Unbraked Self-Movements at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus: Photography as a Space of Freedom
Date and Time
Location
Price
About this Event
Mood
Venue Type
Photography as a Space of Freedom: Unbraked Self-Movements in Cottbus
The Brandenburg State Museum for Modern Art – Diesel Power Plant Cottbus is dedicating the exhibition Unbraked Self-Movements. Art with Photography in the GDR to an experimental image culture of the 1980s. The focus is on artists who understood photography not as neutral documentation but as material for liberation, self-expansion, and artistic boundary crossing.
A Different Photography of the GDR
In the tightly regulated society of the GDR, an independent art with photography developed. The positions presented broke away from the journalistic-documentary understanding of images and reflected the conditions of the medium itself. Photography became an idea, a gesture, and an open thinking space.
Between Action, Performance, and Installation
The exhibition makes visible how photographic processes were connected with actions, performances, interventions, body art, and serial image sequences. Staging, montage, alienation, and deliberately anti-aesthetic impulses expand the classical image space. Bodies, space, light, and materiality enter into a tension-filled relationship.
Artistic Positions Beyond Official Conventions
Exhibited works include those by Claus Bach, Tina Bara, Micha Brendel, Kurt Buchwald, Klaus Elle, Irene Fischer, Thomas Florschuetz, Else Gabriel, Klaus Hähner-Springmühl, Wolf Kahlen, Matthias Leupold, Olaf Martens, Cornelia Schleime, Erasmus Schröter, and Gabriele Stötzer. Many of these works are associated with subcultural networks, privately produced photo albums, and semi-legal magazines.
Curatorial Classification and Art Historical Significance
The exhibition concept was developed by Christoph Tannert as an external curator. The exhibition reveals a long-overlooked chapter of East German art history and classifies the experimental photography of the late GDR between conceptual art, performance, installation, and photographic avant-garde.
Art Experience at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus
The industrial architecture of the Diesel Power Plant enhances the concentrated exhibition atmosphere. Between clear spatial axes, visible materials, and precise museum lighting, serial image sequences and cross-media works unfold their impact. The viewing of the works becomes an aesthetic experience about freedom, perception, body, and artistic autonomy.
Conclusion: Unbraked Self-Movements opens up a visually strong access to a resistant and still relevant art practice. Art enthusiasts experience photography as a mobile medium between document, action, and counter-world. A visit to the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus enriches cultural education and makes the history of GDR art directly experienceable.
Official Channels of the Brandenburg State Museum for Modern Art:
- Instagram: no official profile found
- Facebook: no official profile found
- YouTube: no official profile found
- Website: https://www.blmk.de
