Berlin Diary Catalog - Fine-Art.com

Ron Rocco
The Berlin Project 1991
Künstlerhaus Bethanien
Berlin

THE BERLIN PROJECT
During my first visit to Berlin in the winter of 1974 the enmity during the passage from west to east made the city seem
remote. Up till that time I had not seen anything like the autobahn checkpoint just outside Helmstedt. Once they were
discerned, the fortifications in the distance suddenly changed the entire landscape. West Berlin became an imprisoned
city, an aspiration shrouded within a fabric of steel fencing and watchtowers. The layered chain-link barricades, the
border guards and the barbed wire were all the paradigm of intimidation. My encounter, at that time, with armed East
German border police and their dogs, at the roadside, reinforced this sense of conflict. Isolated from the western world,
Berlin was surrounded by a more inhospitable environment than the frontiers of Hungary or Rumania, which made its
detachment even greater.
West Berlin of the Cold War years was an enchanted land as it was adrift on the map of Central Europe. Carl Jung once
pointed out that Berlin was a city where the schizophrenia of modern man had manifest itself. Its reality could be
understood as a symptom of humanity's collective illness brought on by the unresolved tension of opposing world
concepts and visions. For the westerner and easterner alike it was a city at the world's edge. This metropolis with a
gaping cavity, was the place where maps said no detail existed. West Berlin to me, as a New Yorker, was a gem of
radiant energy, an urban centre unlike any other in Europe. It was a paradise for the unconventional, a haven for young
people who didn't mind dancing on the fault-line between two ideologies.
Coming to Berlin today, seventeen years later is to witness a rebirth. The dark cloud has now receded from the city and
the scars of the past fifty years will soon be unrecognizable. It is strange to think that less than two years ago in the high
grasses of East Germany stood the Red Army. The battery of armaments, like the phantom wall, are now gone. My
greatest joy here, during this trip, has been to meet the East German people. What we share is that we are both striving
to learn of each other. These people are an important part of Germany's future. Both, easterner and westerner must strip
away the enigma of Cold War categorizations to reach each other. It is auspicious that a fair portion of the
misinformation, which kept both peoples apart, can be found today at the city's dumps.

Ron Rocco
Berlin, October 1991
Hopefully, there will always remain some portion of the treasure of history, which can be found in Berlin today. Not that
history found in museums, but the chronicle found on the streets. One can find it walking the salvage yards behind
Gleisdreieck. At that place, history is manifest in the steel rails of the Anhalter Bahnhof, largest train station in Europe at
the turn of this century, now rusting away within a forest of white pine trees fifty years old. You don't have to stray for
from Berlin Mitte to see the violence that was visited upon this city written on the face of the buildings. Then also, there is
the violence of Fascism remembered at the massive Soviet Memorial at Treptow and confirmed with the prison buildings
at Plötzensee where thousands of Germans of conscience and others, met death during the reign of the Third Reich.
Unquestionably, Berlin will grow to become one of the major capitals of the world, once again. With that rebirth will come
all the problems of other great European cities. It is important that Berliners not lose contact with their past. Berlin should
be kept from becoming a place that is inhospitable for those who attended to the city in its years of division. There must
always be a place for them.
My project for this city aims to chronicle the changing reality of Berlin today. It is very different from other projects I have
undertaken in the past. Undeniably, the scale and weight of socialist realism, found in the eastern parts of the city have
influenced me. For me it has also been essential to utilize pedestrian colors and forms taken from the city's transit
systems. The works I have created employ imagery selected from the streets of the city with occasional visual reference
to historical material. These new works reflect my hope for a new Berlin constructed on a foundation of mutual concern
and understanding. My optimism is born of the freedom of passage that we share today.

