Image Critique and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Sunil Manghani

Description

Taking the fall of the Berlin Wall as a key marker in recent history – a period in which increasingly we find ourselves watching ‘instant history’ unfold live on air – the book presents a new critical concept of image critique: a double procedure of both a critique of images and the use of images as a means to engage with our contemporary mediated culture for new critical purposes. A rich array of primary sources are woven together to provide a thorough critique of the recent and lively theoretical debates about visual culture. Topics range from Francis Fukuyama’s End of History thesis to metapictures, contemporary East German film and the notion of the public sphere/screen. In staking out a new critical visual theory, the book does not seek to present any straightforward analysis of visual representations of the fall of the Wall, but instead inhabits its historical and ongoing resonance as a means to situate a complex interactive account of history, politics, human action, freedom, the media and visual culture.

Sujets

• HISTORY
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• EDUCATION
• Histoire
• Political correctness
• Media studies
• Cultural Studies
• Germany
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781841502502
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Image Critique the Fall of the Berlin Wall
for PDM and the quiet philosophizing you entrust YLM and those first trips to the library
Image Critique the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Sunil Manghani
First Published in the UK in 2008 by Intellect Books, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2008 by Intellect Books, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2008 Sunil Manghani
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover Image: New Year celebrations at the Brandenburg Gate, 31st December 1989. Courtesy of Zuma Press Cover Design: Gabriel Solomons Copy Editor: Holly Spradling Typesetting: Mac Style, Nafferton, E. Yorkshire
ISBN 978-1-84150-190-1/EISBN 978-1-84150-250-2
Printed and bound by Gutenberg Press, Malta.
C ONTENTS
List of Illustrations
The Fall of the Berlin Wall ( an Imaginary)
Before Words
Chapter 1: On the Sight of the Berlin Wall
Chapter 2: The Problem of Visual Culture
Chapter 3: The End of History?
Chapter 4: Living without an Alternative
Chapter 5: Public Screening: Critical Pictures of the Wall
Afterword: Ecologies of Images, Topologies of Critique
Bibliography
Index
L IST OF I LLUSTRATIONS
11 New Year celebrations at the Brandenburg Gate, 31st December 1989. Courtesy of Zuma Press .
13 East and West Germans climb the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate, 9th November 1989. Courtesy of Reuters .
15 Removal of sections of the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate, 16th March 1990. Courtesy of Reuters .
17 Wall painting at the East Side Gallery , M hlenstrasse, Berlin, 2002 (Photo: Author) .
21 A young girl points to a hole in the Berlin Wall, 11th November 1989. Courtesy of Reuters .
23 Palestinian / Israeli Wall, Dor Jordan (Photo: iStockphoto) .
27 Cyclist rides alongside the Berlin Wall, West Berlin (Photo: iStockphoto) .
29 Berlin Occupation Zones [postcard]. Reproduced courtesy of Panorama Berlin .
29 Postcard to the author .
33 Cover Image from Peter Kennard s Images for the End of the Century: Photomontage Equations (1990). Peter Kennard .
37 Copper strip memorial along the route of the Berlin Wall. Mario Hornik (Photo: iStockphoto) .
39 Slab of the Berlin Wall as a civic monument. Dave Logan (Photo: iStockphoto) .
53 American TV crews at the Brandenburg Gate with live coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall, 10th November 1989. J rgen M ller-Schneck .
57 Paul Klee, Angelus Novus (1920). Reproduced courtesy of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. DACS, London 2007 .
63 Wax residue on the steps of the Runde Ecke Building (former Stasi Headquarters), Leipzig, 2000 (Photo: Author) .
69 Film crew at the Bernauer Strasse Wall Memorial preparing a news report for the 40th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall, 2002 (Photo: Author) .
83 Close up of Wall graffiti. Michael Fuery (Photo: iStockphoto) .
85 Max Ernst, A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil , 1930 ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007 .
85 Time-lapse view of flying bird, from La Nature , 1888 .
87 Demonstrator pounds away the Berlin Wall, 11th November 1989. Courtesy of Reuters .
89 Great Wall of China. Christian Frie (Photo: iStockphoto) .
93 Wall painting at the East Side Gallery , M hlenstrasse, Berlin, 2002 (Photo: Author) .
97 Line painting along division of East and West Berlin at Potsdamer Platz, 1948. Reproduced courtesy of Landesbildstelle .
101 A Wall Pecker at work removing pieces of the Berlin Wall near Martin-Gropius-Bau, Kreuzberg, June 1990. Courtesy of AKG .
107 The Evening Standard [Front page], 10th November 1989. Courtesy of the British Library .
109 Lego Advertisement, from The Sunday Telegraph , 12th November 1989. Courtesy of the British Library .
117 Potsdamer-Platz, cira. 1950 (Photo: Werner Eckelt; Author s collection) .
119 Churchill looking under Iron Curtain. Political cartoon, 1946. By Permission of Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales .
121 Berlin palimpsest, Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz, Spring 1967. Reproduced courtesy of Landesbildstelle .
123 Unter den Linden intersection with Friedrichstrasse, East Berlin, 1968. Max Ittenbach, from Berlin: Bilder aus der Hauptstadt der DDR (ed. Horst Hering), V.E.B. F.A. Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig .
125 Viewing platform overlooking the eastern sector at Potsdamer Platz, Tiergarten District, 1979. A compulsory stop for all the tourist buses. J rgen M ller-Schneck .
127 Window of the Mauer-Shop , Checkpoint Charlie Museum, Berlin, 2002 (Photo: Author) .
129 Wall painting showing trompe l oeil effect, Berlin, 2002 (Photo: Author) .
131 East Side Gallery , M hlenstrasse, 2002 (Photo: Author) .
133 East Germans at Brandenburg Gate, East Berlin, 1968. Max Ittenbach, from Berlin: Bilder aus der Hauptstadt der DDR (ed. Horst Hering), V.E.B. F.A. Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig .
133 Official Tourist map of East Berlin, 1984. Reproduced courtesy of V.E.B. Tourist Verlag .
134 Tourists on sight-seeing bus at the Brandenburg Gate in 1970s, West Berlin. J rgen M ller-Schneck .
134 Official map of West Berlin, 1984. Reproduced courtesy of V.E.B. Tourist Verlag .
147 Demonstration against the communist regime in Leipzig, 9th October 1989. Courtesy of Reuters .
157 Bernauer Strasse Wall Memorial , 2002 (Photo: Author) .
163 Screen shot from Goodbye Lenin! (2002). Reproduced courtesy of British Film Institute .
191 Duck-Rabbit illustration, from Fliegende Bl tter , 1892 .
192 Necker Cube illustration .
197 Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, Germany, 1971-95. Photo: Wolfgang Volz, Christo 1995
209 The Topography of Terror exhibition site and above a section of the Berlin Wall, Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, 2002 (Photo: Author) .
T HE F ALL OF THE B ERLIN W ALL ( AN I MAGINARY )
I have kept only the images which enthral me, without knowing why (such ignorance is the very nature of fascination, and what I shall say about each image will never be anything but imaginary)
Roland Barthes, Roland Barthes on Roland Barthes

