GERMANY: When a 24-year-old Berlin artist jumped out of a window and fell five floors to her death, no one who was present called an ambulance. Instead they took pictures.
The crowd in the courtyard of Tacheles, a chaotic art complex in central Berlin, thought they had witnessed art in action. But they had just witnessed a suicide.
Berlin police have launched an investigation into the death of the artist, identified only as Janine F, who was part of Berlin's "Manufaktur" art group.
Janine was known on the Berlin art scene for creating cardboard sculptures and was preparing for an exhibition due to open tomorrow.
But last Tuesday evening she arrived at the apartment of her artist friends in a distressed state. She said that she was planning to killing herself. Rather than trying to calm her down, her friends began filming her with a video camera.
Afterwards, one of her friends gave her some liquor to drink and took her home. But Janine returned to Tacheles the next day and leapt to her death, a suicide note clutched in her hand.
Her body was found in the yard shortly after 11 a.m. on Wednesday.
After falling five floors, her body hit a sanitary truck and rolled onto the ground, where it began seeping blood.
Groups of tourists visiting the complex gathered around the body and began taking pictures, Many thought it was a life-sized doll or a sculpture, a preview of an exhibition due to open tomorrow, which includes work by the dead artist."The tourists quickly realised that it wasn't art," said a police spokesman. "Many have made available to us their photos and videotapes."
Tacheles has a reputation for far-out art. The bombed-out building, formerly a department store and exhibition hall, has been home to an anarchic artist collective for decades.
Police have already combed the courtyard of the complex for clues, but are working on the assumption that they are dealing with a suicide.
One acquaintance of the dead artist from the art group said yesterday the group was unsure whether to go ahead with tomorrow's exhibition.