“Freedom Without Walls”: Boston College dedicates Berlin Wall replica
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- The German Embassy's "Freedom Without Walls" logo was present throughout the project
- (© German Consulate Boston)
As a part of its “Freedom Without Walls” campaign to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the German Embassy in Washington, DC selected 29 universities and colleges throughout the US for special Campus Weeks. As one of six selected institutions in New England and the only one in the Boston area, Boston College presented an important part of this project on “Freedom Without Walls”.
At a kick-off event on October 21, 2009, a replica of the Berlin Wall was dedicated on the Campus Green and is on display during the commemoration.The panels metaphorically represent the collapse of the Berlin Wall and a passageway to freedom.
During the summer, Professor Mark Cooper of the Fine Arts Department and four of his students created their version of the Wall, including their personal interpretation of the campaign's motto. Installing windows and breakthroughs as well as using both sides of the wall for paintings by all students and visitors, they encouraged thoughts about peace and freedom then and today. In this way, the project became art in progress. As a very special part of the re-creation, Prof. Mark Cooper also worked with a group of Israeli and Palestinian youth for the initial paintings. Further information on the dedication of BC's Wall replica at:
http://www.bc.edu/publications/chronicle/TopstoriesNewFeatures/features/wall101609.html
In their speeches, representatives of Boston College and the German Consulate General in Boston reminded students and guests not to forget the unique occurrences of 1989.
David Quigley, Dean of the Boston College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Michael Resler, Chair of the German Studies Department, especially highlighted the students' engagement in the project, as many of them were not even been born in 1989.
Furthermore, John J. Michalczyk, Chair of the Fine Arts Department, and Ralf Yusuf Gawlik of the Music Department used the opportunity to connect the event to one of BC's other “Freedom Without Walls” projects, their documentary film “Writing on the Wall: Remembering the Berlin Wall”, which premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston on October 11, 2009.
At the opening of BC's Campus Weeks, part of an initiative of the German Embassy in Washigton, a representative of the Consulate's Cultural Department in Boston pointed out the special meaning of the United States for German unity and presented the German Studies Department with an original piece of the Berlin Wall.
Finally, Professor Mark Cooper and his students gave some impressing insights in the process of recreating the Wall.
The replica will be displayed on the BC campus until November 9, 2009, the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall. It is part of a series of projects and events that take place at Boston College during October and November (Further information on Boston College events that commemorate the Fall of the Wall can be found here:
http://www.bc.edu/offices/pubaf/news/Berlin_Wall_2009_1013.html.
In addition to Boston College, the German Embassy selected five other universities in New England to partner with: Amherst College, Bowdoin College, Brown University, University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Middlebury College.
More information on the “Freedom without Walls” campus weeks can be found here:
