Institute & Campus / October 09, 2019

30 years later: Piet Joehnk opens Berlin Wall photo exhibit

With the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago, the vivid graffities that once adorned the west side of the 160-kilometer-long building gradually disappeared. While on a business trip to West Berlin in April 1986, scientist and photographer Professor Piet Joehnk took – more or less accidentally – photos of some of these works of art. His image collection titled “The backside of the wall was colorful” are on display at the MDC Berlin-Mitte until late December.

During the opening of the exhibition at the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB), Joehnk described his photos as contemporary documents of a new street art that had been particularly prominent in Berlin. "Today you can see graffities on every corner, it’s not a big deal anymore. Actually, one is probably rather annoyed when something has just been freshly renovated somewhere and is covered in spray paint only days later. In contrast, the artworks back then were an attempt to turn an ugly grey wall into something that was artistically appealing."

Interested visitors can view Piet Joehnk's pictures on weekdays between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. at the MDC Berlin-Mitte (Hannoversche Straße 28, 10115 Berlin). Admission is free of charge.