Gilles Peress

To mark the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, C/O Berlin is presenting “Grenzenlos” (Unbounded), a project consisting of two installations, created by the internationally renowned photographer Gilles Peress. Peress witnessed decisive phases of the power vacuum in the Germany of 1989 and the Yugoslavia of 1994 and documented the release of pent-up energies at first hand. In the “Grenzenlos” exhibition he treats the processes in the two countries comparatively and as exemplifying a recent chapter of contemporary European history, shows links between them, and presents his own, comprehensive, vision of an era “in which the potential for more democratic and more open societies was genuinely present, but accompanied by an unmistakable danger that violence, hatred and discrimination would ultimately emerge as the dominant pattern for future developments.” (Gilles Peress)

Exclusively for C/O Berlin, Peress is arranging unpublished photographs from the autumn of 1989 for the interactive image and text installation “Fall of the Wall”.  He documented the events surrounding the 9th of November in over 100 films, and has vividly captured and preserved the atmosphere of joy, relief and tension. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to write down their own memories and add their own photos, helping to compile a collective memory of what happened. During the period of the exhibition, selected motifs from the series will be displayed in showcases along the “Mauerstreifen” (former Wall area) on the Potsdamer Platz, thus returning them to the actual site of the fall of the Wall. Simultaneously, selected motifs from the series will be displayed in glass cases directly at the former border area at Potsdamer Platz, thus returning them to the actual location of the events.