Love From Berlin
Cast gold pin; 2009
In 2007 I visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. Walking through the field I found myself concentrating on the surfaces of the concrete blocks, because the presence of other visitors distracted and annoyed me.
Many of the blocks were cracked or pitted. I found a small heart-shaped flaw in one of the blocks and took a photograph of the hole using my phone. In retrospect, I wished I had something with me to take an impression of the hole.
Two years later I returned to Berlin and retraced my steps through the memorial to find the heart-shaped hole. I hadn’t recorded which of the 2711 concrete blocks it was on, but I did know which direction the surface was facing and that the block was much taller than me. It was more than an hour before I found it, and this time I took an impression. I also calculated where the block was within the field as a whole.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was deliberately designed without symbolism, but a cast gold heart-shaped pin is now my souvenir; an object in remembrance of a place, which exists as a place of remembrance.