Es war einmal ein Mauerfall
Today I went on an adventure! Where by "adventure" I mean "I went downtown to check out an art exhibit because I need to review one for a class."
I, being my independent-minded self, wished to visit an exhibit that not everyone else in the class would do. I figured most people will go to a Smithsonian (which has the added benefit of being free), so I was going to look around for something else when my awesome Brittany sent me a link to an exhibit at the [Goethe-Institut]. The exhibit sounded interesting and I'm pretty sure I can safely say that no one else in my class will go to the Goethe-Institut. So I made a note on my calendar and wandered on down today since my evening class was canceled, meaning I didn't have to worry about coming back by a certain time. (And my bank account was quite pleased that this exhibit was free.)
The exhibit is called ["Iconoclash! Political Imagery from the Berlin Wall to German Unification"], which is obviously part of their celebration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. It was a tiny exhibit, as was to be expected from a small institute in a small building in a corner of Chinatown. They did have some interesting artifacts, but they didn't really display them very well. Well, the bulk of the artifacts were posters and portraits, so those were just hung on the wall in standard museum style. But then there was an image they couldn't get copyright for or something, so they had it on a computer (which is rather dodgy...) with a Google image search already entered (since there was no keyboard) and a touchscreen. However, they had neglected to adjust the screen resolution, so the navigation was really hard since the back/forward buttons and the scroll bar were really tiny. I have small hands and I had trouble. And it's so easy to change the resolution!
My favourite Bad Display of Artifacts, though, was the pieces of the Berlin Wall they had. They were in some sort of cage-type thing ... on the floor. I mean, that's great for small children, and it's okay for young folks who are bendy, but for any older visitors or anyone with mobility issues, that's really bad. And it's a small cultural institute where I'm sure all their visitors are middle-aged or older. (Excepting the occasional younger person, like myself, but then I generally find myself in the company of people older than my peer group because I am more interested in cultural things than bars and clubs, so I am not the best representative of my age group.)
I also thought it was interesting that they pretty much only cater to folks who speak German. They didn't have any translations for the posters in their labels. I mean, I get that it's a German cultural institute, but if you want other people to be interested, there ought to at least be translations in a handout or something. And when describing where an artifact came from, they used a lot of acronyms. I know what the GDR was, of course, but I had no idea what any of the other acronyms referred to.
They also had replicated a small chunk of wall, on which people could leave messages. I think that was my favourite part of the exhibit. (Though I don't think it was officially part of the Iconoclash! exhibit. I think it was displayed outside somewhere for the actual anniversary of the Mauerfall, possibly in conjunction with an affiliated program at GMU.) Anyway, I spent half my time poring over the messages on the fake walls. There were a few stupid ones, of course, and some that brought up American politics, but then there were some that actually talked about the wall and the impact on their lives. Very cool. It was about half-and-half with English and German notes, and I managed to make out most of the German ones. And there was one in Spanish, too. And one that I think was in Portuguese.
Snippets:
-I wasn't even born that time, but I'm happy that they brought down the wall!
-Viele hat bezahlt mit ihr Leben und Schwierigkeit - Danke!
-Estaba en Bogotá, con mi familia & mdash; lo vimos todo por televisión. Recuerdo que lloré de felicidad...
-I saved to visit the wall in vacation -only for it to be torn down before my visit. Guess that was a good thing after all.
-Es war einmal ein Mauerfall
-Grün ist schön / for Maggie Rudi & Rosie - that one day there is a free place for everyone
-series of photos in which two women spell out "Mauerfall Berlin" with their bodies
I saw the remains of the actual wall in Berlin and I think that has a much greater impact, but this is a good approximation for those who can't make it out there. As I said, they did have some interesting artifacts, they just weren't displayed well. And it's not a good exhibit for someone who doesn't already know the context (which sadly many young people today don't). They could easily have done a lot better. But at least this gives me stuff to write about for my review since we're supposed to discuss the exhibit space and effectiveness more than the content.
