TheGuilfordian
April 10,1998
What's next for Eastern Europe?
♦An artists' squat in East Berlin lends insight into the future of Germany and the Soviet bloc
BYJACK SHULER
Buropeai Affcts Cdumnbt
ft seemed that the whole night was spent
crossing streets on wooden planks, or walk
ing single file through narrow corridors sur
rounded by copious amounts of construction
work.
All of East Berlin appeared to be under
siege. They were creating and building, build
ing everywhere. It made travel difficult—too
many obstacles, too many dead ends.
"It isjust up ahead," said Alex, my Aus
trian friend who told us that he knew his way
around this part of the city. "I was here just
last year. You guys
will love this club,
the DJ's are un
real."
But we
couldn't find the
"Resist McDonalds."
seen on the remnants of
the Berlin Wall
club he was looking for, we found another
dead end.
'Tm getting tired, I'm grama head back,"
said Chris, a guy from Anaheim, more inter
ested in the Dead than the drum and bass we
were searching for.
"No, let's just try one more place, the
next place we see," said Alex.
So we walked foralittle while,past pros
titutes in patent leather pumps and fish-net
stockings and past more construction.
"What about this bar, Alex? The sign
says, Tacheles," I said.
We walked in. The music was right—
dark, drum bass, techno. The walls were
covered with beautiful paintings that were also
grim and frightening. Dress code appeared to
be all black . Wfe ordered drinks and sat around,
but soon noticed that everyone was leaving
and walking out a back door. Our curiosity
was piqued.
Following the herd through this door,
everything began changing, shifting to seme
strange metallic dimension, some otherworkl
Behind the bar was an empty lot, about one
acre, full of sculptures created from found
objects: trees made out of metal chairs, school
desks stacked on top of one another, thirty
feet high, iron men, and, my favorite, a bus
buried head first in the ground. I was erthrafled.
As we meandered about, we noticed a
red light in afar comer of the sculpture gar
den and began walking slowly towards it It
rested above an entranoeway to another build
ing. Inside this building were several rooms
connected by doorways about three feet wide.
The walls were stuccoed, and imitation
stalagmites dripped from die ceilings. Glitter
and fake gemstones had been pressed into
World & Nation
the stucco, creator awesome patterns,
that shook in the dim light. Inside the
largest room were two DJs and about
50 people, dancing furiously. The DJs
were moving quickly, as if they wme
feeding on the energy of the dancers.
A symbiotic relationship in rfiythm and
joy sent ecstatic palpitations through
the room—something awesome was
going on in East Berlin.
Potsdameiplatz, at one time the
center of Berlin, was divided by the
Berlin Wall. Now it is reemeiging as
the new cento* of Europe, a link be-
tween Eastern
and Western Eu
rope. It is the larg
est construction
site on the conti
====== nent, with hundreds of
cranes and thousands of hands being put to
work. The construction should be completed
by 1999, when the German government re
turns to Berlin.
Before the government is officially in
place, a memorial to the victims of the Holo
caust will be erected in the center of the city.
The idea has been brewing for ten years, but
an agreement has yet to be reached. People
question whether or not Germany should me
morialize its own victims. Most support the
effort, though, saying that it should be a monu
ment for Germany to warn future generations
of the dangers of hate and fascism.
And this is why Tacheles is so impor
tant, because the government may never come
to a consensus about a memorial. We found
out later that it is not just a bar but an artist co
op and squat. All proceeds from the raves and
concerts go to support the artists. But the whole
sculpture garden will be demolished in the next
couple of years if the banks and large corpo
rations have their way
The garden itself is supposed to remind
people of the waste of fascism and the beauty
that has emerged since the days of the com
munist regime. Most passersby might shrug
the sculptures off as junk put together by a
bunch ofcrazy, idealistic artists. But if the gar
den goes, only money and greed will remain.
A whole community will be destroyed.
There is hope fix - Germany. The hope
is in the beats ofthe music, the message of the
artwork, and the emotion of the nightlife. The
hope is in the coming together of young minds,
trying to stave off the greedy hand of capital
ism, trying to keep one building, one acre of
land open to the artist, to free ideas. And it is
always this way, art always fights back, amidst
ij-..•''''' jy
Today, artwork decorates remnants of the wall that once divided a city.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JACK SHULER
change and upheaval; art calls for the people
to take a look at what is going, to not lose sight
of the truth.
Asia recovering from crisis
BY GREGORY RINALDI j
Staff Wlter
Sony Corporation chairman Norio
Ohga recently warned that Japan's
economy "is on the verge of collapse." His
comments stunned the world, and directed
worldwide concern towards Japan's strug
gling economy
Last week the Bank of Japan polled
consumer confidence at its lowest level in
three years. Monday, Ryutaro Hashimoto,
Japan's prime minister, hinted at an upcom
ing plan to aid his nation's economy.
"The economy at the moment can be
said to be facing very severe conditions
with probably the first accumulation of com
pletely negative factors since World War
II," said Hashimoto. This recession in the
Japanese economy comes on the heels of
the Asian financial crisis that has only re
cently shown signs of ending.
"The crisis in Asia is not over—not
yet. But the approach is working, and there
are a number of encouraging signs," said
Michael Camdessus, the International
Monetary Fund's (IMF) managing direc
tor, this past Thursday.
Camdessus mentioned that South
Korea and Thailand have "made good
progress" with economic reforms. He also
added that Indonesia risks another finan
cial crisis if unwise reforms there continue.
enced Tacheles, for now I recognize another
group, the artists, the hopeful ones. And maybe
they are the hope for the whole world
The Asian economic crisis began last
year as stock markets plummeted across
southeast Asia. The collapse is mostly traced
to a failure in the banking and investment
systems of the region. The nations prima
rily affected were Thailand, South Korea,
and Indonesia, although 13 other nations
suffered moderate losses as well.
"Over-investment, over-lending, and
over-building were the prime causes,"
stated Lee Hamilton, an Indiana congress
man. "This was the largest economic crisis
in recent years, for larger than the Latin
American debt crisis of the 1980s, or the
Mexican peso crisis in 1995."
Indonesia's current lack of a reliable
program has cost its economy valuable
time. The rupiah, its currency, threatens to
plummet further in value as inflation in
creases.
Hashimoto's program for Japan will
be unveiled within the next few weeks.
Masaru Hay ami, governor of the Bank of
Japan, is hopeful.
"I expect to see permanent income
tax cuts, and I hope to see corporate tax
cuts and more efficient public spending, "
saidHayumi.
Last Friday, President Bill Clinton also
encouraged Japan to cut taxes. An across
the-board tax cut might aid the Japanese
economy and prevent the same sort of in
flation that has been haunting Indonesia.
11
When
great change
occurs nowa
days there are
always two
shady parties
involved:
those m it for
the money
and those in it
because they
are angry.
One could ar
gue that there
arelaigeccn
-4-!.-,-, i. IV i i ..I
tmgents trcm
both groups m
Berlin. I am
grateful to
have experi-