Preußen schwarz-weiss

2018–ongoing
Berlin, Land Brandenburg
Attempt to relieve the foundation piles of the Imperial Palace in Berlin from the weight of the German Emperor
Media: silk on handmade paper, blood and iron or blood lye salts and iron oxides (ink based on horse or cattle blood)
Relics: 16 monotypes, 558 x 130 cm

In echo of Max von Schenkendorf’s words of 1837, “… only iron can save us, only blood can deliver us …”, Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck pronounced on 30 September 1862: “It is not by speeches and majority votes that the great questions of our time will be decided – that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849 – but by iron and blood.”

The name Berlin likely stems from the Slavic word berl (swamp) (Wikipedia).