RM art/iculations 16(3):234 Jack Amariglio
“Lenin zum 100” (“Lenin to 100”) Willy Wolff, 1970.
art/iculations: From Wall to Fence (and Pillar to Post): The Politicized Aesthetics of Divided Territories
by Jack Amariglio
This article reviews two concurrent art exhibitions in Berlin in 2003 that traced the legacy of historically divided territories through the political aesthetics. The first exhibition, “Territories: Islands, Camps, and Other States of Utopia,” featured Israeli architects Eyal Weizman and Rafi Segal’s contribution, “A Civilian Occupation,” which graphically detailed the way in which the building of Israeli settlements on the West Bank (and Gaza) has been organized, spatially cut off, imprison, survey, etc., existing Palestinian settlements. The second exhibition, “Kunst in der DDR.” was billed as the first attempt to exhibit the wide variety of contemporary art produced in East Germany (DDR) from 1945 to 1989. The show highlighted the difficult controversial task of characterizing and promoting the aesthetic and political significance of work done in the DDR.
“Die Flucht des Sisyphos” (“The Flight of Sisyphus”) Wolfgang Mattheuer, 1972.
