Uncomfortable Monument: Art Fills Former Spy Station in Berlin

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http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/former-nsa-spy-station-at-teufelsberg-filled-with-art-in-berlin-a-920875.html



With the NSA spying scandal fresh in everyone's minds, the US agency's former Cold War installation in Berlin has been taken over for an art show. The work deals with espionage both past and present.

Uncomfortable Monument: Art Fills Former Spy Station in Berlin
By Joel Stonington
September 06, 2013 – 05:57 PM

Berlin's most famous spy station, a National Security Agency complex built on the rubble from World War II, is being filled with art for a weekend show that starts on Friday. The former NSA listening station, abandoned for years, has been transformed from a moldering junkyard to giant art show, and just in time to contribute to the debate on recent revelations about the US agency's widespread spying around the world.

A day ahead of the opening, artist Dirk Krechting was sweating as he pulled a bucket full of water up four floors on a rope. He was putting the finishing touches on what he calls a simple and cliché statement about spying and warfare. The piece, a bathtub filled with bright red water and a small satellite dish perched above, literally looks like a bloodbath. It's located directly in the middle of a gigantic radar ball that used to be part of the listening station.

"I tried to be aggressive and show the uselessness of this installation, the uselessness of spying," said Krechting, 44, a Dutchman who splits his time between Amsterdam and Berlin.

Spying and the NSA scandal have become a major political issue during a German election year, and the art show addresses the revelations directly. With more than 70 artists involved, works include everything from video installations to robot-like sculptures made from material found at the derelict NSA site.