Visual evidence of forced migration can be found everywhere in the once multi-ethnic regions of Central and Eastern Europe. Documenting and interpreting this evidence is a crucial task in understanding and expanding the visual memory of this painful chapter of European history.
The educational project 'Visualisations of 20th-century Forced Migrations' offers an opportunity to explore historical sources creatively and to produce artworks that enhance the visibility of these events to the public.
The object chosen to visually represent the project is an 11-metre-high sculpture called Houseball created by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. It is located on Bethlehemkirchplatz in front of the office of the Deutsche Gesellschaft e.V. in Berlin's Mitte district. Houseball depicts a household tied together in a bundle containing various pieces of furniture and other everyday objects. It symbolises the Prussian ruling house's idea of tolerance and the suffering of the Protestant exiles expelled from their homeland – Bohemia – for their faith in 1737, and who settled in Berlin. The square directly in front of Houseball is paved with the cobblestones taken from the former Bohemian Bethlehem Church, which was demolished in 1963 due to severe war damage.
