[research, poetics]

Berlin, 2021: a State of Mind

Berlin, Germany

2021

Field research carried out through a fellowship from DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) for Study Visits for Academics in Art and Architecture.

Map used to set the route taken. This is the official map of BVG,
the city's public transport company, and can be found in all subway stations.
Photo: Edouard Fraipont

At the very end of the year 2021 I decided to cross the city of Berlin by walking.

As a starting point I drew a horizontal straight line on the city map. This was my guide for the 40 kilometers I walked from the far west to the far east of the city.

I took this journey in stages, over two months, in a kind of time-expanded experience. As I walked, I took photographs of architecture and some of the situations I found on my way. In total I produced more than 800 images.

In addition, the act of walking was also a method I used to think and then write. Not only about what I was seeing, but also about some of what I experienced and learned during my stay in the city.

The images and words I produced combine thoughts on the environmental conditions of a wintry, pandemic Berlin, with a kind of "state of mind"of the city at that moment. And, somehow, mine as well.

***

Essay published in text format in the magazine Acto & Forma nº 13, edited by the Escuela de Arquitectura y Diseño of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, and in video format in the exhibition Crisis, part of the program of the 3r Seminario Internacional de Etnografía y Arquitectura, held in Santiago de Chile in October 2022 by the Escuela de Arquitectura de Universidad de las Americas.

Find below the video [adjust the resolution to 1080p]. To download the magazine's PDF, click here. Both available in Spanish [English translation coming soon].