Michael Haerdter
Berlin, October 1991
Ron Rocco is an artist who crosses borders. His work in sculpture, installation, performance and the electronic media of
video and laser reveal that he is an intent searcher. In each of his works he tries to expand the borders of our
visualization of the world into the realm of uncertainty. Ron Rocco's works are sensitive formulations of border situations
and convergence - between nature and technology, heaven and earth, light and sound, Buddha and Einstein...
The Berlin Project represents, if I am not mistaken, a new dimension in the artist's oeuvre. Berlin, a city on the border
between two worlds, seems to have awakened Ron Rocco's passion for the human being and the sensitive equilibrium of
human existence. In 1974 the New York artist visited the torn and threatened city for the first time and was deeply moved
by the extreme division of the world between east and west, between two ideologies and mentalities. He experienced the
city as a symptom of "the schizophrenia of modern man" and the "collective illness of humanity". Seventeen years later
he has returned to Berlin as a guest of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien to witness the rebirth of the city. But the city's wounds
are slow in healing, the signs of violence and the self-destructive energy of mankind, the ambivalence between
destruction and renewal, between life and death can be read like an open book, today and for many years to come.
Ron Rocco's Berlin project is the compression of the conflicting feelings of the artist into several remarkable objects. The
main work is a five sectioned wall object: the individual elements, in quasi allegorical form, range from an image of Berlin
as besieged prison to a woman's womb as a symbol of new life, to the two-sided conflicting nature of the power of
money. The artist installed this vision in the raw fragment of a window. This is a snapshot of Berlin's history, which has
been set into motion again and which Ron Rocco presents to us as temporary and ephemeral impressions viewed from
the critical distance of a fascinated observer.
We have realized this project in cooperation with the Amerika Haus Berlin. We thank our colleagues for their friendly
cooperation.

Lampposts along the east/west border - Treptow
1 HAVEN
Photograph, steel truck window, wood, fiberglass, light
130 x 90 x 20cm
Berlin 1991
Power Tool shop - Potsdammer Street, Berlin
2 UNTITLED
Photo-etched copper plate, steel, light
95 x 31 x 13cm
Berlin 1991
Bus windows - Hermannplatz
Railroad tracks - Gleisdreieck
ILLUSTRATIONS
3 THE BERLIN PROJECT
Photo-etched copper and aluminum plates, steel, Plexiglas, photograph, acrylic paint, light.
600 x 94 x 4 cm
Berlin 1991
Memorial to the victims of the Third Reich - Plötzensee
4 THE SCAR
Steel, photo-etched aluminum, Plexiglas, beaten lead, candle, drawing.
230 x 94 x 4cm
Berlin 1991
Damaged walls - Berlin Mitte
5 POWER OF MONEY
Photo-etched aluminum plate, steel, green neon light.
128 x l00 x 90cm
Berlin 1991
Rooftop structures - Kreuzberg

BIOGRAPHIE, BIOGRAPHY
born 1953 in Fort Hood, Texas
HONORS AND AWARDS
1989 The Netherland America Foundation, under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet.
The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts.
Art Matters Foundation.
New York Foundation for the Arts, Award in
Sculpture.
1985 New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist
Program: Sponsored Projects.
1984 National Endowment for the Arts, Interdisciplinary
Arts Program.
1982 New York State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist
Program: Sponsored Projects.
1977/79 National Endowment for the Arts, Expansion Arts Program: Festival Ithaca Projects.
1977 The Creative and Performing Arts Council of Cornell University, Award in Sculpture.
1976 The Sculpture Award of the Ithaca Art Association.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES
1991 Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany, The Berlin Project.
Galerie Rudolph Schoen, Berlin, Germany, Sculpture.
Amerika Haus, Berlin, Germany, The Berlin Project.
1989 Foundation Artgarden, Amsterdam, Netherlands,
Sculpture: The Waterline Project.
1983 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, N.Y., N.Y.,
Performance: Zaroff's Tale.
1979 Galerie Danielli, Toronto, Canada, Ron Rocco: New Sculpture.
1976 Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, N.Y., Models For Large Sculpture.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES
1991 Fundacao Democrito Rocha, Fortaleza, Brazil, 2nd
Exposica Internacianal de Esculturas Efemeras.
1990 The Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, N.Y., The Technological Muse.
The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, N.Y., Installation: The Horizon is Nothing More than the Limit of Our Sight.
1989 The University Art Gallery, S.U.N.Y. at Albany, N.Y.
NYFA, Fellows: Sculpture.
The Experimental Glass Workshop, N.Y., N.Y.
Artists use Artists: Sculpture.

