Maarten Vanden Eynde

Preservation of the Berlin Wall [postcard back] (2007), Studio view, 2007 (photo: Maarten Vanden Eynde)

Preservation of the Berlin Wall [postcard back] (2007), Studio view, 2007 (photo: Maarten Vanden Eynde)

In 2007 an exhibition entitled [2007] Turn to Stone was held in the Museo Mineralogico Campano in Vico Equense, near Naples, Italy. Vanden Eynde sent the museum a postcard in which a small plastic box containing a fragment of the Berlin Wall was embedded. The stone was donated with the proviso that it should be included in the permanent collection, synecdochically preserving the Berlin Wall. This was agreed and now the postcard and fragment of wall are on display, surrounded by other mineral stones in the museum’s collection.

This small stone contains the story of the whole wall and preserves an important part of human history. Like a future Rosetta Stone it tells of the Second World War, the Cold War, Communism, and all the personal stories that are attached to, projected on and connected with the Berlin Wall.