Kani Alavi, a young Iranian artist living in Germany, witnessed history as the Berlin Wall was falling, and crowds rushed to set foot on free soil.

From his fourth-floor apartment next to Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie, his eyes took in images that would print onto his consciousness for a lifetime.

That day, East German officials had surprised the world by announcing they would no longer enforce the border between East and West Germany.

Everything had changed.

The Berlin Wall was 91 miles long and for nearly three decades, it was a metaphor for the division between the free world and communism.

But as people began pouring through a gap in the wall, Alavi began setting a plan in motion to actually preserve p...