land in between showcases the works created in 2025 as part of the state scholarship program sponsored by the Thuringia Cultural Foundation and SVSparkassenversicherung. The former inner-German border strip is a complex place: on the one hand, it is Germany’s longest contiguous nature reserve, home to many rare and, in some cases, endangered species; on the other hand, it is marked by recent German history. Here, many relics of the former border can still be found, some of which have already been reclaimed by nature and overgrown. Paintings, videos, photographs, and sewn objects have emerged from the exploration of this once highly secured stretch of land.
Along the former inner-German border, remnants of the border fortifications can still be found, some of them overgrown by nature. These relics have an eerie and alien feel to them and continue to shape the landscape and its atmosphere even after nearly four decades.
The series features butterflies and moths painted on canvas and appliquéd onto brightly colored faux fur, which have found a refuge in the former border zone, which is now a nature reserve. The vivid colors serve as a reminder of the danger they face, as they are all endangered or threatened with extinction.
Along the remains of the former inner-German border fence, white balloons can be seen rising from the forest floor, attached to strings and swaying in the wind.They seem to stretch endlessly into the depths of the forest. Installed in the Harz Mountains on German Unity Day, they serve as a symbol of the Peaceful Revolution that led to German reunification.
The video was filmed using a point-of-view (POV) camera attached to a search and rescue dog. It depicts the search for a person hiding in the forest. The film was shot along the former inner-German border near Görsdorf and highlights the difficulty of hiding as a human being within a totalitarian system.
In the former GDR, villages located too close to the border fence were demolished, and their residents were forcibly relocated. Leitenhausen is one such village, and this video serves as a memorial to it. The video features drone footage with animated white areas showing the outlines of the former houses, accompanied by a voiceover narrating the personal story of a man who lived in the village as a child.
After the end of the division of Germany, the border fence was dismantled and reused in various ways by residents of the former border region in their private lives. This pragmatic approach has resulted in structures such as fences around compost piles, chicken coops, and tree guards, as well as entire properties that have been enclosed with the fence.
