www.youtube.com/watch

 

 

 

PROJECT: „life flag - news from everywhere“
YEAR: October 2010
OCCASION: Berlin / Year of Science 2010
Location: Berlin

OPENING: 8 October 2010, 9pm in the Robert Koch Forum, Dorotheenstr. 96 
(subway and S-Bahn stop Friedrichstraße)
World premiere of the hymn: “HYMNUS OCEANOBACILLUS PULVIRENATUS”, Composition by Ari Benjamin Meyers (performed by the Humboldt's Philharmonic Chorus Berlin, conducted by Prof. Constantin Alex)

The Life Flag was displayed 7 – 14 October in and in front of 80 embassies in Berlin.

EXHIBITION in the Robert Koch Forum, Dorotheenstr. 96, Berlin-Mitte 
(subway and S-Bahn stop Friedrichstraße) 9 – 22 October 2010. 
Daily 3pm – 8pm, Thursday 3pm – 10pm

LIVE MEDIA PERFORMANCE Schlossplatz, Berlin-Mitte. 7 – 10 October 2010 at night

See some pictures of the flag-hoisting: 

Afghanistan, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark (Nordic Embassies), Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Finland (Nordic Embassies), France, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland (Nordic Embassies), Israel, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kosovo, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Lichtenstein, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldavia, Mozambique, Montenegro, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norvey (Nordic Embassies), Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, El-Salvador, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Somalia, Spain, Sweden (Nordic Embassies), Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkmenistan, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela

 

The media performance in Berlin is designed as a trilogy and presented at three different stations:

 

1^st   Hoisting of the flag in the participating embassies.
2^nd   Media installation of the virtual LIFE FLAG in public space (Schlossplatz in Berlin-Mitte)     
3^rd  Light installation at Martin-Gropius-Bau on occasion of the performance life propagation

 

1^st station:

The closely meshed net of embassies in Berlin – Europe’s capital of embassies – shall be used to send out a message. A flag with a universal motif, hoisted in approximately 80 diplomatic missions and the State Department of the Federal Republic of Germany symbolizes unity within the plurality of languages, cultures and countries. The event in Berlin is supposed to be the starting point for further art events with the aim to spread and develop the message via the dense net of embassies and the global communication channels. 

 

Motif of the flag


The motif of the flag is based on the visualization of bacterial cells from a historical dust sample. Using the technique of Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) Dr. Annette Moter and her team at the Institute of Microbiology and Hygiene (IMH), Charite University Hospital Berlin, stained the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) of bacteria. Specific fluorescent oligonucleotide probes bind to their target ribosomal RNA in the small subunit of the bacterial ribosome and can be used to visualize and discriminate different microorganisms. The investigated sample containing Sahara dust was found in southern Italy and given to Alexander von Humboldt as a gift in 1823, who later passed it on to Florens Chladni. As part of a global phenomenon, the desert dust was carried by winds from Africa to Europe. This way, Sahara dust reaches far away regions of the world and the microorganisms that are attached to the sand particles help to protect and nourish seemingly alien ecosystems. The Humboldt dust sample is now property of the Ehrenberg collection and stored in the Museum of Natural History in Berlin. At the initiative of Sabine Kacunko the microorganisms contained in this sample were reactivated and reanimated in the Robert Koch Forum, one of the historically most interesting scientific institutions in Berlin.