Artists Take Refuge in Berlin

Later today, the festival of freedom kicks off at the Brandenberg gate. U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton joins French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Mikhail Gorbachev and throngs of revelers celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Daniel Barenboim will conduct the Staatskapelle Berlin and Bon Jovi will perform.

The evening culminates when thousands of giant, colored dominos fall along the path where the wall once stood. It symbolizes the chain reaction on that started twenty years ago, the night that East German guards stood stunned as the once mighty border crumbled.

It was an event that triggered an influx of artists, collectors and gallerists into Berlin’s Soviet apartments, industrial buildings, even a Nazi bunker. Artists helped turn cheap real estate into places to create and show art and transformed Berlin into a world art capitol. Catherine Hickley is arts correspondent for Bloomberg News in Berlin. She joins us now from Berlin with an update on the city’s art scene.

The Bloomberg News: Dark Cold-War Art Marks 20th Anniversary of Fall of Berlin Wall

The CBC: The Berlin Wall - Twenty Years After the Fall

'Festival of Freedom' to Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

(Photo by siyu via Flickr/Creative Commons)