Unbraked Self-Movements at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus: Experience GDR Art with Photography
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Unbraked Self-Movements: Photography as a Space of Freedom
The Brandenburg State Museum of Modern Art presents an exhibition on experimental art with photography in the GDR at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus. The focus is on artistic positions from the 1980s that understood photography not as neutral documentation but as a material for self-assertion, self-expansion, and transgression.
Another Photography of the GDR
In the politically and socially tightly regulated GDR, artists developed independent forms of another photography and photography from below. Staging, estrangement, montage, and serial image sequences freed the medium from its journalistic-documentary framework. Privately produced photo portfolios and semi-legal magazines became important spaces for exchange, publication, and aesthetic self-determination.
Between Body, Action, and Image Space
The presented works connect photography with performance, body art, installation, intervention, and conceptual art. Body, space, action, and image enter into an exciting dialogue. Photography appears as an artistic gesture, as a space for thought, and as a performative process in which reality is not only depicted but reimagined.
Diverse Artistic Positions
Among others, works by Claus Bach, Tina Bara, Micha Brendel, Kurt Buchwald, Klaus Elle, Irene Fischer, Thomas Florschuetz, Else Gabriel, Rainer Görß, Klaus Hähner-Springmühl, Wolf Kahlen, Matthias Leupold, Olaf Martens, Cornelia Schleime, Erasmus Schröter, and Gabriele Stötzer are on display. Their different artistic strategies make visible the diversity of a non-state-supporting art that distanced itself from official image conventions.
Art Historical Classification and Curating
The exhibition concept comes from external curator Christoph Tannert. The presentation connects holdings from the Brandenburg State Museum of Modern Art with loans and reveals a previously fragmentarily narrated chapter of East German art history. Between experimental photography, performance, installation, and subcultural image practices, a precise art historical perspective on artistic autonomy under conditions of state control emerges.
The Diesel Power Plant as a Resonance Space
The industrial architecture of the former Diesel Power Plant shapes the exhibition atmosphere. Visible materials, clear spatial axes, and concentrated museum lighting enhance the effect of photographic image surfaces, serial structures, and cross-media works. In the contemplation of the works, historical knowledge, sensory perception, and aesthetic experience combine.
Conclusion: Seeing GDR Art Anew
Visitors can expect a compelling art experience about freedom, self-design, and the political power of artistic forms. Anyone interested in GDR art, modern photography, performance, installation, and cultural education should definitely experience this exhibition live at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus.
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- Website: https://www.blmk.de/programm/ungebremste-selbstbewegungen/
