after the wall was built, nor won’t be resolved after it fell. Problems and contradictions always exist in our society. They break out and cease intermittently. After all, we cannot be blindly optimistic just because of some certain decisive moments.

We set up the ‘opposition’ and ‘block’, then overturned again and again. I do not believe in the ‘truth’, nor do I believe in utopia. What I do believe, however, is that our innate skill to seek the instincts coming out of nothingness.

Illustration by Nancy.Z

Photography by Pickledthoughts.net

References pictures from Google

At East Gallery, Kreuzberger