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This panel discussion and presentation reflects on two art projects, separated by almost 35 years, that critically examined the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and the resulting reunification of East and West Germany on October 3, 1990. “The Finitude of Freedom” (“Die Endlichkeit der Freiheit”) was an exhibition project in East and West Berlin that took place from September 1 to October 7, 1990, primarily in public spaces, featuring works by Barbara Bloom, Hans Haacke, Krzysztof Wodiczko, and others. It was the only exhibition project of this magnitude that was jointly financed and realized by the FRG and the GDR in 1990. Der Spiegel called it the “most important exhibition” of 1990. Sarah Alberti reconstructed the project as part of her doctoral thesis.
Thirty-one years after reunification, Gesche Würfel explored the topography along the Berlin Wall Trail in her work “The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall” (“Die Ab- und Anwesenheit der Berliner Mauer”). Würfel creates a multi-layered panorama and portrait of a Germany whose division and reunification continue to shape the country to this day. The project was published in 2025 by DISTANZ and designed by Kay Bachmann, with an essay by Sarah Alberti and a foreword by Christoph Tannert. The book will be for sale during and after the event.
About the participants:
Sarah Alberti, PhD, is a journalist and art historian based in Leipzig. She was born in the GDR eight months before the fall of the Berlin Wall and now works as a freelance writer for various German daily newspapers and art magazines, as well as for artists and institutions such as the Dresden State Art Collections and the Hamburger Bahnhof - National Gallery of Contemporary Art. In 2018/2019, she collaborated with artist Hans Haacke to hang his documenta 14 banner “Wir (alle) sind das Volk” (We (all) are the people) in various cities in the new federal states. She studied communication and media studies, art history, and curatorial cultures in Leipzig and France. Her doctoral thesis focuses on art relating to German reunification, using the example of the exhibition project “Die Endlichkeit der Freiheit” (The Finitude of Freedom), which took place in the summer of 1990 as an immediate response to the opening of the Berlin Wall in East and West Berlin. www.endlichkeitderfreiheit.de
Kay Bachmann is a book designer and graphic designer. He studied book art/graphic design at the Hochschule für Grafik Buchkunst Leipzig (Academy of Visual
Arts Leipzig) under Ruedi Baur (integral) and Daniela Haufe and Detlef Fiedler (cyan) in the system design class. Since 2006, he has worked for the Galerie für Zeitgenössische
Kunst Leipzig, the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, among others. Until 2013, he worked with Philipp Paulsen at Office
Bachmann/Paulsen, and between 2015 and 2021 at Spector Bureau. In 2022, he founded Studio OfficeKB.
Barbara Bloom is an artist living in New York City. Her conceptual practice uses photography, objects, and installation. Though enthusiastically visual, the work stems more from the traditions of literature than from painting or sculpture. She has said: “I am probably a novelist, but somehow ended up standing in the wrong line, and inadvertently signed up to be a visual artist.” Bloom has received numerous honors and fellowships including the Venice Biennale Due Mille Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, Getty Research Institute Fellowship, DAAD Berlin Fellowship. Her work has been shown internationally including exhibitions at MoMA, New York; The Jewish Museum, New York; The Metropolitan Museum, New York; Gropius-Bau, Berlin; ICP, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; The Serpentine Gallery, London; The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Jörg Schumacher (PhD) is the Director of the Goethe-Institut New York. He oversees the institute’s cultural and educational programming, fostering dialogue between Germany and the United States in literature, film, visual arts, music and theater. With a background in cultural policy and journalism, he has held leadership positions within the Goethe-Institut network in Europe, the Middle East, and North America. He worked as a director for communication for Germany’s national broadcaster Deuschlandfunk before moving to New York in 2020. His work focuses on building sustainable cultural exchange, and strengthening transatlantic collaboration.
Krzysztof Wodiczko is Professor in Residence of Art, Design and the Public Domain, Emeritus at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is renowned for his large-scale slide and video projections on architectural facades and monuments. He realized more than 90 of such public projections and installations in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, Turkey, Germany, Holland, Northern Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Wodiczko’s work has been exhibited in Documenta (twice), Paris Biennale, Sydney Biennale, Lyon Biennale, The Venice Art Biennale (Canadian and Polish Pavilions) in Magiciens de la Terre exhibition, Paris, Venice Biennale of Architecture, The Whitney Biennial, Yokohama Triennale, International Center for Photography Triennale, New York, The Montreal Biennale ( 2014), The Liverpool Biennale ( 2016) and other international art festivals and international exhibitions. In 2009, he represented Poland in the Venice Biennale. In 2017, Wodiczko held a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul.
