As a West German you rarely enter the very Eastern parts of Berlin. Hohenschönhausen is known as one of the centers of power of the Former Communist Regime. The Stasi had it’s headquarters and a notorious prison there. Political prisoners would be tortured psysically and psychologically in there. A park hosts the former center for GDR’s sport athletes. For getting medals at the Olympics sportspeople would be abused with doping to demonstrate the superiority of the Communist system. Many of them suffered serious health problems later on.

The 8th Berlin Biennial is dealing with the historical narrations, places do have, and with the individual choises people do for building up their own identity. Curator Juan A. Gaitán choıse locations all over Berlin to integrate a historical frame, that isn’t limiting anybody but has the purpose to widen the look for Berlin and it’s historical past.

In July 1914 WW I started as a global war concentrated on Europe. It lasted until November 1918. Around 14 million combatants were killed.

They must have just left the Iraqi Embassy to East Germany (German Democratic Republic or GDR) with no notice at all. “We’re leaving. Pack your bags and get out!” They didn’t even bother to clear their desks. Almost 20 years later the telephones, rusty typewriters and telex machines still sit on desks, along with manuals and lists of phone numbers. There was even toilet paper still on a roll beside the smashed up cistern!

If you still think, Germans have a lack of humour get to know “Superpenner” (Superhomeless), the Superhero of a Comicstrip published in the homeless-magazine “Strassenfeger” (Streetsweeper).