Peter Eisenman Interview: Field of Otherness

“Architecture, I believe, is necessary to mark collective memory.” One of the leading contemporary American architects, Peter Eisenman, here shares the thoughts that went into building the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, and how he sought to transform a feeling of “being lost in space in time” into the memorial.
Eisenman shares how he didn’t want to use Jewish symbolism in the memorial, but rather have “a field of otherness, where people understand that to have been a Jew in Germany was ‘other’. And what was it like to be ‘other’ in space in time? And that’s how we came up with the field.” It had nothing to do with the Holocaust symbolically, he explains, but was inspired by his conversation with a woman, who had survived Auschwitz. Upon being separated from her mother, she had had a terrifying encounter with Josef Mengele, which made her feel alone and lost in space: “I wanted that feeling of being lost in space to inhabit the memorial.” Getting to what he describes as “the popular level” was also important to Eisenman - having kids play in the memorial, not realizing its connotations, and then going home and sharing their experience with their grandparent, who have an entirely different approach to it: “They feel it, but they don’t know what it is.” In connection to this, Eisenman emphasizes that the memorial is now a public space, and should be allowed to be precisely that: “It’s not about guilt… I don’t feel that the German volk today are guilty, no more guilty than we are voting Trump in.” Finally, Eisenman comments on the connection between architecture and memory: “Architecture collects collective memory.”
Peter Eisenman (b. 1932) is an American architect, whose architecture is often characterized as Deconstructivist. Eisenman rose to fame in the late 1960s as part of the New York Five, a group that shared an interest in the purity of architectural form and besides Eisenman included Charles Gwathmey, John Hejduk, Richard Meier, and Michael Graves. Among his work are House VI in Cornwall, Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (The Holocaust Memorial) in Berlin, and the City of Culture of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela. Eisenman is the recipient of numerous awards including the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education (2015), the 2007 American Institute of Architects’ National Honor Award for Design, the 2004 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Architecture, Royal Institute of British Architects Jencks Award for Architectural Theory (2004), and the American Institute of Architects National Honour Award (1991, 1993, 1988). For more see: eisenmanarchitects.com/Profile
The Holocaust Memorial (also known as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) opened in Berlin in 2005. It is constructed of 2,711 grey concrete slabs of different heights, arranged on a 19,000 square metre site. The memorial is on a slight slope, and its wave-like form is different wherever you stand.
Peter Eisenman was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at his studio in New York City in January 2020.
Camera: Jakob Solbakken
Edited by Klaus Elmer
Produced by Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2020
Supported by Dreyers Fond
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[@filibertkraxner305]

Mr. Eisenman is a little bit too modest perhaps. This is easily one of (if not the) most impressive sculptures I have ever seen. I visited it at dusk, while few other people were around. Walking down, ever deeper, until you are dwarfed by the pillars made a lasting impression. You just have to be open to the experience, then the feeling and historical associations will come.

[@sdeeyOu]

Maybe the only reason I only like Peter Eisenman because he looks exactly like my father. I hope they'll put a long discussion with him on the channel

[@bv32ification]

What I love most about some of Eisenman’s work is that his critics project their feelings of themselves onto his work because simply can’t stop analyzing and just start experiencing

[@gonzothompson4686]

I've been there and in the center it induces the sense of almost being swallowed.. so powerful

[@williama.hovestreydt6623]

Trump comment was weird...but Im fascinated with this project. We at some level must discuss in detail what happened as not to repeat it but to his good point contemporary Germans should feel no guilt as they were not there. The notion of "other" is intriguing for sure at many levels. All in all very thought provoking

[@dhungryarchitect]

so he created something that had nothing to do with the event or the loved ones lost during that time. not even something to reflect and remember it by. instead a feeling of "otherness". great.

[@bv32ification]

If you can’t understand the relation between the holocaust, the experience of the victims of it, and otherness, then idk what to tell you

[@dhungryarchitect]

@@bv32ification then please educate us. Coz from my perspective its the typical modernist abstract intellectual concepts that they try to push too hard. It has nothing to do with in the memory of.. and as a reminder for people who has not experienced it to not repeat the same mistakes from the past.

[@dhungryarchitect]

@@bv32ification coz people who experienced it will eventually pass.. and monuments are supposed to be also for the incoming generation to remember the horrible mistakes of the past.. get it?

[@0architect-]

​@@dhungryarchitect well, let's hope this otherness of architecture without any cultural hints is not repeated so it can be associated with the events it wants to be a monument to.

[@1geniusthinker676]

It ’s great, like a maze, it ’s in a historical time tunnel！

[@miadahhajbi6442]

Everybody pass wars you created it’s time to shut up crazy on the lose

[@whiteapple4737]

Shut up

[@miadahhajbi6442]

Is he crazy

[@johnnylee8194]

All books behind him are photo, coloring or picture books or some garbage "manifesto"

[@johnnylee8194]

Smug applied art major masquerading posing as deep thinker

[@dalicloud9]

he sounds too much like an old man. out of touch. living in the finer times of his younger years.

[@billyjosh9462]

Kevin C almost as out of touch as you

[@billyjosh9462]

Haha haha

[@ginogino3551]

When we start talking about today holocaust to the indigenous nations of the amazon? WHEN? They target by USA ISRAEL UK ANN FRANCE, though there corporation forces

[@billyjosh9462]

gino gino cool

[@noraa568]

this man voted for Trump?

[@karlrivero5520]

yes apparently

[@maxk.6230]

i think he meant he took part in the election as a historical occassion. i doubt he voted for trump

[@georgek3261]

Who even cares...And why should somebody care?

[@walterramirezt]

That's not what he said

[@bv32ification]

He was making a statement about separating people from their ideologies in discourse