Holocaust
Memorial, Berlin
Peter Eisenmann
2005
Tourist buses line one edge of a Berlin square which is laid
out with 2711 grey concrete blocks forming a dense grid. One block makes a convenient plinth for a
pretty girl to sit posing while her boyfriend takes a photo. Children quickly discover that it is possible
to hop from one block to another. For
although Peter Eisenmann’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, or
Holocaust Memorial, resembles a vast and ancient burial ground, it is also
connected with the city, forming a backdrop to everyday life.
Away from the perimeter of the square the blocks are
taller and the ground dips into hollows, so that as you penetrate deeper you are
hemmed in, screened from others in a way that is both mildly disorientating and
claustrophobic. There is a sense of being swallowed up, of Alice-like being
diminished in size. Occasionally,
figures flit across an alley ahead of you.
These brief encounters both reinforce the vivid experience of isolation and
temper it with a hint of playfulness.
The brilliance of this sombre memorial lies in the way in
which it overlaps with the city, inviting participation, drawing us in, briefly
detaching us from the everyday and prompting a moment’s reflection.
It looks like you have to be there. I'm interested in the 'low key' nature of the memorial, the fact that it functions as playground, innocuous public art. Is it about the banality of genocide? Profound and scary.
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