Gesche Würfel is a visual artist based in NYC. Her work has been exhibited, published, and awarded internationally. Exhibition venues include Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Tate Modern, David Zwirner, Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Goldsmiths Center for Contemporary Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Deutsches Haus at NYU. She is the author of The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall (DISTANZ, 2025) and Basement Sanctuaries (Schilt Publishing, 2014). Würfel is a recipient of grants, e.g. from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung, the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, or the NYU Center for the Humanities.
Attendance:
While NYU has ended COVID-19 related restrictions and policies, we continue to remind and recommend to members of the NYU community that they stay up-to-date on their boosters and stay home if they feel sick. Masks are always welcome.
RSVP for in-person attendance here.
"Artistic Reflections on 35 Years of German Reunification" is funded by the DAAD from funds of the German Federal Foreign Office (AA) and the Roger J. Schnetzer Endowment. Additional support was provided by NYU's Department of Photo & Imagingin (DPI) and the Department of German
CROWD RELEASE
By entering an event or program of 1014, you are entering an area where photography, audio and video recording may occur.
Your entry and presence on the event premises constitutes your consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded and to the release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction of any and all recorded media of your appearance, voice, and name for any purpose whatsoever in perpetuity in connection with 1014 and its initiatives, including, by way of example only, use on websites, in social media, news and advertising.
By entering the event premises, you waive and release any claims you may have related to the use of recorded media of you at the event, including, without limitation, any right to inspect or approve the photo, video or audio recording of you, any claims for invasion of privacy, violation of the right of publicity, defamation, and copyright infringement or for any fees for use of such record media.
You understand that all photography, filming and/or recording will be done in reliance on this consent. If you do not agree to the foregoing, please do not enter the event premises.
This panel discussion and presentation reflects on two art projects, separated by almost 35 years, that critically examined the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and the resulting reunification of East and West Germany on October 3, 1990. “The Finitude of Freedom” (“Die Endlichkeit der Freiheit”) was an exhibition project in East and West Berlin that took place from September 1 to October 7, 1990, primarily in public spaces, featuring works by Barbara Bloom, Hans Haacke, Krzysztof Wodiczko, and others. It was the only exhibition project of this magnitude that was jointly financed and realized by the FRG and the GDR in 1990. Der Spiegel called it the “most important exhibition” of 1990. Sarah Alberti reconstructed the project as part of her doctoral thesis.
Thirty-one years after reunification, Gesche Würfel explored the topography along the Berlin Wall Trail in her work “The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall” (“Die Ab- und Anwesenheit der Berliner Mauer”). Würfel creates a multi-layered panorama and portrait of a Germany whose division and reunification continue to shape the country to this day. The project was published in 2025 by DISTANZ and designed by Kay Bachmann, with an essay by Sarah Alberti and a foreword by Christoph Tannert. The book will be for sale during and after the event.
About the participants:
Sarah Alberti, PhD, is a journalist and art historian based in Leipzig. She was born in the GDR eight months before the fall of the Berlin Wall and now works as a freelance writer for various German daily newspapers and art magazines, as well as for artists and institutions such as the Dresden State Art Collections and the Hamburger Bahnhof - National Gallery of Contemporary Art. In 2018/2019, she collaborated with artist Hans Haacke to hang his documenta 14 banner “Wir (alle) sind das Volk” (We (all) are the people) in various cities in the new federal states. She studied communication and media studies, art history, and curatorial cultures in Leipzig and France. Her doctoral thesis focuses on art relating to German reunification, using the example of the exhibition project “Die Endlichkeit der Freiheit” (The Finitude of Freedom), which took place in the summer of 1990 as an immediate response to the opening of the Berlin Wall in East and West Berlin. www.endlichkeitderfreiheit.de
Kay Bachmann is a book designer and graphic designer. He studied book art/graphic design at the Hochschule für Grafik Buchkunst Leipzig (Academy of Visual
Arts Leipzig) under Ruedi Baur (integral) and Daniela Haufe and Detlef Fiedler (cyan) in the system design class. Since 2006, he has worked for the Galerie für Zeitgenössische
Kunst Leipzig, the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, among others. Until 2013, he worked with Philipp Paulsen at Office
Bachmann/Paulsen, and between 2015 and 2021 at Spector Bureau. In 2022, he founded Studio OfficeKB.
