Ascent – Mural and Installation

The new Kolping Jugendwohnen Berlin-Mitte building is located in a historically significant spot. The border between East and West Berlin once ran right nearby, and the large Heinrich-Heine-Straße border crossing was located there. Today, young adults live here while they are in their vocational training.

Various & Gould created art specifically for this location — both on the exterior facade and inside the building. Each work addresses the theme of “overcoming borders” in its own way.

In the lobby, three painted objects are displayed, referencing anti-tank obstacles, also known as “steel hedgehogs”. During the era of the “Iron Curtain,” these barriers could also be found along the inner-German border. Often anchored to the ground, they were intended to prevent people from breaking through the border in vehicles.

In the mural by Various & Gould, the barriers have completely lost their former function and power. They appear malleable, bent, and twisted in on themselves. They also seem to be floating.

This transformation continues beyond the lobby in the 19-meter-high air shaft of the stairwell. There, four more of these barriers hang one above the other, this time as actual objects molded from transparent acrylic glass and spray-painted. They are visible from the ground floor and the intermediate floors, while they seem to float upward in a row. What was once firmly and insurmountably anchored to the ground has now become light, transparent, and mobile. It is as if the border was dissolving into individual parts that are being blown away.

The artistic narrative of overcoming borders unfolds against the harsh historical reality of the site. At the Heinrich-Heine-Straße border crossing, too, people were arrested, injured, or shot while attempting to flee.