April 28, 2017, 2 pm

Many thanks to the artist duo VARIOUS & GOULD introducing our participants to the concept of the CITY SKINS – MARX AND ENGELS project and inviting us to assist and help them creating a papier-mâché cast of the Marx-Engels monument.

Dates for Participatory Memory: April 28 – May 03, 2017, 11 AM – 5 PM
Location: Marx-Engels-Forum
Address: Opposite of Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 1, 10178 Berlin

City Skins – Marx and Engels is a project by artist duo Various & Gould as part of the international competition “Art in the Underground – The Middle in Nowhere” (in German: “Kunst im Untergrund – Mitte in der Pampa”). The competition is run by the art society “neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK)“.

Monuments are projection screens of collective memory and witnesses of a time period. They reflect history, zeitgeist and models of a political system. In their current project, Various & Gould address this topic, questioning the multiple meanings and ascriptions of public cultural artifacts and the general approach to monuments nowadays.

In an urban intervention, the artist duo creates a papier-mâché cast of the Marx-Engels monument designed by Ludwig Engelhardt during GDR times (1986) and located in the vicinity of the Rotes Rathaus (town hall). The resulting paper sculpture is called City Skins.” (Text excerpt from the project blog by courtesy of VARIOUS & GOULD)

More information on the CITY SKINS Website.