Barbara Bloom is an artist living in New York City. Her conceptual practice uses photography, objects, and installation. Though enthusiastically visual, the work stems more from the traditions of literature than from painting or sculpture. She has said: “I am probably a novelist, but somehow ended up standing in the wrong line, and inadvertently signed up to be a visual artist.” Bloom has received numerous honors and fellowships including the Venice Biennale Due Mille Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, Getty Research Institute Fellowship, DAAD Berlin Fellowship. Her work has been shown internationally including exhibitions at MoMA, New York; The Jewish Museum, New York; The Metropolitan Museum, New York; Gropius-Bau, Berlin; ICP, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; The Serpentine Gallery, London; The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Jörg Schumacher (PhD) is the Director of the Goethe-Institut New York. He oversees the institute’s cultural and educational programming, fostering dialogue between Germany and the United States in literature, film, visual arts, music and theater. With a background in cultural policy and journalism, he has held leadership positions within the Goethe-Institut network in Europe, the Middle East, and North America. He worked as a director for communication for Germany’s national broadcaster Deuschlandfunk before moving to New York in 2020. His work focuses on building sustainable cultural exchange, and strengthening transatlantic collaboration.
Krzysztof Wodiczko is Professor in Residence of Art, Design and the Public Domain, Emeritus at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is renowned for his large-scale slide and video projections on architectural facades and monuments. He realized more than 90 of such public projections and installations in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, Turkey, Germany, Holland, Northern Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Wodiczko’s work has been exhibited in Documenta (twice), Paris Biennale, Sydney Biennale, Lyon Biennale, The Venice Art Biennale (Canadian and Polish Pavilions) in Magiciens de la Terre exhibition, Paris, Venice Biennale of Architecture, The Whitney Biennial, Yokohama Triennale, International Center for Photography Triennale, New York, The Montreal Biennale ( 2014), The Liverpool Biennale ( 2016) and other international art festivals and international exhibitions. In 2009, he represented Poland in the Venice Biennale. In 2017, Wodiczko held a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul.
Gesche Würfel is a visual artist based in NYC. Her work has been exhibited, published, and awarded internationally. Exhibition venues include Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Tate Modern, David Zwirner, Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Goldsmiths Center for Contemporary Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Deutsches Haus at NYU. She is the author of The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall (DISTANZ, 2025) and Basement Sanctuaries (Schilt Publishing, 2014). Würfel is a recipient of grants, e.g. from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung, the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, or the NYU Center for the Humanities.
Attendance:
While NYU has ended COVID-19 related restrictions and policies, we continue to remind and recommend to members of the NYU community that they stay up-to-date on their boosters and stay home if they feel sick. Masks are always welcome.
RSVP for in-person attendance here.
"Artistic Reflections on 35 Years of German Reunification" is funded by the DAAD from funds of the German Federal Foreign Office (AA) and the Roger J. Schnetzer Endowment. Additional support was provided by NYU's Department of Photo & Imagingin (DPI) and the Department of German
CROWD RELEASE
By entering an event or program of 1014, you are entering an area where photography, audio and video recording may occur.
Your entry and presence on the event premises constitutes your consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded and to the release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction of any and all recorded media of your appearance, voice, and name for any purpose whatsoever in perpetuity in connection with 1014 and its initiatives, including, by way of example only, use on websites, in social media, news and advertising.
By entering the event premises, you waive and release any claims you may have related to the use of recorded media of you at the event, including, without limitation, any right to inspect or approve the photo, video or audio recording of you, any claims for invasion of privacy, violation of the right of publicity, defamation, and copyright infringement or for any fees for use of such record media.
You understand that all photography, filming and/or recording will be done in reliance on this consent. If you do not agree to the foregoing, please do not enter the event premises.
This panel discussion and presentation reflects on two art projects, separated by almost 35 years, that critically examined the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and the resulting reunification of East and West Germany on October 3, 1990. “The Finitude of Freedom” (“Die Endlichkeit der Freiheit”) was an exhibition project in East and West Berlin that took place from September 1 to October 7, 1990, primarily in public spaces, featuring works by Barbara Bloom, Hans Haacke, Krzysztof Wodiczko, and others. It was the only exhibition project of this magnitude that was jointly financed and realized by the FRG and the GDR in 1990. Der Spiegel called it the “most important exhibition” of 1990. Sarah Alberti reconstructed the project as part of her doctoral thesis.
Thirty-one years after reunification, Gesche Würfel explored the topography along the Berlin Wall Trail in her work “The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall” (“Die Ab- und Anwesenheit der Berliner Mauer”). Würfel creates a multi-layered panorama and portrait of a Germany whose division and reunification continue to shape the country to this day. The project was published in 2025 by DISTANZ and designed by Kay Bachmann, with an essay by Sarah Alberti and a foreword by Christoph Tannert. The book will be for sale during and after the event.
