A Bird Is Not A Stone..?
(In Search of George Wyllie’s Berlin Burd)
Last month, as one of the minders at The George Wyllie Foundation social media (For The Burds) I received an interesting late night message from Stevie Neil. Stevie is a member of the of the Ayrshire Ukulele Clan.
As a homage to George Wyllie’s favourite instrument, Stevie and the Clan played on the opening night of the George Wyllie Paper Boat exhibition at the Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine back at beginning of July. (Exhibition continues until Monday 26th September)
While looking at the exhibition, Stevie became intrigued by the story of George Wyllie’s five-metre high Berlin Burd sculpture. George sited this gangly creature beside a section of the (four-metre high) Berlin Wall in 1988 just weeks before the wall came down.
George Wyllie made this Burd from stainless steel in Scotland and and transported across Europe to Berlin to look over the Berlin Wall. He worked with local school-children in Berlin and The George Wyllie Foundation has since been in touch with a few of the kids who remember the experience fondly.
At the time, given the political sensitivities surrounding the wall, politicians in Berlin were very cagey about giving George permission for such a project. One of the planning officials said to George at the time: “Ein vogel ist keen stein,” (“a bird is not a stone”).
This appealed to George’s sense of the absurd. Which of course the Burd was. As was the Wall. Despite the Burd not being a stone, George was given permission to place it beside the wall so that it keeked over it.
The George Wyllie Foundation (of which I am a Trustee) has always been a wee bit mystified as to the exact location of the big Berlin Burd. A couple of years ago, when his wee brother Burd found a permanent nest in The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh, we made some enquiries but our lack of German stymied our attempts to track him down.
Intrigued, Stevie decided to seek out this giant flightless wonder for himself…
Stevie wrote to us: “I’ve just returned from Berlin where I managed to track down the Berlin Burd with the help of a German-speaking friend and some helpful locals.
“I found an article on the Burd on the Whysman education website and sent the link to my friend Amanda as we were heading to Berlin on holiday and thought it might be good to try to track it down.
“Amanda noticed from the picture in the article that it was in the French Quarter and did a bit more research on German websites before we left for Berlin. Once there we went to the area and went walkabout, initially without success.
“Amanda, who is fluent in German, then asked at the information office in a shopping mall whether anyone knew of it. No one did, but we were directed across the road to a small building where a representative of the factor responsible for maintenance of ‘monuments’ had a small office.
“Amanda made enquiries there and after a couple of phone calls we were directed further up the road.
IS IT A BURD…?
“After a ten minute walk we found the Berlin Burd still looking majestic.
“I must say that while I had the notion of finding the Burd it was Amanda who did all the hard work and emailed the factor to advise of our success. It was also Amanda who translated the plaque for me and gave the explanatory notes.”
THE PLAQUE READS:
George Wyllie put up the Berlin Burd on the West Berlin side of the Wall on 1st December 1988 as part of a cultural initiative with children from schools in the Märkische Viertel under close observation by the East German police.
On 9th November 2009 the Berlin Burd was finally moved to the former route of the Wall in memory of the Fall of the Wall.
Reinickendorf Youth Arts School Atrium
Explanatory notes:
The Berlin Burd is located on Wilhelmsruherdamm, near numbers 61–63, in the Märkisches Viertel, Reinickendorf, Berlin. It is on the route of the Wall marking the border between West and East Berlin, today between the administrative districts of Reinickendorf and Pankow.
The Märkisches Viertel or Quarter is the name of the large housing estate built in the 60s and 70s on West Berlin’s northeastern fringe.
The Jugendkunstschule Atrium or Youth Arts School is a local council funded institution which offers classes, projects, after school activities and workshops in all areas of the arts for children and youth in the area.
The date 9th November 2009 was the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall.
The George Wyllie Foundation would like to say a BIG thanks to Stevie and Amanda for all their sterling efforts in tracking down The Berlin Burd and saying hello. It’s very much appreciated!
You can read all about George Wyllie and the many influences which shaped his life and artworks (including the Berlin Burd) in Arrivals and Sailings: The Making of George Wyllie by me (Jan Patience) and Louise Wyllie (Polygon, £25)
