Emilio López-Menchero, 2010

Checkpoint Charlie

Digital print on tarpaulin
160 × 240 cm

In 2010, the Belgian artist set up Checkpoint Charlie as part of a performance in Brussels. Alongside the canal between the Rue Antoine Dansaert and the Chaussée de Gand, there suddenly appeared an exact copy of the guardhouse that stood in the Friedrichstraße in Berlin until 1989. The unexpected border check in a city that couldn’t be more international had a disconcerting effect. But it is borders of family background and income to which López-Menchero points at this site, replete with symbolic significance for Brussels, between the districts of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean and Bruxelles.