About the participants:
Sarah Alberti, PhD, is a journalist and art historian based in Leipzig. She was born in the GDR eight months before the fall of the Berlin Wall and now works as a freelance writer for various German daily newspapers and art magazines, as well as for artists and institutions such as the Dresden State Art Collections and the Hamburger Bahnhof - National Gallery of Contemporary Art. In 2018/2019, she collaborated with artist Hans Haacke to hang his documenta 14 banner “Wir (alle) sind das Volk” (We (all) are the people) in various cities in the new federal states. She studied communication and media studies, art history, and curatorial cultures in Leipzig and France. Her doctoral thesis focuses on art relating to German reunification, using the example of the exhibition project “Die Endlichkeit der Freiheit” (The Finitude of Freedom), which took place in the summer of 1990 as an immediate response to the opening of the Berlin Wall in East and West Berlin. www.endlichkeitderfreiheit.de
Kay Bachmann is a book designer and graphic designer. He studied book art/graphic design at the Hochschule für Grafik Buchkunst Leipzig (Academy of Visual
Arts Leipzig) under Ruedi Baur (integral) and Daniela Haufe and Detlef Fiedler (cyan) in the system design class. Since 2006, he has worked for the Galerie für Zeitgenössische
Kunst Leipzig, the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, among others. Until 2013, he worked with Philipp Paulsen at Office
Bachmann/Paulsen, and between 2015 and 2021 at Spector Bureau. In 2022, he founded Studio OfficeKB.
Barbara Bloom is an artist living in New York City. Her conceptual practice uses photography, objects, and installation. Though enthusiastically visual, the work stems more from the traditions of literature than from painting or sculpture. She has said: “I am probably a novelist, but somehow ended up standing in the wrong line, and inadvertently signed up to be a visual artist.” Bloom has received numerous honors and fellowships including the Venice Biennale Due Mille Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, Getty Research Institute Fellowship, DAAD Berlin Fellowship. Her work has been shown internationally including exhibitions at MoMA, New York; The Jewish Museum, New York; The Metropolitan Museum, New York; Gropius-Bau, Berlin; ICP, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; The Serpentine Gallery, London; The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Jörg Schumacher (PhD) is the Director of the Goethe-Institut New York. He oversees the institute’s cultural and educational programming, fostering dialogue between Germany and the United States in literature, film, visual arts, music and theater. With a background in cultural policy and journalism, he has held leadership positions within the Goethe-Institut network in Europe, the Middle East, and North America. He worked as a director for communication for Germany’s national broadcaster Deuschlandfunk before moving to New York in 2020. His work focuses on building sustainable cultural exchange, and strengthening transatlantic collaboration.
Krzysztof Wodiczko is Professor in Residence of Art, Design and the Public Domain, Emeritus at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is renowned for his large-scale slide and video projections on architectural facades and monuments. He realized more than 90 of such public projections and installations in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, Turkey, Germany, Holland, Northern Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Wodiczko’s work has been exhibited in Documenta (twice), Paris Biennale, Sydney Biennale, Lyon Biennale, The Venice Art Biennale (Canadian and Polish Pavilions) in Magiciens de la Terre exhibition, Paris, Venice Biennale of Architecture, The Whitney Biennial, Yokohama Triennale, International Center for Photography Triennale, New York, The Montreal Biennale ( 2014), The Liverpool Biennale ( 2016) and other international art festivals and international exhibitions. In 2009, he represented Poland in the Venice Biennale. In 2017, Wodiczko held a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul.
Gesche Würfel is a visual artist based in NYC. Her work has been exhibited, published, and awarded internationally. Exhibition venues include Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Tate Modern, David Zwirner, Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Goldsmiths Center for Contemporary Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Deutsches Haus at NYU. She is the author of The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall (DISTANZ, 2025) and Basement Sanctuaries (Schilt Publishing, 2014). Würfel is a recipient of grants, e.g. from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung, the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, or the NYU Center for the Humanities.
Attendance:
While NYU has ended COVID-19 related restrictions and policies, we continue to remind and recommend to members of the NYU community that they stay up-to-date on their boosters and stay home if they feel sick. Masks are always welcome.
RSVP for in-person attendance here.
"Artistic Reflections on 35 Years of German Reunification" is funded by the DAAD from funds of the German Federal Foreign Office (AA) and the Roger J. Schnetzer Endowment. Additional support was provided by NYU's Department of Photo & Imagingin (DPI) and the Department of German
CROWD RELEASE
By entering an event or program of 1014, you are entering an area where photography, audio and video recording may occur.
Your entry and presence on the event premises constitutes your consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded and to the release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction of any and all recorded media of your appearance, voice, and name for any purpose whatsoever in perpetuity in connection with 1014 and its initiatives, including, by way of example only, use on websites, in social media, news and advertising.
By entering the event premises, you waive and release any claims you may have related to the use of recorded media of you at the event, including, without limitation, any right to inspect or approve the photo, video or audio recording of you, any claims for invasion of privacy, violation of the right of publicity, defamation, and copyright infringement or for any fees for use of such record media.
You understand that all photography, filming and/or recording will be done in reliance on this consent. If you do not agree to the foregoing, please do not enter the event premises.
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