Seit wann Hier?
Site specific installation, 2021
„Seit wann hier?“ is a site specific installation referencing the history of the restricted area of former East Berlin, where Studios Id Complex belong. This building made of two blocks was the former operative technical sector of the GDR espionage and counter-intelligence centre (Stasi) in Berlin Lichtenberg.
Up to the fall of the Wall the restricted area was not signed on the map. It was thus made “invisible”even though its presence was made well aware by the walls surrounding it. Starting from the idea of visible vs invisible /absence vs presence, I took a portion of today´s map of the buildings who belonged to the restricted area (specifically part of Studios Id buildings) and manipulated it into forming a pattern resembling a wallpaper, thus recreating the process, by making invisible (or unrecognizable) something visible.
This pattern is made into 20 flags lining up in the garden between the blocks, as a symbolic territorial mark of an area that transformed itself from a place of terror and censorship to a place of creativity and freedom.
“Seit wann Hier? (Since when are you here?)” was a question often asked between prisoner of the Stasi Jail of the restricted area, through a knocking alphabet system. This form of communication, as well as any other creative form of self-assertion, were forbidden and reported.
„Seit wann Hier?“ , in this case, is a question that echoes with the history of the place. The answer (if an answer is possible) being: I have always been here, whether you see it or not.
