Memoria Urbana Berlin

A walk-in steel sculpture by Spanish artist Juan Garaizabal on Bethlehemkirchplatz, sketching the outline of the lost Bohemian Bethlehem Church into the Berlin sky at original scale. The 1737 church was built by Protestant Bohemian exiles welcomed to Berlin by King Friedrich Wilhelm I in 1732; an air raid in 1943 destroyed what remained. Garaizabal installed the delicate white-steel line drawing in 2012, positioned exactly above the floor mosaic that marks the historical footprint. From a distance the piece reads like a pencil sketch in mid-air; up close it dissolves into individual struts. The square used to be a forgotten traffic island between Friedrichstrasse and Mauerstrasse; now people stop.