Einheitsdenkmal: Berlin freedom & unity monument

Einheitsdenkmal Berlin, Monument to Freedom, German Memorial Design

Einheitsdenkmal : Berlin Monument to Freedom & Unity

Berlin Monument to Freedom and Unity, Germany design by Sasha Waltz / Milla & Partner

13 Jun 2011

Monument to Freedom and Unity Berlin

Milla & Partner And Sasha Waltz To Create ’monument To Unity’ Germany’s Monument To Freedom And Unity Will Be Based On Designs Created By Sasha Waltz And Milla & Partner. Their Concept Puts “citizens In Motion” And Emerged As The Favorite In The Final Selection Process.

Berlin / Stuttgart, March 14th, 2011

A decision for unity in motion: the winning design for the creation of Berlin’s Monument to Freedom and Unity was conceived by Milla & Partner, scenographers from Stuttgart, and choreograph Sasha Waltz from Berlin. Their concept was already among the three designs that were honored in October 2010 as the best proposals.

After a phase of revision in which open questions needed to be addressed about all of the three awarded concepts, the plans of Sasha Waltz and Milla & Partner were now chosen for realization.

View from Berlin City Palace:
Berlin Monument to Freedom and Unity
image © Milla & Partner / Sasha Waltz

The monument will be called “Citizens in Motion”, a notion that Milla & Partner and Sasha Waltz will give shape to in extraordinary fashion. The sculpture will resemble a bowl opening upwards; it is by no means just an inflexible object of contemplation, instead it is meant to be mounted and moved, a movement which can be realized if a larger group of visitors agrees to do so.

The idea is bold and calls for high standards concerning static and safety measures. The solutions presented by Milla & Partner and Sasha Waltz in that regard were soundly accepted by the initiators of the project. Engineers Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner from Stuttgart were consulted as expert advisors early on in the planning stages of the project.

Close up view of Einheitsdenkmal:
Berlin Freedom and Unity Monument
image © Milla & Partner / Sasha Waltz

The creators call their idea a “social sculpture” – it represents the idea that a creative act by each and any person can add to the welfare of a community and thus influence society. It stresses the importance of the citizens – the visitors will move the object in conjunction, they will become an active part of the monument. Their participation will create an ever-changing choreographic expression for the peaceful German Revolution of 1989.

View from the Kupfergraben by night:
Monument to Freedom and Unity Berlin
image © Milla & Partner / Sasha Waltz

The monument’s shape opens upwards like a bowl, its light and dynamic form reminiscent of a wing, a leaf or a boat. It seems as if its frame had been freed from the base of the former Kaiser Wilhelmmonument, lifted upwards by the unified power of the protesters – the past giving way to an optimistic future.

Its outside is an expression of the moving events that marked a peaceful uprising, while the spacious inside lends its room to an everyday involvement with the concepts of freedom and unity – as a meeting place that is meant to involve the citizens of today, involve each visitor.

About Milla & Partner, agency and ateliers, Stuttgart

Milla & Partner connects people with people, themes and brands. The scenographers from Stuttgart create and realize communicative objects, platforms and orchestrated spaces such as museums, exhibitions or Science Centers.

In addition to the comprehensive design and realization of dramaturgical concepts, Milla & Partner’s main focus is the development and the conceptualization of innovative connection points that animate the public to interaction, the creation of installations that activate visitors and involve people in their themes.

They do so by combining the skills of the most diverse disciplines and crafts that need to be pooled in order to create spaces and encounters. One of the most recent projects of Milla & Partner is the German Pavilion “balancity” at the World Fair 2010 in Shanghai that has as of yet garnered 10 awards, including the “Golden Award” for Best Adaptation of the EXPO-theme.

Milla & Partner have been awarded the “iF communication design award 2011” four times and the “red dot award: communication design 2010” twice. The agency for spatial communication has also been honored with various other awards, from a Cannes Lion to ADC Nägel and DDC Awards through to ADAM- and EVA-Awards. The broad spectrum these awards cover reflects the boundary-crossing way in which the company thinks and acts.

About Sasha Waltz and Jochen Sandig

Choreograph Sasha Waltz from Berlin is the head of the dance ensemble Sasha Waltz & Guests that she established with Joachim Sandig in 1993. She gained international renown for her productions at the Sophiensälen, at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, at Berlins State Opera Unter den Linden and at Radialsystem V, but especially for her spectacular works in museums such as the Jewish Museum Berlin (1999) as well as the musical-choreographic installation “Dialoge 09” to mark the opening of the Neues Museum Berlin (2009).

One of her current projects is the choreographic opera “Matsukaze” by Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa at the Opera La Monnaie in Brussels. Sasha Waltz has received numerous awards for her work; just recently she was honored with Germany’s Order of Merit. Jochen Sandig is also the founder and co-director of Radialsystem V in Berlin that has been the staging site of Sasha Waltz & Guests since 2006.

View from the Schinkelplatz:
Einheitsdenkmal Berlin
image © Milla & Partner / Sasha Waltz

Einheitsdenkmal – Berlin Monument to Freedom and Unity images / information from Milla & Partner

Location: Kaiser Wilhelmmonument, Berlin, Germany

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