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Edmund Lee

BERLIN FEST
	Goethe-Institut Hongkong
 
When the Berlin Wall came down on the night of November 9, 1989, Gabriele Gauler had only just started her training at the Goethe-Institut offices in West Berlin.
"The whole story of how this really happened was so strange," she recalls. "There was a press conference where East German politicians announced, 'Ja, our citizens are allowed to go across the border — is this correct?' You had the impression that everything was a misunderstanding. All the journalists were already hurrying to the wall."
Now the director of Goethe-Institut Hongkong, Gauler is presenting a one-day arts programme titled Berlin Fest to celebrate that historic moment 25 years ago. It covers every conceivable art form: film, music, photography exhibitions and a graffiti-laden installation meant to represent the Berlin Wall.

"We chose the date of November 8 because Hong Kong always wants to be a little bit ahead," she jokes, "so we're celebrating a day early. On November 9, there will be a lot of celebrations going on in Berlin. There will be a big festival at the Brandenburg Gate where they're expecting hundreds of thousands of people from all over the city."
Gauler is looking to tell the story of what happened around the fall of the wall. And the diverse programme is the perfect way to highlight Berlin's status as a cultural capital. "Berlin is the most attractive city in Germany, it is hip, and it is a place for visual arts, music, media and everything," she says. "We have a very diverse cultural life there, with the traditional and the modern art scene. There are three opera houses, and it is very expensive to maintain those buildings."
As part of the Hong Kong programme, the film Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), about a woman who fell in a coma and didn't realise the wall had gone, will be screened alongside a short film series titled "Mauerblüten", or "Flowers on the Wall".
Produced by different filmmakers looking from the perspectives of both the East and the West, the shorts tell humorous and heart-breaking stories to do with the wall.

There is a set of 40 photos of the Berlin techno and rave scene in the early 1990s in one of the galleries at the Cattle Depot. Taken by Tilman Brembs, who was working for a now defunct techno magazine, the photos also show the Love Parade that originated in 1989 in West Berlin. The show is set to a techno music selection by DJ Tanith, a fixture of the early '90s Berlin club scene.
There will be two gigs on the night. Born in 1989, Marvin Brooks is a half-German, half-Ghanaian rock-pop musician based in Berlin. His set list is expected to include the song Wind of Change by German rock band Scorpions which was a celebration of the end of the cold war.
Berlin-based Bernadette La Hengst will also perform a solo set. Well-known for her critical lyrics about social issues in Germany, the singer is crowd favourite in Gauler's opinion. "When I met her last year in Germany, she was extremely good at encouraging people to sing with her. She is a very likeable singer."
The highlight of the Berlin Fest is the wall that will stand at the centre of Cattle Depot's open courtyard. Built with plywood and plastic on a metal frame, the structure is meant to be a reconstruction of the opened Berlin Wall, and will consist of both standing and broken segments. While the local graffiti quartet Parent's Parents will spray on it with references to paintings on the original wall, visitors are encouraged to hammer the wall and take away blocks as a souvenir at the end of the day.
"I must say that I feel very enthusiastic to give all this information," says Gauler.
"It's a story that many people do not remember today, and one that many young people do not know — even in Germany."

A night to remember


		4pm-9.30pm: "Zeitmaschine — Analog Rave" photo exhibition, "Berlin — City of Change" exhibition

		4pm-7pm: art performances by local artists

		4.30pm-5.30pm: short film programme "Mauerblüten"

		5.45pm: graffiti and multimedia installation on the "Berlin Wall" structure — Part I

		7.15pm-8pm: concert by Bernadette La Hengst

		6.30pm-8.30pm: open-air screening of

		Good Bye, Lenin!

		8.30pm-9.15pm: concert by Marvin Brooks and band

		9.15pm: graffiti and multimedia installation on "Berlin Wall" structure — Part II

 
Cattle Depot, 63 Mak Tau Kok Road, To Kwa Wan, November 8, 4pm-9.30pm, free. Inquiries: 2802 0088
 


Arts preview: Berlin Fest

West Berliners gather as East German border guards demolish a section of the wall. Photos: AFP, Tilman Brembs

A still from Good Bye, Lenin!

Ravers at a Berlin techno event in the early '90s

Bernadette La Hengst. 

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48 Hours

When the Berlin Wall came down on the night of November 9, 1989, Gabriele Gauler had only just started her training at the Goethe-Institut offices in West Berlin.


Arts preview: Berlin Fest

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}When the Berlin Wall came down on the night of November 9, 1989, Gabriele Gauler had only just started her training at the Goethe-Institut offices in West Berlin.

When the Berlin Wall came down on the night of November 9, 1989, Gabriele Gauler had only just started her training at the Goethe-Institut offices in West Berlin.