October 31 – November 14, 1992
Object: Golf course created on landscape and golf played
The art event HAUPTSTADT BERLIN WORLD OPEN (Capital Berlin World Open)
created a vision for the unified center of Berlin. The artwork focused
on one of the most important sites in Europe during the 1990’s, an area
that continues to be central to Germany and politically essential to
Europe. The area symbolizes many dreams and has a profound history, a
location that embodied the ending of the Cold War and the development
of political, historical and economic German and European ideals entering
the 21st century. For a brief instant after the Berlin Wall was removed,
the open landscape and its potential for development were unparalleled.
Berlin’s center was unified and open. A historic opportunity had arrived
for the spatial design of Berlin’s central area.
HAUPSTADT BERLIN WORLD OPEN contained a comprehensive plan for the entire
site Spree Bogen, Brandenburger Tor/Pariser Platz, Ministerial Gartens
and Potsdamer Platz. The HAUPTSTADT BERLIN WORLD OPEN artwork questioned
the city’s planning process for the area and particularly that of Potsdamer
Platz. The game of golf was used because it had many symbolic references
to the developing situation. The flag and tee sites were a way to compare
the historic identities of the land with the developing situation. Each
tee, green and fairway were designed to recall a historic situation,
represent the current state of affairs and point to the development and
future being designed. In 2002, I revisited the locations and topics
during a thesis investigation and plan continue my documentation and
examination of the areas transformation in subsequent publications.