From Wall to Fence (and Pillar to Post): The Politicized Aesthetics of Divided Territories

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Publication Type:

Journal Article

Authors:

Amariglio, J.

Source:

Rethinking Marxism, Volume 16, Number 3, p.234--241 (2004)

Abstract:

This article reviews two concurrent art exhibitions in Berlin in 2003 that traced the legacy of historically divided territories through political aesthetics. The first exhibition, Territories: Islands, Camps, and Other States of Utopias, featured Israeli architects Eyal Weizman and Rafi Segal's contribution, A Civilian Occupation, which graphically detailed the way in which the building of Israeli settlements on the West Bank (and Gaza) has been organized, spatially, to cut off, imprison, survey, etc., existing Palestinian settlements. The second exhibition, Kunst in der DDR, was billed as the first attempt to exhibit the wide variety of contemporary art produced in East Germany (DDR) from 1945 to 1989. The show highlighted the difficult, controversial task of characterizing and promoting the aesthetic and political significance of work done in the DDR.