German Artists Say They Put White Flags on Brooklyn Bridge
German Artists Say They Put White Flags on Brooklyn Bridge
By MICHAEL KIMMELMANAUG. 12, 2014
Mystery solved? I got a call this week from a pair of artists in Berlin who say they were the ones who pulled off the stunt of the summer, hoisting two big all-white American flags atop the Brooklyn Bridge last month, swapping them for the usual Stars and Stripes.
When the white flags appeared, rumors flapped: It was a prank or a grave security breach.
But the artists, Mischa Leinkauf and Matthias Wermke, say the flags had nothing to do with terrorism. They only wanted to celebrate “the beauty of public space” and the great American bridge whose German-born engineer, John Roebling, died in 1869 on July 22, the day the white flags appeared.
The artists decided recently to explain themselves, and provided slightly cryptic pictures and videos of the flags, seemingly shot at night from atop the bridge. They point to other such projects they’ve done in far-flung places that haven’t made waves, and they claimed to be somewhat taken aback by the reception here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/arts/design/german-artists-say-they-put-white-flags-on-brooklyn-bridge.html?_r=0