The Wall as a Condom deals with the HIV pandemic in a world divided between West and East. Due to the rapid outbreak of the virus in the USA, it was seen as a capitalist issue in the ‘East’ and associated with morally inferior lifestyles. In the GDR, strict border controls succeeded in preventing the virus from entering the country. Symbolically, the wall was referred to as the ‘condom of the GDR’. But it was permeable: HIV cases increased over the years. The affected, already marginalised population was neglected by their government. Attempts at self-care were seen as an insurrection and severely prosecuted. 

The work consists of two videos that contrast persecution and anonymity. In one video, the performer is in the former Stasi headquarters in Matthäikirchhof in Leipzig. He walks naked through this place of persecution and urinates carelessly, in a liberating act of revenge. In the second video, he is out and about in Leipzig city centre. This time outside, he is wearing a latex catsuit. A kind of full-body condom that gives him protection and confidence. Boundaries between outside and inside, private and public are thus blurred.

The work is comprised of a two-channel installation of the video performance in Leipzig, a photo series by Nadja Kracunovic and a selection of copies of documents regarding the politics of former German Democratic Republic in the HIV pandemic, acquired through a formal research at the BStU (Bundesbeauftragter für die Stasi-Unterlagen)