LICHTGRENZE – Light art installation to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall

Client City of Berlin  Event 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall  Year 2014  City Berlin, Germany

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, WHITEvoid’s founder and creative director Christopher Bauder and his brother Marc created an extraordinary light installation called LICHTGRENZE (Border of Lights). The Bauder brothers reconstructed the former divider with almost weightless material in an ephemeral way.

From the 7th to the 9th of November 2014 the 15.3-kilometer frontier that once divided the city center was re-imagined in light by 8000 balloon lights all developed and produced by WHITEvoid. Running through the heart of Berlin, from Bornholmer Straße to the Oberbaumbrücke, the installation was stretching past the Mauerpark, along the Berlin Wall memorial on Bernauer Straße through to the Brandenburg Gate, over Potsdamer Platz to Checkpoint Charlie and on to the East Side Gallery.

As an integral part of the LICHTGRENZE, 14 large-format screens at selected public locations were showing Marc Bauder’s film collage MAUERSTÜCKE (Wall Pieces) made from historic, often little-known archive footage about the construction, life and fall of the Berlin Wall.

During three days, over two million people united along LICHTGRENZE to along the symbolic light path and memorialize the heavy border that once divided the city. On the 9th of November, the LICHTGRENZE was also the central part of the official memorial festivities of the city Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany. In a televised spectacle, 8000 PATEN (patrons) released their balloon with a special personal message in a choreographed manner into the night sky of Berlin.

Production
WHITEvoid
bauderfilm
Kulturprojekte Berlin
Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft

Photos
Ralph Larmann
Matthias Balk
Andreas Rentsch
Martin Diephold
Soeren Stache

Video
Marc Bauder

Awards
2015 Cannes Lions / Gold
2015 Cannes Lions / 2x Bronze
2015 ADC Award / Grand Prix
2015 ADC Award / 5x Gold
2015 ADC Award / Silver
2015 ADC Award / Bronze
2015 D&AD Awards / Graphite Pencil
2016 German Design Award / Gold
2016 iF Design Award / Gold
2016 Red Dot Award
2015 Iconic Award / Best of Best

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The Bauder brothers conceived the idea of the LICHTGRENZE back in 2011. The implementation and development of this large-scale project became possible due to the support of the Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft e.V. and the help of Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH. In 2014, LICHTGRENZE became Berlin’s largest-ever public art installation.

The 3,4-meter high border of light reflects on the Wall’s dimensions but contrasts its original purpose. The 8000 light poles were designed, engineered, and produced by WHITEvoid and assembled by a German Red Cross workshop for mentally handicapped people in Potsdam.

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