Berlim | Memorial da Unidade Alemã | Concurso

[Márcio Ferreira]

Júri do concurso do Memorial da Unidade Alemã recusa todos os projectos

Ana Rita Sevilha
30 de Abril de 2009

O concurso para erigir um Memorial da Unidade Alemã em Berlim fracassou, porque o júri composto por 19 pessoas entre políticos, historiadores, arquitectos e artistas considerou "inadequados" todos os 532 projectos apresentados, anunciou o Senado da capital alemã.
A decisão de recusar todos os projectos foi tomada por unanimidade pelo colectivo de juízes, indicou o senador para a cultura, André Schmitz, que também integra o júri.
"Não recomendámos nenhum projecto e ficámos com a consciência tranquila, porque sabemos que conceber monumentos contemporâneos é muito difícil", disse Schmitz.
O facto de o memorial ter de aludir também às manifestações pacíficas em Leipzig, que antecederam a queda do regime comunista na RDA e à Revolução de Março de 1948, que esteve na origem da reunificação dos estados alemães, complicou ainda mais a tarefa dos concorrentes, admitiu o senador.
O desfecho do concurso põe em causa o calendário inicial, em que se previa a nomeação dos melhores 20 projectos esta semana, e o anúncio do vencedor a 9 de Novembro, data em que se comemora o 20.º aniversário da queda do Muro de Berlim.
Em 2010, ano em que a reunificação alemã completará 20 anos, a 3 de Outubro, deveria então iniciar-se a construção do Memorial, a concluir em 2012.
A decisão de edificar o memorial em Berlim foi precedida de um debate que durou 12 anos, e contestada, nomeadamente, por Leipzig, que reivindicava esta prerrogativa, por se considerar a cidade-génese da revolução pacífica na Alemanha de Leste que culminou no fim da ditadura comunista.
Depois da decisão do júri de vetar todos os projectos, terá agora de ser o Governo Federal a dar seguimento à ideia.
Em Novembro de 2007, o Parlamento Federal aprovou a construção de um Memorial da Unidade Alemã sobre o pedestal do monumento ao Imperador Guilherme, no centro histórico de Berlim.
Em finais de 2008, os deputados aprovaram um orçamento de 15 milhões de Euros para a construção, a restauração do pedestal e a abertura de um centro de informações junto do local destinado ao memorial.
Além disso, esta verba deverá também abarcar a construção de um memorial em Leipzig que evoque as chamadas "manifestações das segundas-feiras", preponderantes no derrube do regime comunista leste-alemão, no Outono de 1989.
O júri do concurso berlinense propôs já ao governo federal que abra um novo processo, mas com uma competição limitada, para a qual sejam convidados apenas alguns artistas consagrados, dado o grau de dificuldade do projecto.
Além disso, propõem a inclusão de algumas ideias surgidas na primeira ronda do concurso, e querem ainda que se repense o local para erguer o memorial, porque, dizem, o actual, junto ao futuro Palácio dos Reis Prussianos e à Academia de Arquitectura, que vão ser reconstruídos, já tem um enorme peso histórico.
Em alternativa, o júri sugeriu que o memorial seja erguido na zona situada entre a Chancelaria Federal e o Edifício Paul Loebe, que alberga escritórios de deputados, mais perto da antiga linha divisória onde passava o Muro de Berlim.
A Chancelaria e o Edifício Paul Loebe são construções modernas surgidas na sequência da mudança do Governo e do Parlamento federais de Bona para Berlim, há 10 anos, junto das quais o Memorial da Unidade Alemã poderia "encaixar" melhor, sublinharam.



retirado de www.construir.pt

[JVS]

Isto eh que se chama Exigencia. Em 532 projectos nao houve um ... que tal participar no proximo. Quem estiver no Top 10 do proximo concurso tem o lugar garantido no Star System.

[JVS]

Overcoming Berlin's monumental wall
Published: 20 Apr 09 16:08 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/opinion/20090420-18757.html

As the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, so too does the choice of a national monument to German reunification. The jury should be bold, argues Daniel Miller.

Berlin is a city of monuments. Alongside a Stalinist monster in Treptower Park and a sensitive memorial to the gay and lesbian victims of the Nazis unveiled last year, more than fifty compete for the public's attention in the German capital.

