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"Good fences make good neighbors"-so goes the proverb. But what makes a good fence? Certainly not one that prevents neighbors from being seen in the first place. Indeed, such divisive barriers create enemies. Peace starts where walls fall, not where they are erected. The Berlin Wall is the best proof of that, says Kai Wiedenhöfer, who witnessed its fall first hand. Wiedenhöfer has photographed separation barriers throughout the world, from Berlin in 1989, to Belfast, Mexico, Ceuta and Melilla, Baghdad-and frequently in Israel, to document the walls with which the country has so comprehensively surrounded itself: at the borders to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Egypt and Lebanon. Between 2003 and 2018 he made ten journeys to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to photograph the fences, walls and checkpoints which the Israeli government is still building. Wiedenhöfer has documented the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over three decades now. His new photos show that the hope of lasting peace in the region is becoming ever more unrealistic in our time. For a wall is a paradox: it intensifies the very violence it seeks to keep in check, and thereby makes further surveillance and fortifications necessary.
About the author
Born in 1966, Kai Wiedenhöfer studied photography at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and Arabic in Damascus. He is the recipient of the Leica Medal of Excellence, numerous World Press Photo Awards, the Eugene Smith Grant and the Carmignac Gestion Award. Wiedenhöfer’s books with Steidl include The Book of Destruction (2010), published for an exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne Paris; and Confrontier (2013), documenting separation walls and displayed in “WALLonWALL” on the Berlin Wall. In 2016 this exhibition was succeeded by “WARonWALL,” depicting the war in Syria. In 2016 Wiedenhöfer received the Carl von Ossietzky Medal from the International Human Rights League.
