The Little Gallery presents: Beyond the Wall in honor of the 30th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall
The Little Gallery, Oregon State University will be having a very wonderful exhibition at the end of October!
The year 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the disintegration of the Iron Curtain in Europe. The figurative “iron curtain,” so termed by Winston Churchill, had stood for forty-four years, delineating the areas of Europe dominated by the hegemonic Soviet Union and those areas that were parts of free and democratic Western Europe. This disintegration, this collapse, ended the four-decade-long Cold War between the East and the West, and initiated seismic shifts in the global world order.
One of the major events of the collapse, in November 1989, was the fall of the Berlin Wall, which eventually led to the unification of East and West Germany. Once an actual physical location of the broader separation and human tragedy of the post-war era, the remnants of the Berlin Wall have become, to some extent, merely a tourist attraction. There is deep historical significance in every aspect of the Berlin Wall. The graffiti art on the surface of Berlin’s East Side Gallery merely evokes the political dimensions of the graffiti sprayed on the Western-facing side of the Berlin Wall.
In 2017, Stefan Roloff created a 229-meter panorama called BEYOND THE WALL, on the original Berlin wall. That exhibit combined footage-stills from the old border area, with silhouetted portraits of former citizens of East Germany. With a technique specially developed for that exhibition, the video stills were blown up to the full wall’s height, creating an effect that appears painterly up close, but turns photo-realistic from a distance.
At the end of October 2019, Stefan Roloff will transform the space of the Little Gallery and adapt the original Berlin exhibit to fit the walls of Kidder Hall. The orange and gray colors of the gallery walls will be covered by wallpaper depicting the footage stills and silhouettes of the original 2017 exhibit.
At the opening on October 28, 3-5 pm, Roloff will talk about his experience of growing up on the “island”of West Berlin, surrounded by the wall, and the way that experience has influenced his life and artistic concept. He has been a featured speaker at Cooper Union, Columbia University and Amherst College, among others. During his talk, the original footage of the 2017 exhibit will be screened.
Mr. Rene Siebenhaar, representative of the German Embassy in Washington DC, will also be in Corvallis on Monday, October 28th and will officially open the exhibit with some brief remarks.
We hope you can join us! October 28, 3-5 pm, The Little Gallery!
Any questions: Sebastian Heiduschke@oregonstate.edu
Video: http://dpaq.de/XVHKY
Download link: http://dpaq.de/2Q8Nt