The Mobile Ruin

The Berlin Wall divided the city for almost three decades before it fell on 9 November 1989. This symbol of the Cold War has been travelling longer than it stood still. An object that once seemed immovable now wanders around the world in every format from two-tonne slabs to pocket-sized souvenirs.
This collection envisions the atomized and displaced remnants of the Berlin Wall as a mobile ruin with an evolving history. Blake Fitzpatrick and Vid Ingelevics's photographic investigation of the geographical dispersement of its fragments is a form of witness to the history of the wall after it fell. Featuring over one hundred photographs, intercut with powerful contextual writings by artists, scholars, and curators (including people involved in souvenir production and sale), this unique work raises compelling questions about the shifting meaning of Berlin Wall artifacts – essentially banal pieces of concrete – in light of their physical relocation and shifts in geopolitical power.
Contributing to our understanding of material history, public commemoration, border politics, and documentary studies, The Mobile Ruin explores the ongoing resonance of the wall and the new life it takes on in a series of unexpected international locations.

Blake Fitzpatrick is professor in the School of Image Arts, Toronto Metropolitan University, and co-editor of Place Matters: Critical Topographies in Word and Image.
Vid Ingelevics is professor emeritus, School of Image Arts, Toronto Metropolitan University, and a visual artist, writer, and independent curator.