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Weekend Tips: What to Do This Weekend in Berlin
June 26 to 28, 2026: Events, festivals, exhibitions and more things to do for your perfect weekend in Berlin. more
John Miller: „Public Art and The Law of Unintended Consequences“. Invited by Elisa R. Linn as part of „Public Afterlife“
(in English)
Public Afterlife
On the site of Mies van der Rohe's November Revolution Monument, erected in 1926 and destroyed nine years later by the Nazi regime, curator and scholar Elisa R. Linn invites artist Ariane Müller to speak about her work Monument für Schröderstrasse (2005) and artist John Miller to present his lecture Public Art and The Law of Unintended Consequences. Drawing on her research on counter-public spheres in the GDR and in the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Linn introduces both artists’ presentations with a reading on Sybille Bergemann’s Das Denkmal (The Monument, 1975–1986) as well as Das Gespenst verlässt Europa (The Ghost Leaves Europe, 1990) by late Heiner Müller and Sibylle Bergemann. In the following conversations, Linn and the artists discuss which political histories persist through the presence and absence of a monument, and how art reshapes the public sphere in this context.
Public Art and The Law of Unintended Consequences
John Miller presents his lecture Public Art and the Law of Unintended Consequences, exploring public space as something contested rather than given. Tracing the unforeseen repercussions that emerge when artworks are confronted with everyday urban life, he examines how they take on lives of their own: becoming monuments, controversies, myths, or sites of collective memory, while acquiring commemorative, symbolic, and historical functions. Here, Miller considers how their meanings and effects can exceed, distort, or even contradict their creators’ intentions. What remains of public artworks after their political, material, or symbolic disappearance? And how do they continue to resonate through memory, loss, and historical change?
Free of charge. Registration is requested at info(at)miesvanderrohehaus.de.
On the site of Mies van der Rohe's November Revolution Monument, erected in 1926 and destroyed nine years later by the Nazi regime, curator and scholar Elisa R. Linn invites artist Ariane Müller to speak about her work Monument für Schröderstrasse (2005) and artist John Miller to present his lecture Public Art and The Law of Unintended Consequences. Drawing on her research on counter-public spheres in the GDR and in the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Linn introduces both artists’ presentations with a reading on Sybille Bergemann’s Das Denkmal (The Monument, 1975–1986) as well as Das Gespenst verlässt Europa (The Ghost Leaves Europe, 1990) by late Heiner Müller and Sibylle Bergemann. In the following conversations, Linn and the artists discuss which political histories persist through the presence and absence of a monument, and how art reshapes the public sphere in this context.
Public Art and The Law of Unintended Consequences
John Miller presents his lecture Public Art and the Law of Unintended Consequences, exploring public space as something contested rather than given. Tracing the unforeseen repercussions that emerge when artworks are confronted with everyday urban life, he examines how they take on lives of their own: becoming monuments, controversies, myths, or sites of collective memory, while acquiring commemorative, symbolic, and historical functions. Here, Miller considers how their meanings and effects can exceed, distort, or even contradict their creators’ intentions. What remains of public artworks after their political, material, or symbolic disappearance? And how do they continue to resonate through memory, loss, and historical change?
Free of charge. Registration is requested at info(at)miesvanderrohehaus.de.
Meeting point: Main entrance at Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery, Gudrunstraße 20, 10365 Berlin.
Booking: Free of charge. Registration is requested at info(at)miesvanderrohehaus.de.
Booking: Free of charge. Registration is requested at info(at)miesvanderrohehaus.de.
Next date:
Public transportation
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Bus
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Konrad-Wolf-Str./Gärtnerstr.
- 256
- 294
- N56
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Große-Leege-Str./Bahnhofstr.
- 256
- N56
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Konrad-Wolf-Str./Gärtnerstr.
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Tram
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Am Faulen See
- 27
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Orankestrand
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Degnerstr./Suermondtstr.
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Oberseestr.
- 18
- M5
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Berlin, Freienwalder Str.
- 18
- M5
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Am Faulen See
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