Martin Butler

Mauer Mob

recreating the berlin wall 2009

9 Nov 2009
9 Nov 2009

The idea is to create on the 9th november 2009, a line of people that will
recreate the 47 km of the berlin wall with their physical presence, that would last for approximately 30 minutes.

The berlin wall project is about creating a " temporary monument of
reflection".

For the 20 years anniversary we will rebuild the berlin wall, not from steel and concrete but with people.. to remember the 20 years when berlin became one again...

47000 people are forming a human chain that will make its way on the 9th november around 8 . 15pm a chain exactly where the originally wall stood.

to particapte..
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on facebook

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rebuilding-the-berlin-wall-2.jpg - Martin Butler

The berlin wall project is about creating a " temporary monument of
reflection".

For the 20 years anniversary we will rebuild the berlin wall, not from steel and concrete but with people.. to remember the 20 years when berlin became one again...

47000 people are forming a human chain that will make its way on the 9th november around 8 . 15pm a chain exactly where the originally wall stood.

This way hand in hand will be such a temporary moment for 20 minutes the
historic separation of berlin, visable, feasable and with that
understandable just to break apart after a short time.
By that will we create space for thinking together about separation and
reunion... and show how a single person can move as part of a group.. to
gain 47000 people for the project the organisation will be step wise.

470 people from different backgrounds will be gathered to each move and
motivated another 100 people to work/ join with them.

For this there will be used as modern as well as traditional means of
communication .. social networking platforms,, twitter myspace face book,
chat forums.. sms. telephone.. press work.. pub talk (stamtisch) and mouth
to mouth propaganda.. we have already just under 4000 participants on
facebook alone..

though communication has been kept rather small by us yet we have had
already enormous feedback..

cultural institutions such as the KOMPACT team,, which is reasonable for big
party at the Bradenburger gate in order to initiate co-operation...

journalists from radio, print tv and web have visited us and made
interviews..

It is quite an ambitious project and i would need as much support from art
instutions, schools, public institutions, great people as possible ..

I think that the interest raised so far i.e. the motivation and enthusiasm
that the project is generating, is due to the fact that it captures the
imagination of the people potentially involved... the proposed scale of the
project and also what it means... symbolically...

Rather than being a twenty years memorial of walls fall, its is much more
about the scale of the human imagination, achievement and involvement, and
it that could be used for the positive rather than the negative actions..
and is a project that can attract people from all different walks of life,
age, profession, and class.

The wall when it was created 20 years ago was one of the clearest man-made
divisions of people of with different ideologies.

With mauer mob 09 project, the creation of the wall by people is more about
saying that such divisions are no longer acceptable in todays society..

Its much more a rebellious statement of "borders were yesterday", than
remembering the actual wall.

at 8.27 pm.. the moment where the wall was officially declared open. it
would be good if 47,000 pocket torches could be lit...

from the darkness to the light... they stay at the point of the wall for an
extra 5 minutes than the wall dissolves with the lights still lit so from
air the wall can be seen and its dissolve...

life video feeds to the main party organised by KOMPACT at the
Brandenburger gate from helicopter...

proposed evening set up...

at 8pm the 470 groups of 100 people will gather at allocated meeting
points along the wall with approximately 100m between each group..

(470 groups of 100 people covering 100 metres each = 47,000 metres/ 47
kilometres the length of the east /west dividing line)

8-8.15 pm the people will be arranged in position in the wall, and given
instructions by the 470 group leaders,
they will told to all face in different directions, some to the north south
east west..

all this will be done in darkness or just by the available lamp lights in
the area.

8.15pm to 8.26pm they will stand in darkness...

8.27pm- the hand held torch lights will be turned on .. sky wards.. so that
the line of people could be seen from the air..

they will stand there for 3 minutes.. time enough for the wall line to be
documented.

(optimally the documentation/ recording/ filming of the creation and
destruction of the wall will be broadcast life on video screens at the
brandenburger gate, and live streaming online at the mauer mob website and
others)..

8.30 pm the people will slowly leave the wall line and venture off in
different directions some to the east west north south with their lamps
still turned on... they are free to turn off they lamps at will.. slowly the
wall with vanish again into the night....
the wall event is finished...

8.35pm onwards different parties in different neighbourhoods... where the
wall participants are able to join for free..

( i like a lot the after party idea, but that would almost be an a separate
organization itself in its own right no? different people from different
areas like different types of parties/ meeting/ celebrations)

needed...

-Financial support for the infrastructure of the organization...

-Financial support publicity and press management

-Financial support the development of a website and online community, and a
time countdown..

-Financial support for the 47,000 pocket torches.

-Financial support for documentation of the event by air and ground by video
and photography and the technical support of live streaming to both web and
video screens at the Brandenburger Tor (optimally).

-Financial support for the organisation of parties and events after the
walls dissolve in different locations.