The East Side Gallery is in Berlin on a stretch of the east side of part of the remaining Berlin wall. It consists of 105 different paintings from artists all over the world. Originally painted in 1990, there is currently a lawsuit in the German courts over whether or not art can be restored after being destroyed without the permission of the artist. Many portions of the intentionally painted wall were covered in graffiti, and I think this brings up an interesting debate. When you visit the remaining portions of the berlin wall(aside from the gallery), the most striking thing is the graffiti that remains. It feels contradictory to remove the graffiti from the East Side Gallery, yet by keeping it there the original works of art lose their significance and the memorial seems in a way, degraded. Our conversation in class today about defacement reminded me of this, so I thought I would share! (The first picture is my own and from a portion of the wall not included in the East Side Gallery, the other two were found online)
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