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Patrick Shearn: U.S. Artist Created Art Installation for Fall of Berlin Wall Anniversary

For the upcoming fall of the Berlin Wall anniversary, Berlin commissioned an American artist to create a huge installation. Patrick Shearn’s ‘Visions in Motion’ will be one of the highlights on November 9th, 2019.

Six months ago, ‘Kulturprojekte Berlin’, the state-owned company responsible for aspects of the fall of the Berlin Wall 30th anniversary celebrations, contacted Patrick Shearn, an artist from Los Angeles. He was asked whether he was willing to create a huge installation which would dominate the festivities at Brandenburg Gate.

Installation with 30,000 Messages

Shearn was interested immediately. His installation flutters in the wind. It contains 30,000 messages from Germans on little pieces of cloth. They expressed what they think of the Berlin Wall which fell on November 9th, 1989, and what their ideas for the Germany’s and the world’s future are.

The material used is very light. It is the kind of cloth used for sleeping bags or expensive winter jackets and reacts to the wind. The 20,000 square feet will fly like a huge kite. ‘Visions in Motion’ contains more than 100,000 streamers in total. Fixing them to the giant net which carries them had been a big process, Patrick Shearn told The Berlin Spectator on Friday (see video at top of page).

Patrick Shearn (center) with Simone Leimbach and Moritz van Dülmen of ‘Kulturprojekte Berlin’. Photo: Imanuel Marcus

The streamers were cut in California and sent to Germany, where thousands of people wrote their comments on them. Afterwards, they were returned to Los Angeles. At Shearn’s studio, the art installation was completed and brought back to Berlin on time for the anniversary week and the main event on November 9th.

Ongoing Preparations for Anniversary

At Brandenburg Gate, crews are busy setting up stages, installations and big stands for people to sit on. Because of the preparations, some areas are closed to traffic. For now, the thousands of pedestrians which populate the area around Brandenburg Gate all day long, including tourists, need to squeeze through narrow paths on the western side of it.

Imanuel Marcus spoke to Patrick Shearn today (see video at top of page).

Related posts:

Fall of the Berlin Wall 30: Following the Wall Path
Fall of the Berlin Wall 30: The Significance
Fall of the Wall 30: The Victims
Fall of the Berlin Wall 30: The Events

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