The Lost World – Left Over of East Germany after 25 years of unification.
This week on November 9th 25 ears ago at 7 pm the polit büro of the German Democratic Republic annouced the opening of the wall. Three hours later thousands crossed in Berlin the border from east to west to visit West-Berlin. This event became the beginning of the end of the East German Republic.
I stopped by Battersea Power Station this afternoon after the developers had finally begun to chip at the chimneys. On the side of the building, there was some new signage promising, as property owners are prone to do, that the future architectural simulation and simulacra envisioned on this choice riverfront real estate will retain an essence of place. Architectural homicide under the scalpel of cosmetic improvement almost always follows these sorts of proclamations.
This is one of the weird things you can find in Bangkok: an abandoned shopping mall that has been closed for around 20 years. The basement is flooded and full of exotic fish. Where else in the world could you find something like this?
From the pile of books in the bedside cabinet to the neatly folded duvet, this bedroom looks almost ready for its owner to turn in for the night.
In the mood for love: Ed van der Elsken’s Love on the Left Bank at Poligon Istanbul presented by Schaden.com. from Cologne, Germany and with the support of the Istanbul Consulate General of Germany and the Netherlands .
They say there are secret cemeteries beneath the sprawling grounds of the Central State Hospital. They say bodies and pieces of bodies were dumped in trenches after being taken apart in the laboratory. It takes three people to perform an autopsy: someone to do the cutting, another to weigh the organs, and a third to record the results. Blood and other fluids drained through the tiled floor and ran beneath one hundred acres of landscaped gardens before spilling into the White River.
Copper has anti-bacterial properties. Northern light is the best for viewing bacteria through a microscope. There’s much to learn at the little museum in the old pathology building at the defunct hospital. Tumors, trauma, and congenital defects. Degenerative disease and inflammation. Next to a yellowing brain in a jar, a card says, “Patient never displayed peculiar behavior until he was wounded in the head during the Spanish-American war. He became childish but was able to work as a farmer until the age of seventy when he turned violent and institutional supervision became necessary.” Bottles of sulfate of ammonia, benzoic acid, smelling salts, and ‘chemicals’ line the dark wood shelves. Hanging from the walls are dozens of sepia portraits of stern men with beakers and skeletons in the background.
