Produced a few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Olaf Metzel’s concrete relief combines elements of the GDR’s coat of arms – which consisted of a hammer, a compass and a ring of rye –with the digit ‘5’ to create a symbol for Five-Year Plans. These plans specified the goals and tasks for the economic, technological and social development of socialist societies for a period of five years. Rough moulding work and missing concrete coating make this emblem – supposed to represent the successful cooperation between workers, farmers and intellectuals as part of progress – look dilapidated.
Furthermore the pretend-solidity and improvised mounting make reference to economic mismanagement in the GDR, which couldn’t be prevented even with sophisticated planning methods. In an almost visionary manner, this piece represents the gradual fatigue and the eventual failure of a societal Utopia.