Virtuelle Mauer/ReConstructing the Wall
About
29 minute video recording of a walkthrough of the Interactive 3D large projection virtual reality installation by T+T (Tamiko Thiel and Teresa Reuter), 2008 Video: Edition 1 of 5 + 1 AP, by Tamiko Thiel, 2017. Abstract for the VR installation: It is over 30 years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Most people alive today never encountered it in real life. This artwork recreates a kilometer-long section of the Wall and its surrounding neighborhoods in East and West Berlin, depicting the radical changes made over the 28 years of its existence. Exploring the virtual space, users’ own movements and actions trigger dramatic encounters with events spanning this time, from the 1960s to the 2000s. In West Berlin users can tour the colorful graffiti on the West Wall and hear stories of past events; in East Berlin there is a hushed silence and users find that approaching the Wall and its checkpoints can have severe consequences. Users are protagonists in a surrealist dream – not as all-powerful border guards, but in the role of normal Berlin residents living “in the shadow of the Wall.” The installation was developed in close collaboration with the Berlin Wall Memorial Concept of the Berlin Senate, and partially funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds (Berlin Capital City Cultural Funds). It was awarded the Grand Prize of the 2009 IBM Innovation Award in Art and Technology, given by the Boston Cyberarts Festival.