Berlin Fassaden

This publication accompanies the first comprehensive presentation of Asta Gröting's project BERLIN FASSADEN. For her exhibition at KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, Gröting covered the walls and floors with sculptural silicone impressions of Berlin facades containing traces of bullet holes from the Second World War. Functioning like slow-exposure photographs, the sculptures capture the history of the facades, from the bullet's impact during the war to the present day. Gröting reconstructs wounds as architectural traces and translates them into abstract pictures. Dust, dirt, and even graffiti are applied to the silicon casts, giving the negative imprints an almost painted effect, embodying trauma and time in a ghostly silicone skin. As Groting writes, “I want to look from inside these destroyed walls and facades into the world—as if I could see my own face staring back at me.”
This exhibition catalogue, conceived with the artist, focuses on the making of BERLIN FASSADEN by presenting the artist's original photographs of Berlin's bullet-ridden facades alongside images depicting the on-site making of the silicon casts. The precise section of the facade is revealed and catalogued with its corresponding location, dimensions, and date. An accompanying essay by writer Deborah Levy explores the inner voice of the holes, scars, and histories transcribed on the architectural surfaces of buildings in Berlin.