Linda Forslund '86
Between Space and Time: The No-Man's Land of the Berlin Border #1

1993
silverprint on paper
11 x 17 in.
1996.27
Gift of Linda Forslund '86

In this work, Linda Forslund explores a landscape subject to both physical and remembered trauma in order to examine its temporal connections to the newly reunified Germany of 1990. Also used in the title of this show, the phrase “no-man’s land” presents a complex metaphor that invokes both the sociopolitical and physical landscapes of a place. Between the divided East and West Berlin of 1961 to 1989, this no-man’s land provided a clear line of fire for wall guards of East Berlin to fire at fleeing refugees. Also known as the “death strip,” this area was covered in sand for the easy detection and execution of refugees by tracing their footprints. In a written order of October 1973, the wall guards of East Berlin were commanded that people attempting to cross the wall were criminals to be shot. It states: "Do not hesitate to use your firearm, not even when the border is breached in the company of women and children, which is a tactic the traitors have often used.”

On November 9th, 1989, after three decades in which countless German families were split up and thousands died, the most infamous symbol of this no-man’s land, the impassable Berlin Wall, fell. Contrary to common belief, the destruction of the Berlin Wall did not begin in earnest until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992, shortly before the creation of Forslund’s photo. In this work, remnants of the Berlin Wall and the no-man’s land offer momento mori, souvenirs of trauma that engage with this terrible past. As Forslund passes through the wall looking back, she acknowledges and remembers this trauma, moving forward, but not forgetting.

Joshua Torkelson ‘17
Lasting Legacy 2017