If you wander through Berlin, you will likely meet a Buddy Bear. These statues are Berlin’s ambassadors, promoting a peaceful and respectful coexistence among all people.

So why do the Buddy Bears in the photographs wear a blindfold with the inscription “police violence”?

Trust in the police is a cornerstone of our democracy. Many of us believe that if we simply are non-violent, the police will not hurt us. In the past years, however, non-violent citizens protesting through peaceful civil disobedience for a livable future have been faced with increasing police violence, especially pain grips. Most of the time, the police use milder means to break up peaceful sit-ins and blockades, such as carrying away blockaders. Yet more and more, police are using pain grips, techniques from martial arts that cause pain through physical impact on pain-sensitive parts of the body. The effects of pain grips often remain invisible to observers, yet they can lead to long-term injuries, both psychological and physical.

Our blindfolded Buddy Bears are an intervention designed to remind the viewer that awareness of police violence is currently lacking in society. The two raised arms —a gesture of peacefulness and welcoming— are reinterpreted through the blindfold into a gesture of helplessness and inaction.

The photographs on this wall document an action from August 2024. Activists from Scientist Rebellion and Letzte Generation blindfolded 49 Buddy Bears in a single night as a peaceful reaction to the escalating police violence at the “Ungehorsame Versammlungen” in Berlin by Letzte Generation in the Spring of 2024.

We thank the press photographer Stefan Müller for granting permission to include his photographs “Buddy Bear Nivea with Activists I & II” and “Buddy Bear Red and White Stripes” in this exhibition, and the press photographer Maico Riegelmann for allowing us to show her photographs “Buddy Bear Quadriga in Daylight”, “Yellow Buddy Bear at Dawn” and “Brunos Buddy Bear being observed”. All copyrights remain with the photographers.