Exhibition
Zonengrenze - Michael Sanders
21 Nov 2007 – 20 Jan 2008
Address
- Newarke Street
- Leicester
- LE1 5TE
- United Kingdom
About
Michael Sanders' photograph's document the changing history of Europe. Zonengrenze, the area of no-mans land between old East & West Germany, is documented as it transforms from Iron Curtain into part of Europe's largest nature reserve.It's not that long ago that Europe seemed to end at the Iron curtain and beyond that was the USSR (or at least countries under it's control). Now the old border between East and West Europe is a memory and with a unified Germany it's hard even to find on contemporary maps. A few years ago Photographer Michael Sanders came across an old West German Guidebook to Zonengrenze and set off to trace some of the pictures of the blocked off border crossings, checkpoints, fences and watch towers that made up this 1381 km (858 mile) land between lands. This exhibition of black and white photography documents the abandoned cobbled streets and lampposts, the vast concrete checkpoints and the no mans land now grazed by cattle.
In September 2005, the European Parliament called for the former border area to become part of an "Iron Curtain trail" stretching 4,250 miles (6,800 km) from the Arctic Sea to the Black Sea along the Cold War border between the Western Europe and the Easter European Soviet blocs.