I m standing on top of the Berlin Wall, which for years has been the most potent symbol of the division of Europe. And there can be few better illustrations of the changes which are sweeping across this continent, than the party which is taking place here on top of it tonight .
Brian Hanrahan BBC News, 10.11.89

Berlin is tonight alight with celebration. The world beyond is rife with speculation for no one has yet established the limits to which the changes in East Germany will now go. [ ] we report from both sides of the Wall as families lift their loved ones across it. As East Germans literally hug the border guards who for so long have kept them from it, and as revellers savour the right to cross and re-cross it
Jon Snow Channel Four News, 10.11.89

Knowledge comes only in lightning flashes. The Text is the long roll of thunder that follows .
Walter Benjamin The Arcades Project
B EFORE W ORDS
Over a period of some four years or so, in a manner not too dissimilar to Patrick Keiller s character Robinson in the film London (1993), who travels about the capital city undertaking what he purports to be research into a supposedly very real, though never really defined, problem of London, I carried with me my own particular research problem. I generally referred to this as images of the fall of the Berlin Wall . Its conundrum remained with me as I wandered in and out of the corridors of my university and as I sat in various libraries home and abroad, watched numerous films and TV broadcasts and, of course, read countless books and articles. There is no doubt the images can be found in all manner of places, and in all number of forms. The only trouble had been knowing exactly what I was looking for once I came upon them. The fact that the Berlin Wall came to its end on the 9th of November 1989 seems simple enough. Witnessed live by millions around the world, the media images (now synonymous with the wider collapse of communism) were all too plain to see. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So what more is there to say?
It is perhaps with the same familiarity of a nursery rhyme that this simple phrase the fall of the Berlin Wall remains with us. It is a chapter heading, a footnote and, of course, a turning point in a conversation or flow of an argument, after the fall it all changes . It denotes a time, a place and a sense of change. It marks a new beginning, as well as an end of history. We live in a post-Wall era and that carries with it certain responsibilities, not least how we choose to respond and relate to the sorts of media news events that the fall of the Wall prefigures. However, whilst I certainly take issue with any simplistic readings of the images of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is not my intention to look at what went on behind those images, as if somehow there is a truer, pure reality that is not pictured. I am not concerned so much with analysing images in order to elucidate some new critical interpretation (in hope of setting us all right in the matter). Instead, I aim to look the other way and ask what it is we think when we think about images in the first place, and how this process of pictured/picturing thought might itself be a useful critical practice.
* * *
The Berlin Wall will surely always remain a startling fact of history. It stands at the heart of one of the great dramas of the second half of the twentieth century. When I first went to school I vaguely knew about it, though could never quite get my head around the idea. Who could blame me, for since when had a wall dividing a nation been a reasonable thing to g