Memory Landscapes and the Labor of the Negative in Berlin

Focusing on the case of Berlin, this article explores the function of memory landscapes using the concept of the labor of the negative. Through three Berlin cases—the memorialization of the Berlin Wall, recent counter-memorials to the Holocaust, and the urban appropriation of voids through temporary projects—the article suggests that the labor of the negative constitutes Berlin’s memory landscape out of the interplay between absence and presence.