archint_1989_cz:de: Monuments of Freedom and Reunification

Recorded 14.11.2019 at Tschechisches Zentrum Berlin


The attempts for regaining freedom culminated in the Czech
Republic with the Velvet Revolution in November 1989. In the same
month also the Berlin Wall fell, which led to the German
reunification in 1990. What are the monuments of the regained
freedom and reunification? What are the natural monuments – which
places do remind us of these actions in Prague and in Berlin?
What do the official monuments look like? How were the
circumstances of their creation? And how would the ideal
monuments look like and what role should they play in the cities
in the eyes of art historians Anežka Bartlová and Sophie Jung?


archint_1989_cz:de is an event series focusing on the
architecture and monuments from the post-war period and how they
have been dealt with since the Velvet Revolution and the fall of
the Berlin Wall in 1989. Why does our freedom often manifest as
the freedom to destroy or simply just to forget? Can these
actions be seen themselves as not only interventions but as
actual monuments to the regained freedom, reunification and
post-1989 transformation? Should these works of art and
architecture be disconnected from their political connotations
and instead be respected for their artistic value? Is it a
question of East – West division? Here, Czech and German
architectural theoreticians will present their new projects and
discuss them.


Partners of the event series: Embassy of the Czech Republic in
Berlin, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Polish Institute Berlin,
Slovak Institute in Berlin, EUNIC Berlin.


Photo by Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR: Memorial of the Student
Demonstrations of 17 November, in Prague (1990, sculptor Otakar
Příhoda) Graphic design: Iveta Krajcirova, Deconstructed