Elmgreen & Dragset
Statue of Liberty, 2018

Artist
Elmgreen&Dragset

Title
Statue of Liberty

Year of creation
2018

Technology and dimensions
Original piece of the Berlin Wall, ATM, stainless steel, 298 x 149 x 148 cm

Year of acquisition
2019

Acquisition of the foundation

Donation from Heiner Wemhöner, Herford to the Friends of the National Gallery Foundation for Contemporary Art

The “Statue of Liberty”, the Statue of Liberty in front of Manhattan, is considered a symbol of limitless freedom. The monumental sculpture once welcomed immigrants arriving on ships in the New World and quickly became a symbol of New York. The installation of the same name by the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset refers to its status as a popular tourist attraction. However, her “Statue of Liberty” (2018) consists of a concrete segment of the Berlin Wall and an ATM, now defunct. As a gift from collector Heiner Wemhöner, the sculpture “Statue of Liberty” by the Danish-Norwegian artist duo will welcome visitors to Hamburger Bahnhof from June 21, 2019.

At first, the sculpture creates an absurd and pointed image: a device for collecting cash has been inserted into an opening in the “Iron Curtain,” which once separated East and West Berlin. The paradoxical fusion of two objects that represent two systems – capitalist West and communist East – raises questions about the current state of the city of Berlin and its development since the fall of the Wall.

The remaining parts of the Berlin Wall, once a symbol of the Cold War and the restrictions on individual freedom, now often only serve as a backdrop for holiday snapshots. While Berlin was considered an unfinished city full of open spaces in the post-reunification period, this process is increasingly coming to an end due to gentrification. There is also marketing and commercialization that focuses on the money of international visitors, which is reflected in the many new cash machines that have been installed in the facades of the trendy districts by independent operators. “Statue of Liberty” is three things: a monument to the German-German division, a monument to the memory of a vanished time full of possibilities immediately after the fall of the Wall and a memorial to the sell-out of history and the city.

Kristina Scream