Los Angeles - The Berlin Wall - or at least pieces of it - came down in Los Angeles early Monday as the entertainment capital of the US staged a glitzy arts extravaganza to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the historic moment. Eight pieces of the original wall had been installed in a park alongside Wilshire Boulevard, opposite the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to commemorate the fall of the barrier. Some of the sections still had the original graffiti. Others were adorned by local artists and muralists, including Shepard Fairey, who created the famous Hope poster of US President Barack Obama.
The section of wall that was actually felled did not really come from Berlin. Instead it was an imitation piece made out of Styrofoam blocks adorned with the slogan "Art Conquers All." The event was called A Wall across Wilshire, and also included films, recorded music and a video message from the mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit.
"It just gave me the chills when I saw this," Gabriele Hayes, a former resident of East Germany who now lives in Los Angeles, told the local NBC station. "Your whole life comes back in your mind. The things you did and the things you couldn't do. This will give people a glimpse of how we lived in East Germany."
