Berlin: the lost city
Questi scatti, realizzati tra il 1982 e il 1983, rappresentano una Berlino che non esiste più. In quegli anni, la città era la vetrina dell'occidente, un avamposto in un territorio ostile, che con le sue luccicanti vetrine e i locali di Kurfustendamm, doveva testimoniare la superiorità dell'occidente capitalista. Tuttavia il cuore vero della città si trovava a Kreutzberg 36, il quartiere caratterizzato dalla presenza di una forte immigrazione turca, dagli artisti, dai punk e degli squatters, soprattutto nella zona intorno ad Oranienstraßee. Un quartiere diventato una zona di frontiera, dopo la costruzione del muro nel 1961. Al confronto con le asettiche piazze dell'Est, Berlino Ovest rappresentava anche la contraddizione di un occidente opulento che non riesce ad esistere senza produrre degrado sociale.
***
These shots made between 1982 and 1983, represent a Berlin that no longer exists. In those years, the city was the showcase of the West, an outpost in hostile territory, and with his gleaming shops, bars, nightclubs in Kurfurstendamm, was the witness of the superiority of Western capitalism. However, the real heart of the city was in Kreutzberg 36, the area characterized by the presence of a strong Turkish immigration, by artists, punks and squatters, especially in the area around Oranienstraßee. A neighborhood that became a border area, after the construction of the wall in 1961. In comparison with the aseptic squares of the East, West Berlin showed the contradiction of an opulent West that could not exist without producing social decay.
***
These shots made between 1982 and 1983, represent a Berlin that no longer exists. In those years, the city was the showcase of the West, an outpost in hostile territory, and with his gleaming shops, bars, nightclubs in Kurfurstendamm, was the witness of the superiority of Western capitalism. However, the real heart of the city was in Kreutzberg 36, the area characterized by the presence of a strong Turkish immigration, by artists, punks and squatters, especially in the area around Oranienstraßee. A neighborhood that became a border area, after the construction of the wall in 1961. In comparison with the aseptic squares of the East, West Berlin showed the contradiction of an opulent West that could not exist without producing social decay.