Reflections, Ripples or Streams

The Water In Spree

Lisa Rosenmeier has created a picturesque photo series of the water in the Spree. She has followed the river from Oberbaum Bridge to Schillingstraße and from Marschall Bridge to Invalidenfriedhoff, that is the places where the wall that separated East from West in the years 1961-1989 ran parallel with the river.

The water of the Spree resembles the water in all other rivers. It changes its appearance and character according to the light, the wind, the temperature. In some places it looks fairly light, in others it seems deeper, darker. On the surface there may be small ripples, while there are stronger currents below. The water in the Spree is constantly renewed; new water molecules come, but nevertheless the water in the Spree retains the same identity for us as it has done for the people who went before us.  The Spree moves through different epochs and political realities. The water in the Spree is just ordinary river water.  But it is also water that runs along a line that once separated East from West. Water that was allowed to pass by where humans were not allowed to pass. Where people tried to cross from East to West. Some succeeded, others didn’t. Today homeless persons and refugees live in a noman’s land between the bank of the river and the remains of the wall.

Water that it is dangerous to cross is now to be found elsewhere.

The pictures are printed on aluminium and laminated with a shiny plastic that further reflects the space in which the viewer is standing. The pictures vary in size: the smallest are 90x135cm; the largest are up to 200x300cm.