1989 - 2009. BERLIN WALL
Artists for Freedom

WINZAVOD - Moscow Contemporary Art Center

November 9 - December 13, 2009

To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Berlin Wall : 13 August 1961 – 9 November 1989

On one side, the East, on the other side, the West, in the middle, the “Wall of Shame”, with the no man’s land and its security walls: thousands of families were separated, two hundred and thirty nine people died, and the world was materially divided into two irreconcilable blocks until 9 November 1989. Once it was torn open, the Wall liberated a continuous human flow that symbolized the end of a bipolar world order.

1990-2009 : a singular collection

Right from 1990, portions (3.3 x 4 feet) from the virgin parts of the security walls of the Berlin no man’s land were used as a medium for the creativity of major international artists such as Eduardo Chillida, Arman, Daniel Buren, Sol Lewitt, Ilya Kabakov, Richard Long, Erik Boulatov, Mimmo Paladino, Robert Longo… Those works are now gathered in a unique collection of 45 works, called Artists for Freedom, which French collector Sylvestre Verger has been promoting and enriching for two decades.

Sylvestre Verger discovered the first pieces of his collection in 1990, in Paris, with art critic Georges Boudaille (1925-1991) who suggested he should develop an interest in those works. The collection was exhibited in Madrid and London in 1991, following a request from an association. For financial reasons, the latter could not organize its international tour, and Sylvestre Verger purchased it before the High Court of Justice in London, thus preventing its dispersal.

In 1996, the collection was displayed in Lyon; Mikhail Gorbachev, who came to visit it, underlined its importance. Two years later, it was presented in Nicosia, a symbolical choice due to the partition of the Cypriot capital, and in Cologne in 2001. The Palace of Nations in Geneva welcomed a dozen works in 2004. The following year, in Seoul and Jeongju, it was associated with the celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary of the country’s independence and the fifth anniversary of the renewal of the dialogue between South Corea and North Corea.

A living collection

For each showing, the collection is enriched by new works created on virgin fragments of the security walls which were specially preserved. Each fragment, 14 feet high and 6.5 feet long and 4 inch thick, is divided into four pieces ; each block weighs approximately 400 pounds.

The works have been commissioned by Sylvestre Verger from artists whom he admires, like Takis, Vladimir Vélikovic, Gérard Fromanger, Peter Klasen, Guy Roussille, Peter Unsicker, Boris Zaborov, Thierry Vidé and Thierry Noir. Others were selected by him after a competition coinciding with the exhibition, as was the case in Nicosia, with a work by Theodoulos, and in Seoul, with a work by Jeon Su-cheon. For the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall, Sylvestre Verger commissioned three new works, from Yann Kersalé, Juan Gardy Artigas, Isao and Citny.

Moscow, November 9 – December 13, 2009 : twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall

On the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall, Mr. Sylvestre Verger has selected thirty nine works from the collection, which will be on display in the WINZAVOD - Moscow Contemporary Art Center, from November 9 to December 13, 2009.

The selected works reflect several kinds of responses:

• They expose systems which existed on both sides of the Wall (Bruskin, Oppenheim, Kriki, Castelli, Zaborov, Vélickovic…)
* They critique the building of the Wall (Fromanger, Klasen, Kabakov, Mach, Cane…);

• They celebrate the fall of the Wall (Arman, Chillida, Knie, Boulatov, Longo, Noir…) and the renewal which supposedly went with it (Roussille, Vidé…)

• They celebrate the fall of the Wall (Arman, Chillida, Knie, Boulatov, Longo, Noir…) and the renewal which supposedly went with it (Roussille, Vidé…);

• The artist appropriates the medium without any desire to reflect a direct aspect of the building or destruction of the Wall: artistic freedom is then total (Buren, Lewitt, Long…).

The private view (by invitation only) will take place on November 9, in the presence of Alexandre Avdeev, Culture Minister. On this occasion, a cello player will play J.S. Bach’s first three cello Suites, in tribute to Mstislav Rostropovich who played them before the Berlin Wall on 11 November 1989.

For a presentation of the collection and of European history, from Yalta to now, visit the collection site: www.berlin1989.com