PRESS RELEASE

Berlin, August 13
th
, 2014

White American Flags

Artists Matthias Wermke & Mischa Leinkauf replaced Old Glory for White American Flags on Brooklyn
Bridge on the 145
th
anniversary of its architects death.

"Suddenly you see this steel poetry [...]. It puts everything to shame and makes you wonder what else
we could have done that was so marvelous and so unpresumptuous. [...] He [John A. Roebling] really
aspired to do something gorgeous. So it makes you feel that maybe you, too, could add something that
would last and be beautiful."

- Arthur Miller (in Brooklyn Bridge by Ken Burns, 1981)
White American Flags is an art project

White American Flags is an art project by Wermke/Leinkauf. The interventions of the internationally
acclaimed artist duo take place in urban environments and address questions of historical legacy and
art in the public sphere. Videos, installations and artistic transgressions of the two native Berliners
have been published and exhibited widely.

Brooklyn Bridge, July 21
st
/22
nd

In the night from July 21
st
to July 22
nd
Wermke/Leinkauf hoisted two hand-sewn white American flags
on the towers of Brooklyn Bridge. They were careful to treat the bridge and the flags with respect and
followed the U.S. Flag Code. The return of the original flags is in progress.

Like an empty canvas, White American Flags invites many readings, multiple interpretations and
projections.

John August Roebling and Washington August Roebling
White American Flags refers to the German-born American architect of the Brooklyn Bridge, John
August Roebling, who left his Thuringian hometown Mhlhausen in 1831 in search of a better future
in the land of freedom and opportunity. He was a pioneer in the field of suspension bridges and his
creations have become landmarks and unique architectural pieces of American history. Tragically,
Roebling did not live to see the completion of his greatest work, the Brooklyn Bridge. He was injured
in an on-site accident and died on July 22
nd
1869. His son, Washington August Roebling, completed
the masterpiece fourteen years later. He died on July 21
st
1926.

The neo-gothic towers of the bridge were inspired by Roeblings baptistery, the Divi Blasii in
Mhlhausen. Before coming to the U.S. the artists attended a church service at Divi Blasii with the
two white American flags in their possession. It is not clear whether Roebling intended to include
flagpoles: at any rate, the display of flags has been subject to some controversy and flagpoles have
not always been a feature of the towers.

A tradition of public art, uncommissioned work and artistic transgressions
White American Flags recalls Jasper Johnss flag pieces. In 1954/5 they sparked an emotional debate
about art and the symbolic meaning of the American flag. Today, the pieces are on view at the
Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.

White American Flags abandons the museum and returns art to the real world. The project thus
stands in the tradition of uncommissioned art in the public sphere:
Gordon Matta-Clarks Days End (Pier 52) (1975), Philippe Petits high wire walk between the Twin
Towers (1974), Tehching Hsiehs Outdoor Piece (1981/82) and Gelitins B-Thing (2001).

All these pieces were created in New York. The city has always been a magnet for artists, a
metropolis praised as the global center of creativity, where new progressive art has its place.


www.wermke-leinkauf.com