The one-day exhibition in the former GDR watchtower marks the public conclusion of this year’s four one-day residencies in the ONE DAY AT THE WATCH series, which has been a staple of The Watch’s program for the past three years. The invited artists—Franziska Harnisch, Kevin Rittberger, Tetsuhiro Uozumi, Benjamin Busch, and Kiyomi Uozumi—engage intensively with the history, materiality, and current use of the tower. The condensed timeframe sharpens the focus on the site and enables immediate, site-specific responses within the tower, as well as opening up new perspectives on themes the artists have been exploring for some time.

The exhibition makes research processes, interventions, and the temporary use of the site visible. The tower serves simultaneously as the subject of artistic inquiry, a workspace, and a public space. Artistic practice and heritage preservation intertwine here, enabling the site’s preservation as a project space and memorial since 1990.

Accompanying discussions offer visitors insights into the respective working processes and invite exchange on artistic practice, memory, transformation, and the contemporary use of historical architecture. The event is conceived as a public space for dialogue that transforms a former site of surveillance into an open space for contemporary discourse and highlights artistic research as a contribution to Berlin’s vibrant culture of remembrance.

The Watch

As a relic of the GDR border apparatus from the era of the city’s division, the former GDR watchtower at Schlesischer Busch has, since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989/1990, looked back on a long tradition of cultural and artistic production. Under the stewardship of the Flutgraben e.V. association since 2004, the building has already hosted numerous exhibitions, lectures, film screenings, and artist residencies.

In recent years, the building has evolved from a purely productive space into a place of reflection: artists, writers, choreographers, and other thinkers have been invited to spend time in and around the tower. They engage with the nature of the building, its history, its future, and its current position within Berlin’s cultural and political fabric. More than a relic of the Cold War, the tower is a site for the contradictory narratives of the past 37 years. The Watch invites cultural practitioners to take the time to observe the tower, reflect on it, and inhabit it, embracing its passivity and enduring it. The Watch consists of a group of artists and cultural practitioners who participate on a volunteer basis.

Founded: 2004