But then again, you can never have enough memories, right?

Berlin is currently processing the addition of a new public sculpture to its existing portfolio. On March 10, the first wave of a competition to design a strong-sounding “Freedom and Unity” memorial closed. Salomon Schindler, who is administering the project for the government, estimated that his office received some 500 different projects to commemorate the peaceful revolution in East Germany and the country’s reunification two decades ago.

Next a pre-selected jury composed of architects, academics, critics and politicians will narrow this number down to twenty. These will then go on display in both Berlin and online. After some sort of vague public discussion, the initial jury will make their final selection, choosing the winning project on November 9 – the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. The winning artist will then proceed to celebrate having a budget up to €10 million to blow on his or her project.

But how to best memorialise abstract ideas like freedom and unity? This is a tough question. Fortunately enough for this topic, there is plenty of historical context at hand.

In the aftermath of the collapse of the communist east and the reunification of Germany, a number of similarly delicate issues lay at the heart of Berlin's nineties rebuilding boom. The aim there was to somehow rebrand the new unified capital, to make it an architecturally cutting-edge, friendly, global metropolis neon-scrubbed of its darker stains.

The program was careful – and some would say, too careful – to avoid any hint of strong, powerful forms. The result was a castrated modern train station, a ridiculous Potsdamer Platz, and a hamster-wheeled Reichstag. And then the anodyne Chancellery, nicknamed the “washing machine” because of its blocky form, which actually isn’t as bad as everyone thinks.

Judging from recent events, this negative tendency has only gotten worse since the nineties, with the thundering dumbness of rebuilding the Prussian city palace to memorialise the pathetic for the benefit of posterity. But there may yet be sunshine in these half-hearted clouds!

The outstanding work of the past few years was also the boldest: Peter Eisenman's Holocaust memorial is a solemn and sombre, and yet strangely magical zone. It welcomes lovers and street punks more readily than tourists in groups. The Holocaust Memorial re-imagined what a memorial could be, and showed how history could be experienced on an everyday basis constantly re-interpreted by each visitor.

Considering what it’s trying to commemorate, the judges in this new unity memorial competition should be equally bold, and think strongly about at least considering one of the strangest entries for the next round. I am referring to Ilya and Emilia Kabakov's “The Eternal Emigrant.”

Designed by a husband-and-wife and team of émigré Russians, the sculpture shows a man splayed in two over a section of the Berlin Wall, like somebody struggling to open an umbrella in the wind.

What better design for freedom and unity could there be, than a design celebrating the heroism of the anguished and futile?

The Local (news@thelocal.de)

in http://www.thelocal.de/opinion/20090420-18757.html


History | 17.06.2008

German Reunification Memorial Initiators Awarded National Prize

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The planned memorial, rendered here, is to be a symbol for freedom and unityIt took 10 years for a German citizen's initiative to convince the government to erect a memorial to German reunification. Its founders have been honored for their efforts with the German National Prize.

Politicians Florian Mausbach and Guenther Nooke, journalist Juergen Engert, and the last premier of East Germany, Lothar de Maizière were recognized with the prize in Berlin on Tuesday, June 17. Their citizens' group Deutsche Gesellschaft was presented with 50,000 euros ($77,445).

Former Saxony Premier Kurt Biedenkopf, head of the National Foundation that designated this year's prize to the group, said that the German peace movement had not been given proper recognition to date.

"The prize winners strengthen our national historical consciousness," he said.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Tearing down the Wall with dance instead of bullets

The four awardees and the German citizens' group, the Deutsche Gesellschaft, began a petition in May 1998 to have a memorial for this peaceful revolution built in Berlin.

Last year, the German government decided to erect the memorial on the Schlossplatz in central Berlin. The ground-breaking ceremony is planned for November 9, 2009, on the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 was the first successful revolution for freedom and unification in German history, in which not a single shot was fired.

in http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3417566,00.html

[JVS]

http://www.genua.de/dateien/kanzleramt.jpg A Chancelaria http://www.photoforum.ru/f/photo/000/392/392239_93.jpg e o Edifício Paul Loebe Entre estes dois.