Potsdamer Platz & Tiergarten - Berlin - page 244

DAIMLERCITY PUBLIC SCULPTURE TOUR
DaimlerCity is not only a postmodern urban landscape but also an exquisite outdoor
gallery. Large-scale abstract sculptures by blue-chip artists like Keith Haring and
Robert Rauschenberg explore the relationship between art and urban space and inject
much-needed visual appeal into what would otherwise be a fairly austere environ-
ment.
A self-guided tour might start with Haring's Boxers ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ) , which
shows two cut-steel stick figures - one blue, one red - seemingly punching each other
out. Or are they embracing each other? You decide, then walk south to ponder Frank
Stella's otherworldly Prince Frederick Arthur of Homburg, General of Cav ( MAP
GOOGLE MAP ; Marlene-Dietrich-Platz; 200, Potsdamer Platz, Potsdamer Platz) . Made of
white-silver aluminium, carbon and fibreglass, it explores the relationships of space,
colour and form in a three-dimensional setting. Just beyond, in the middle of a pond,
is Mark Di Suvero's Galileo ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; 200, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Platz, Pots-
damer Platz, Potsdamer Platz) , an abstract jumble of rusted steel T-beams assembled in-
to a gravity-defying sculpture.
You need to crane your neck to spot Auke de Vries's Gelandet ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ;
Schellingstrasse; 24hr; 200, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Platz, Potsdamer Platz, Potsdamer Platz)
teetering on the edge of the roof of the DaimlerServices building (look for the square
tower with the green top). North of here, Robert Rauschenberg's Riding Bikes ( MAP
GOOGLE MAP ; Fontaneplatz; 24hr; M41, 200, Potsdamer Platz, Potsdamer Platz) consists
of two recycled bicycles illuminated by multicoloured neon tubes. It's an excellent ex-
ample of his approach to turning reality into art while creating as little wastage as pos-
sible.
Local Life
Saunter Around Schöneberg
Schöneberg flaunts a mellow middle-class identity but has a radical pedi-
gree rooted in the squatter days of the '80s. Stroll from bourgeois
Viktoria-Luise-Platz through Berlin's original gay quarter and along