The last original mural will be preserved on the Berlin Wall
Kyiv • UNN
The foundation will allocate €13,300 for the conservation of the Hands mural at the East Side Gallery. The work has remained in its original form since 1990.
Berlin will undertake the preservation of “Hands” — the only image that has survived on the Berlin Wall in its original form since 1990. The German Foundation for Monument Protection will allocate €13,300 for the conservation and other work to preserve the Berlin Wall, the organization said on October 8. DW reports this, writes UNN.
The history behind the image
The work “Hands” was created by Scottish artists Margaret Hunter and Peter Russell. In it, Hunter repeated the motif from her painting “Berlin 09.11.89” — raised hands, which she painted on the night the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. According to the artist, the image recalled the peaceful protests in the GDR that preceded the reunification of the country.
“Hands” holds a special place among the works of the East Side Gallery. During large-scale restorations of the gallery in 2000 and 2009, the other images were completely or partially repainted, while this work was only conserved. Today, “Hands” makes it possible to imagine what the images on the wall looked like in 1990. Currently, certain areas of the “Hands” paint layer are peeling and require consolidation.
Work has begun at Berlin’s East Side Gallery to preserve the last original mural and other fragments of the Berlin Wall.
Experts will examine and clean the wall
Some of the allocated funds will be used to develop methods for removing graffiti and protecting the preserved elements of the Berlin Wall. Experts will also examine the remains of the first version of the wall, which was built as a border structure in 1961.
The East Side Gallery, approximately 1.3 kilometers long, runs along Mühlenstraße in Berlin and is the longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall. In the summer of 1990, it was painted by 118 artists from 21 countries. In 1991, the East Side Gallery was granted protected-monument status. According to the monument protection foundation, around four million people visit it every year today.