Pasewalk Police Phoenix

The multinational project Pasewalk Police Phoenix by the Swiss Canadian installation artist Ernest Daetwyler transforms World War II rubble, fragments of violence into a contemporary artwork.

Since June 2009, the artist and his team from Berlin, comprised of students of Berlin universities and Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder unearthed, cleaned and transported thirty tons of rubble and remnants of World War II in Pasewalk, Germany and Police, Poland. On a twenty-two ton concrete foundation and a steel substructure, the “Truemmer team” created in a labour-intensive process a sphere of five-and-a-half meters of concrete, bricks, porcelaine and glass shards, weapons and steel fragments.

The context of this project relates to the history of the partner cities Pasewalk, on the german and Police on the polish side of Pommern. We find hardly a generation without conflict and wars of the ruling families of Brandenburg and Pommern and later invasions by german, polish, Swedish, Danish, bayrish, French and Russian armies. Sometimes armies without leadership brought hunger, cruelty, death and devastation.

In October 1918, shortly before the end of the First World War, a sulfur mustard attack led to a temporary blindness of Hitler. Germany surrendered while he recovered in a military hospital in Pasewalk. Various sources, including “The role of produced reality in the decision-making process which led to the Holocaust” by Stig Hornshoj-Muller, clarify that in this stage he has been analyzed as a psychopath and forged plans which later led to the World War II. and the genocide of Jews and dissidents during this sojourn. In Poelitz, a concentration camp and several labor camps have been positioned with thousands of prisoners employed in hydrogenation plants for the production of synthetic gasoline. As of 1940, Police has been exposed several times to air attacks by the allied forces and just before the end of the war, bombed, conquered and occupied by Russian artillery. The German town Poelitz became the polish town Police. Pasewalk was destroyed one more time in his history in a Russian air attack, as before in 1657 by the Poles and in 1713 by the Russians.

Today, sixty-four years later, the cities of Pasewalk and Police are parts of a new Europe, facing the challenges of a new capital-oriented and globalized society. While the population of Police has grown continuously over the years as a result of the harbor and the biggest chemical plant in Poland, investigations show that many residents of Pasewalk move away in search for better conditions. The region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is plagued by the highest unemployment rate in Germany with related subsequent social problems as lack of prospects, addictive behavior and a growing right-wing nationalist movement. A large proportion of youth is divided into autonomous or neo-Nazis, and the disposition for violence remains high.

This context, the presence of 15,000 m3 of debris of war, eighty-five percent of the destroyed city of Pasewalk from World War II and the ruins of the destroyed hydrogenation plants in Police inspired this project.

The concept of the Pasewalk Police Phoenix is to recover the wreckage of war on the German and the polish side of Pommern and incorporate them in a new contemporary installation. A large walk-in sphere is formed in Leninhain Park in Pasewalk, which will make these witnesses of the past accessible to us.

The project Pasewalk Police Phoenix uses fragments of war and violence to create a contemporary, large sculpture with a silent, strong presence.

The artist acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Ottawa, Canada; Pro Helvetia, Bern, Switzerland; Ontario Arts Council, Toronto, Canada; Swiss Consulate, Toronto; Swiss Embassy, Berlin; Canadian Embassy, Berlin; the Representation of the state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Berlin; Schloss Bröllin; Skarb (Pölitz hydrogenation plants) and the cities Pasewalk and Police.

Agenda Kunst/Kultur Pasewalk, Ahlswede Ingenieurbuero, Bahrmann GmbH Betonwaren, Bau GmbH Nagel, BauBeCon Sanierungsträger Pasewalk, Bredlow GmbH Strassen- und Tiefbau, Gut Borken, Dr. Brechlin, Edeka Pasewalk, Europaschule Arnold Zweig, Jatznicker Bauschuttdienste GmbH, Joachim Manger, Oskar Picht Gymnasium Pasewalk, Museum Pasewalk, Rainer Wick, Remmers Deutschland, Schlossbergschule Pasewalk, Sparkasse Uecker-Randow, Strassen- und Tiefbaugesellschaft Ernst Röwer GmbH, Technisches Hilfswerk Pasewalk, TEN-PEN-CHii Art Labor, Willhagen & Görs Holz- und Baustoffhandel Wecknitz, Wohnbaugenossenschaft Pasewalk EV.

And the Pasewalk Police Phoenix team:

Adriana August, Amanda York, Anna Muschert, Annabell Pauutz, Anna-Kathrin Lübben, Annika Gräfenhain, Baptiste Aguila, Benedikt Boll, Christopher Robotham, Dana Daetwyler, Dominik Boll, Dorota Tolloczko-Femerling, Dorothea Herlemann, Ed Hancox, Ewelina Benbenek, Fabian Meysel, Felix Pinto, Florian Huber, Gabriele Hertweck, Hannah Kehrer, Ildiko Szabo, Ilze Rimicane, Janni Elsaesser, Jesus Soberon, Joab Nist, Joachim Manger, Karoline Mueller, Livia Wersin, Kathrin Schneeberger, Katja Möhl, Kolja Hubert, Matthias Menz, Matthias Meyer, Mireille Ineichen, Nadine Raasch, Nara Silva das Virgens Merlitz, Nepomuk Reinhard, Patrick Wagner, Ping Qiu, Rabea Rugenstein, Ruby Riad, Seinab Bahsung, Stephan Pfaff, Sadu Alqalkili, Theresa Mischke, Viktor Riad, Veronika Hilmer und Zine Lackner.