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(© Photo courtesy The Wende Museum)

History comes alive in The Wende Museum’s civic commemoration, which divides Los Angeles with a stylized wall across Wilshire Boulevard on November 8th. The Wall stops the traffic on one of the most important thoroughfares in Los Angeles to commemorate and reflect, to celebrate and to engage.

As this important date approaches, the Museum has decided to create an artistic, midnight ceremony on November 8 corresponding to November 9 in Berlin, the date the Wall first fell in 1989.  This ceremony, which is part of a series of public art events taking place between October 17 and November 14 honoring the cultural and historical implications of the fall of the Wall, will be broadcasted live in Germany by ARD and RBB.

* Ute Lemper and Shepard Fairey Perform on November 8 * 

The midnight ceremony will feature a performance by renowned chanteuse* Ute Lemper*, after which the Wall Across Wilshire will be toppled by artists featured in The Wall Project.  

The public is encouraged to join The Wende Museum at a special celebration before the ceremony on November 8 at 5900 Wilshire Boulevard from 8pm to 11pm.  The evening will include Ute Lemper in concert, a DJ set by artist Shepard Fairey, a silent auction, curator-led tours of The Wende Museum's new exhibition Collected Fragments, as well as ceremonies in front of the Wall Across Wilshire and the Wall Along Wilshire.  

Tickets for the event are $250 and you can contact The Wende Museum at 310.216.1600 ext 305 for more information.

* Participate in public art activities * 

A variety of public engagements involving artists Thierry Noir, Kent Twitchell and Shepard Fairey will pave the way for the November 8 commemorative event.  Thierry Noir and Kent Twitchell will paint the Wall Along Wilshire, a stretch of newly acquired segments of the original Berlin Wall, and Shepard Fairey will paint the Wall Across Wilshire along with other L.A. artists and organizations.  The Wall Along Wilshire will be installed in front of 5900 Wilshire on October 17 and the Wall Across Wilshire will be on view at the Page Museum over the last two weekends of October.  The public will have the opportunity to watch Noir, Twitchell and Fairey as they make their artistic contributions to the walls.  The Wall Along Wilshire, which will be the longest stretch of the Wall outside of Berlin, will remain on view through November 14, after which it will become part of The Wende Museum's permanent collection.

Related link:
 http://www.wallproject.org