PROOF, EXPECTATIONS ARE A SET UP FOR A LET DOWN!
BACKGROUND:
The largest stretch of the original Berlin Wall in the world outside of Berlin resides in the permanent collection of the Wende Museum. Ten of these segments, currently displayed at 5900 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, were installed as part of the Wende's Wall Project, which commemorated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2009. As part of the project, the Museum commissioned four artists to paint on five of these wall segments, including French-born, Berlin-based artist Thierry Noir, who was one of the first to paint the Berlin Wall in 1984, L.A.-based muralist Kent Twitchell and Farrah Karapetian and Marie Astrid González, two emerging Los Angeles Artists.
STATS:
Metered parking
Paid parking lot
Free event
EXPERIENCE:
Esther K. one of my first engaging Yelp buds, and I tried for months to try to meet up, but calendar conflicts caused us to take over eight months to finally sych up and meet up. Our first meeting was a stop was a cultural adventure. I saw that she had bookmarked this place and it just so happened just a few days prior, I got a cultural/museum itch. One thing led to another and we found ourselves actually able to sync our calendars.
Prior to us meeting up, I scratched a little of my museum itch, visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Review previously posted), and took a peek at the wall. The wall sits right in front of a building directly across from LACMoA and if it weren't for all the roach coaches blocking the view, passersby could see it from the street. There really isn't much to it, historically; it is really more of mural of historical figures, including Captain America. What Captain America has to do with the Berlin Wall, I'm not sure.
I know expectations are just a set up for a letdown, thus it is very rare I expect anything. However, for some reason, I did have highish expectations about this wall, even after reading Yelp reviews. I was expecting to see more evidence of what the wall went through while residing in Berlin, but no, it became an artist canvas and was painted over with paints of JFK, MLK, and some other oddities. The only evidence that remains are some chips and wholes from objects that I am unable to identify.
I reported back to Esther my findings and when we met up at the wall, she too was shocked at what the wall had become. Needless to say, we were there for about 5 minutes, just long enough to take pics and move onto our next cultural/museum adventure.
Granted the wall is a piece of history, the artists should have, in my opinion, left it alone. So, if you are expecting to see a wall of what it was like to be trapped behind it, mute your expectations, you will not get it here. The upside, it's fantastic that the wall is no longer a barrier and great that we have the largest section right here in LA. I wouldn't make a special trip to the west side to see it, but I would do what I did, take care of other business, such as check out LACMoA or meet up with a friend, check out, and head to another event of some sort. read more