1987 The Brooklyn Art and Cultural Assoc., Brooklyn, N.Y.,
Installation: A Warning to My Friends.
The Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ. INTERFACE: Art and Technology.
P.S.1 lnstitute for Art and Urban Resources, N.Y., N.Y., Sculpture: Special Projects.
1987 The Banff Center, Alberta, Canada, Installation for the Visualization of Sound.
1986 CAD/CAM International Exhibition of Computer Art-Forms, Kortijk, Belgium, Time Studies for Modern Dance.
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, N.Y., N.Y., The Visualization of Sound: Light Sphere with The Harmonic Chair.
1986 The Grammage Theatre, Tempe, AZ. and The Atlanta
Arts Festival, Atlanta, GA., Buddha Meets Einstein at the Great Wall.
1985 The Asia Society, N.Y., N.Y., Buddha Meets Einstein at the Great Wall.
The Urban Light Group at Limelight, N.Y., N.Y., Installation: Andro-media 2.
The Video Image Invitational, Foundation Georgia Ranchi, Capri, Italy, Time Studies for Modern Dance.
The Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, N.Y., The Artist and the Computer.
1983 United Nations, N.Y., N.Y., Performance: A String Form for Binding Nations.
Center for Advanced Visual Study at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA., Installation: Andro-media 1.
1981 Des Refuses Galley at Westbeth, N.Y., N.Y., Monumental Proposals from the Monumental Show.
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, N.Y., Performance: Laser Sculpture /Dance.
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y., Performance: Zaroff'sTale.
1980 Art Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Sculpture presented by Galerie Danielli.
1979 Biennale IV Internazionale Dantesca, Ravenna, Italy, Sculpture: Malecoda.
1978 Middendorf /Lane Gallery, Washington, D.C., Selected Sculptures.
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Ithaca, N.Y., Meketra Installation.
1975 The Roy R. Neuberger Museum, Purchase, N.Y., Untitled Installation.
EDUCATION
1983 Center for Advanced Visual Study at
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Master of Science in Visual Studies Candidate.
1976 State University of New York, College at Purchase, N.Y.
Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree.
1972 Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y. Bachelor of Science Candidate.

APPOINTMENTS AND ASSOCIATIONS
1991 Resident Artist, The International Studio Program at
Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany.
1990/77 Guest Lecturer, S.U.N.Y. at Albany, N.Y.
Guest Lecturer, Harvard University /School of Architecture, Cambridge, MA.
Guest Lecturer, Columbia University /School of Art
History, N.Y., N.Y.
Guest Lecturer, Cornell University 'Watermargin
Series', Ithaca, N.Y.
1990/82 Resident Video Artist, The Experimental T.V. Center,
Owego, N.Y.
1987 Resident Artist, The Banff Center, Alberta, Canada.
1979/77 Founder-Director, The Ithaca Artist's Cooperative,
Ithaca, N.Y.

Publisher Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
Director Dr. Michael Haerdter
The publication "The Berlin Project 1991" was published on the occasion of the same named exhibition of Ron Rocco
(October 18 until November 3, 1991) within the International Studio Program of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien.
The Amerika Haus Berlin will be exhibiting works of this cycle from December 1991 until January 1992.
Thanks to Lucie Schauer of NBK Neuer Berliner Künstverein, and to the Druckwerkstatt des BBK.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support given by the Amerika Haus, Berlin, and the ‘Künstlerhaus Bethanien e.V. - Förderverein'.
Edited by: Heike Dander, Monika Stolina
Texts: Michael Haerdter, Ron Rocco
Translations: Thornton Jacobs
Photos: David Brandt and Peter Fischer (color),
Ron Rocco (black/white)
Setting: Satzort, Berlin
Lithographs and Printing: Ruksaldruck, Berlin
© by Künstlerhaus Bethanien and Ron Rocco, Berlin 1991
ISBN 3-923479-58-1