The year was 1989. After 28 years, the Berlin Wall, that grim and grey divider of humanity, finally met its maker. Most of it was quickly dismantled, but along Mühlenstrasse, paralleling the Spree, a 1.3km stretch became the East Side Gallery, the world’s largest open-air mural collection. In more than 100 paintings, dozens of international artists translated the era’s global euphoria and optimism into a mix of political statements, drug-induced musings and truly artistic visions.
Birgit Kinder’s Test the Best, showing a Trabi bursting through the Wall, The Mortal Kiss by Dimitri Vrubel, which has Erich Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev locking lips, and Thierry Noir’s bright cartoon faces are all shutterbug favourites.
