Two of the piles from the palace – driven into the ground in 1707 and removed in 2012 – form the printing blocks for the project: Preussisch schwarz-weiss (Prussian black and white).
Each pile is entirely printed eight times on separate sheets. Eight prints are on Japanese white silk (four of each pile), and eight on traditional handmade paper. The silk prints are made in an Asian tampon printing process. The prints on handmade paper are realised under high-pressure, as is usual used for woodcuts. This leads to a total of sixteen large-format monotype prints in the original size of the piles.
In order not to lose the reference to Otto von Bismarck’s blood and iron policy when he was Chancellor of the German Empire, the colour elements are obtained from wood residue, iron powder and blood – four times horse blood and four times cattle blood. For the letterpress printing process on handmade paper, it was necessary to custom develop a traditional printing ink based on blood. Berlin blue, the colour of the Prussian uniform, is synthesised from iron oxides and blood lye salts. Originally, this ink was indeed obtained from blood. In two monotypes of each pile, this synthesis is part of the printing process.
In order to be able to assess the long-term reaction of paper and chemicals, a test series was started in cooperation with the chemistry faculty of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre.