The Latest at Goethe

The border has fallen. Since reunification in 1990, what belongs together is growing together. Or is it? Scepticism is great. The "wall in our hearts" is still there. Some even wish to be divided again – in Yemen. Impressions from a reunified country.


Sana'a, May 2009. "When was it that they built the Berlin Wall?" asks the artist from Aden, so that he can commemorate the year on his brick. "1944?" "I think it was 1949."

It’s reassuring to know that the details of German division and reunification are apparently no more familiar in Yemen than Yemen's are in Germany. How many people in Germany can tell you about the People's Democratic Republic in the south, the Arab Republic in the north and the civil war after the unification of both?

Sana'a celebrated nineteen years of unity on 22 May.

Over the previous days, preparations were diligently underway. Yet, in Yemen's capital city, the first stop of the Goethe-Institut's "The Wall in the World" it was not only about this nation's reunification, but also concerned the 20th anniversary of the fall of the border between the two German states.

With this symbolic journey the Goethe-Institut hopes to encourage dialogue across borders arising from current constellations of conflict. Artists will express their experiences with borders on the "wall bricks" as the international part of the planned domino campaign of the Berlin Senate on the Fest der Freiheit (Festival of Freedom) on 9 November at Brandenburg Gate.

"Lovely symbolism"

For this purpose, 20 symbolic bricks were sent around the world from Berlin. The "bricks" are 2.50 x 1.00 x 0.40 metres in size, made of Styrofoam and therefore weigh approximately a mere 20 kg. To make them paintable, they were covered with a sturdy textile. Their destinations: Sana'a, Ramallah/Bir Zeit, Umm el-Fahm, Seoul, Beijing, Mexico City, Nicosia – places where separation and borders are everyday things.

In Yemen, the artists Amnah Al–Nasiri, Mazher Nizar, Reema Qasim and Abdallah al-Mujahed from Sana'a, Farid Samed, Ahmed Abdulaziz, Kamal Makrami from Aden and Mohamed Mohsen Sheikh from Abyan embellished the bricks in a workshop.

"Lovely symbolism," al-Mujahed, who has made a white dove glide over barbed wire on his piece of wall, says admiringly. When the painter from Sana'a talks of the "wall in hearts" and "inner unity," it sounds familiar to German ears, but he means Yemen. "We have plenty in common," says the 59-year-old.

Parade in Sana'a, fatalities in Aden

When Kamal Makrami drives from the sea to the mountains, he sometimes still feels as if he is travelling to a different country. "North and south were divided for so long that two different peoples emerged." Some clan traditions, the role played by religion and the status of women in the north are still foreign to the man from Aden. Yet, the artist often undertakes the journey to Sana'a.

"If I want to buy paint or a canvas, I have to come to Sana'a. If I want to have an exhibition, I have to apply for it in Sana'a. I grew up in Aden when it was the capital of the south. Today, it's like being in a small town."

The socialists' policies weren't any better back then, says the 48-year-old. "But women didn’t need to run around cloaked in tents. Women and men were equal. A lot has changed for us – for the worse." So much so that some people in the south would like to revoke the unification. While Sana'a celebrated the national holiday this year with a military parade, fireworks and honking horns, there were fatalities in Aden when security forces broke up a demonstration.

The warm evening breeze knocks over one of the canvas-covered Styrofoam blocks. Ahmed Abdulaziz mounted a sawn green metal barrel that could have come from a checkpoint on his brick. It falls to the ground with a clank. The artist remains composed: "Walls are made to knock down."