India Roper-Evans

LICHTENBERG LAUNDERETTE

India Roper-Evans’ project ‘Lichtenberg Launderette’ was shot at the Lemke Haus in Lichtenberg, designed by Mies van der Rohe, director of the Bauhaus between 1931-33. He built the house for Martha and Karl Lemke in 1932, the couple lived there until 1945 when the Red Army requisitioned the building and used it as a garage. From the 1960s until the fall of the Berlin Wall, the State Security (STASI) of the GDR used the house as a laundry depot. This prompted the idea of making a short black and white film with a soundtrack about them, using this modernist house as a launderette. The history of East Berlin post WW II, especially Lichtenberg, is full of horror stories during their regime, I wanted to make a project about the beautiful side of Lichtenberg, showing this modern, open house on a peaceful lake; parodying the STASI for using it as a launderette. The actual house is the polar opposite of a State Security run place, with open plan spaces, large glass windows and great emphasis on light and transparency. ‘Lichtenberg Launderette’ was shot in one day, with 4 actors, 3 performing the washing and 1 dressed as a Lampshade, referencing the Bauhaus’ love for design, furniture and illumination. Time to wash out the ugly past and celebrate, shed light on, the beauty and tranquility that originally inspired it.

Laundry song: Indelible Mies

Doing the Berlin Laundry

In Lichtenberg Launderette

Telling the Mies van der story

In Lichtenberg Launderette

From Obersee to the Great Lakes

In Lichtenberg Launderette

Skin & Bones design he makes

In Lichtenberg Launderette

Ghostly skyscraper next

In Lichtenberg Launderette

Tugendhat for the Czechs

In Lichtenberg Launderette

Then laundered out

In Lichtenberg Launderette

He leaves his clout

In Lichtenberg Launderette

As the Stasi rub-a-dub-dub

In Lichtenberg Launderette

van der Rohe into a tub

In Lichtenberg Launderette

Yet here he is despite the scour

In Lichtenberg launderette

To this very same hour

November, 2020