MonuMoments

Surrounded by the hullabaloo of Berlin Wall tourism and experience culture, the monument of two soldiers at Checkpoint Charlie stands for an attempt to grasp history and hold it in time. Gob Squad are planning to enter some kind of dialogue with the monument less than one kilometer away. Instead of a permanent structure of stone and steel, the collective aims to create living portraits with local residents and passers-by to reverse the idea of permanence and remember something for a moment.


Process led and with open outcome, they want to research the local neighborhood of HAU and in collaboration find out the potential of fleeting encounters: as “monu-moments” and as an invitation to the people of Mehringplatz to see each other and be seen. 


Gob Squad’s aim in this process-led project is to get to know a neighborhood surrounding a theatre, to make contact with local residents and explore the potential of these brief encounters.


Two people have the chance to meet, talk and listen to each other, taking part in a conversation led by a member of Gob Squad. Audience members and passers-by can listen in to these at times intimate, touching, raw and honest conversations from a short distance away, with the help of headphones, taking in the sight and sounds of this “MonuMoment” amidst the hustle and bustle of ongoing city life. Perhaps they even take part in a conversation themselves.


Gob Squad’s “MonuMoments” are an homage to chance encounters, and an invitation to local people to see and be seen.



As part of “IETM Berlin Plenary Meeting 2025”