Walls - Ways - and Wandlungen - Artist Talk

Discover the artworks of Gabriel Heimler & Anna Proc in an upcoming artist talk at the Goethe-Institut. The couple will engage in an insightful conversation with German journalist Alexandra Falk, with a special focus on Gabriel Heimler's artwork "Mauerspringer" at the East Side Gallery in Berlin and their newest book "Metamorphosis in the land of birds".

Places change us and sometimes those changes can be quite big. When the Berlin Wall came down in Germany in 1989, Gabriel Heimler was a young artist in his early twenties. He was invited to become one of the 118 artists from 21 countries that turned a piece of the concrete wall into an artwork that became one of the most iconic pieces of a unique open-air art gallery in Berlin - the East Side Gallery. Gabriel understood that putting artwork on the former Berlin Wall that divided East and West was a historic moment and he had a vision. He wanted to know what it felt like for the people who had lived in a divided country for so long.  He asked them for their dreams and they said: We always wanted to jump over this wall. His artwork "Mauerspringer" (The Wall Jumper") therefore addresses the possibility of overcoming borders. It shows a man jumping across the Berlin Wall from West to East Berlin. 

In 2010, Gabriel Heimler and his partner Anna Proc moved to Wellington and their art has enhanced the city's face ever since. They became best known for their mural "The Mover" on the wall of the Quality Hotel nearby Te Papa. Here in Aotearoa, the stories of the people and creatures of the land are having a huge impact on their creative work. 

In Heimler and Proc´s latest book "Metamorphosis in the land of birds", their own European history gets mixed with the past of New Zealand and finds expression in boldly coloured paintings that offer the artists view on nature and culture in a dialogue they created together. Places change us, and Aotearoa changed Gabriel Heimler and Anna Proc. This change, this metamorphosis or "Wandlung" - as the Germans would say - is worth a deeper look.

GABRIEL HEIMLER
Gabriel Heimler studied art in Paris before moving to Berlin. He is noted for thought-provoking paintings that feature social and historical themes. Heimler's art has been sold through Sotheby’s in New York, as well as by galleries in Berlin, Paris, Frankfurt and Brussels, among others. His ‘Wall Jumper’ is one of the most visited historical monuments in Berlin, a part of the East Side Gallery.

ANNA PROC
Anna Proc has a background in cultural history and linguistics. She began her art career working with Gabriel Heimler first conceptually for the Art Express, a travelling exhibition, that was shown in Berlin, Budapest and Essen, then, as painter, she worked with Gabriel on restoring his mural’ The Wall Jumper’.  In 2010 they relocated to Wellington.

ALEXANDRA FALK
Alexandra Falk is a Christchurch/Ōtautahi based freelance journalist who predominantly works for different German media outlets. In 2016 she moved to Aotearoa from Leipzig. Alexandra was born in a country that no longer exists - the German Democratic Republic. She experienced the fall of the Berlin wall 1989 as a young school kid. Now, as an adult, she doesn't get tired of educating others on this important moment in world history.