And on my way out, I picked up a flyer for their classes on learning German. :)
*
Also, entirely unrelated to the above, check out this [interview] (~5 mins.) with Christine Chatelain (Riese) and Tundra (Fenrir) from Riese. I ♥ Tundra. :)
I, being my independent-minded self, wished to visit an exhibit that not everyone else in the class would do. I figured most people will go to a Smithsonian (which has the added benefit of being free), so I was going to look around for something else when my awesome Brittany sent me a link to an exhibit at the [Goethe-Institut]. The exhibit sounded interesting and I'm pretty sure I can safely say that no one else in my class will go to the Goethe-Institut. So I made a note on my calendar and wandered on down today since my evening class was canceled, meaning I didn't have to worry about coming back by a certain time. (And my bank account was quite pleased that this exhibit was free.)
The exhibit is called ["Iconoclash! Political Imagery from the Berlin Wall to German Unification"], which is obviously part of their celebration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. It was a tiny exhibit, as was to be expected from a small institute in a small building in a corner of Chinatown. They did have some interesting artifacts, but they didn't really display them very well. Well, the bulk of the artifacts were posters and portraits, so those were just hung on the wall in standard museum style. But then there was an image they couldn't get copyright for or something, so they had it on a computer (which is rather dodgy...) with a Google image search already entered (since there was no keyboard) and a touchscreen. However, they had neglected to adjust the screen resolution, so the navigation was really hard since the back/forward buttons and the scroll bar were really tiny. I have small hands and I had trouble. And it's so easy to change the resolution!
My favourite Bad Display of Artifacts, though, was the pieces of the Berlin Wall they had. They were in some sort of cage-type thing ... on the floor. I mean, that's great for small children, and it's okay for young folks who are bendy, but for any older visitors or anyone with mobility issues, that's really bad. And it's a small cultural institute where I'm sure all their visitors are middle-aged or older. (Excepting the occasional younger person, like myself, but then I generally find myself in the company of people older than my peer group because I am more interested in cultural things than bars and clubs, so I am not the best representative of my age group.)
I also thought it was interesting that they pretty much only cater to folks who speak German. They didn't have any translations for the posters in their labels. I mean, I get that it's a German cultural institute, but if you want other people to be interested, there ought to at least be translations in a handout or something. And when describing where an artifact came from, they used a lot of acronyms. I know what the GDR was, of course, but I had no idea what any of the other acronyms referred to.
They also had replicated a small chunk of wall, on which people could leave messages. I think that was my favourite part of the exhibit. (Though I don't think it was officially part of the Iconoclash! exhibit. I think it was displayed outside somewhere for the actual anniversary of the Mauerfall, possibly in conjunction with an affiliated program at GMU.) Anyway, I spent half my time poring over the messages on the fake walls. There were a few stupid ones, of course, and some that brought up American politics, but then there were some that actually talked about the wall and the impact on their lives. Very cool. It was about half-and-half with English and German notes, and I managed to make out most of the German ones. And there was one in Spanish, too. And one that I think was in Portuguese.
Snippets:
-I wasn't even born that time, but I'm happy that they brought down the wall!
-Viele hat bezahlt mit ihr Leben und Schwierigkeit - Danke!
-Estaba en Bogotá, con mi familia & mdash; lo vimos todo por televisión. Recuerdo que lloré de felicidad...
-I saved to visit the wall in vacation -only for it to be torn down before my visit. Guess that was a good thing after all.
-Es war einmal ein Mauerfall
-Grün ist schön / for Maggie Rudi & Rosie - that one day there is a free place for everyone
-series of photos in which two women spell out "Mauerfall Berlin" with their bodies
I saw the remains of the actual wall in Berlin and I think that has a much greater impact, but this is a good approximation for those who can't make it out there. As I said, they did have some interesting artifacts, they just weren't displayed well. And it's not a good exhibit for someone who doesn't already know the context (which sadly many young people today don't). They could easily have done a lot better. But at least this gives me stuff to write about for my review since we're supposed to discuss the exhibit space and effectiveness more than the content.
And on my way out, I picked up a flyer for their classes on learning German. :)
*
Also, entirely unrelated to the above, check out this [interview] (~5 mins.) with Christine Chatelain (Riese) and Tundra (Fenrir) from Riese. I ♥ Tundra. :)