The record
A Potsdamer Platz element released during the building of the Sony Center, wrapped in a thousand loudspeakers you could telephone, then set outside a cinema.
Angers has one segment and two catalogue records naming different cinemas, which is explained by the object having been in two places. Sony and the City of Berlin gave it to the town in 2011; it had been part of the border installation at Potsdamer Platz and was released during the construction of the Sony Center.
It was first used at the Accroche-Cœurs street arts festival, where the artist Benoît Maubrey built it into a participatory sound sculpture called The Speakers Wall — Le Mur Sonore: a wall of about a thousand recycled loudspeakers, radios and amplifiers enclosing the Berlin element, playing calls from anyone who rang a published number, who then had three minutes to talk to the Wall. The artist counted more than 900 calls. After the festival the mayor, Frédéric Béatse, had the segment installed in 2012 on the forecourt of the Pathé cinema, which used to be the Gaumont — hence both names in the catalogue.
How did it get here?
A gift from Sony and the City of Berlin in 2011, from the border installation at Potsdamer Platz, released during construction of the Sony Center.
Sources
Listed by the Federal Foundation as #1439 and by the Berlin Wall Archive as #12 and #13.
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The 2011 gift from Sony and the City of Berlin, the Potsdamer Platz origin and Sony Center construction, Benoît Maubrey's Speakers Wall at Accroche-Cœurs, and the 2012 installation outside the Pathé cinema, formerly the Gaumont, by Mayor Frédéric Béatse.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17
Speakers Wall – Benoît Maubrey ↗
The artist's own account: Le Mur Sonore, an electroacoustic sculpture built around an original segment of the Berlin Wall with 1,000 recycled loudspeakers, radios and amplifiers for the Accroche-Cœurs festival in Angers in September 2011; callers could talk through it for three minutes, and more than 900 calls were registered.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 1439
Berlin Wall Archive ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 12
Source-reported segments: 2. This is not a separately verified count.
Berlin Wall Archive ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 13
Source-reported segments: 1. This is not a separately verified count.
No photograph of this one has been published. If you have taken one, or know when it arrived or who gave it, we would like to hear. Contribute to this record