Unrestrained Self-Movements at the Diesel Power Station Cottbus
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Photography as a Space for Freedom and Transgression
The exhibition Unrestrained Self-Movements. Art with Photography in the GDR at the Brandenburg State Museum for Modern Art – Diesel Power Station Cottbus focuses on an experimental image culture of the 1980s. Photography is at the center not as neutral documentation, but as material for self-assertion, self-expansion, and artistic transgression.
A Different Photography of the GDR
In the tightly regulated society of the GDR, artists developed idiosyncratic forms of a different photography and a photography from below. The presented positions detach from journalistic-documentary image understanding and reflect on the conditions of the medium itself. Privately produced photo portfolios and semi-legal magazines became important spaces for publication, exchange, and aesthetic self-determination.
Between Body, Action, and Image Space
The exhibition connects photography with performance, installation, intervention, body art, and conceptual processes. Body, space, and action enter into a tense dialogue. Montage, staging, alienation, serial orders, and open design processes transform the photographic image into a performative action space.
Artistic Positions Beyond Official Image Conventions
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. The diverse works show how photography became an artistic gesture, a testing ground, and a form of individual counter-worlds.
Curating and Art Historical Contextualization
The exhibition concept was developed by Christoph Tannert as the external curator. The presentation connects collections from the photographic collection of the Brandenburg State Museum for Modern Art with loans and makes a previously less visible chapter of East German art history accessible. The collection is considered the only museum collection for photography established in the GDR and preserves significant experimental positions alongside author photography.
The Diesel Power Station as a Resonance Space
The industrial architecture of the former diesel power station enhances the impact of the exhibition. Visible materials, clear spatial axes, and concentrated museum lighting create an intense exhibition atmosphere. In the viewing of the works, photographic image surfaces, serial structures, and cross-media works come together. Light, forms, bodies, and space create an aesthetic experience between historical constraints and artistic liberation.
Conclusion: An Intense Art Experience in Cottbus
Visitors can expect a professionally grounded and sensually penetrating exhibition about freedom, self-design, and the political power of artistic forms. Those interested in GDR art, experimental photography, performance, installation, and cultural education will experience an extraordinary viewing of works at the Diesel Power Station Cottbus. The exhibition deserves an on-site visit because it makes photography as memory, resistance, and a vivid aesthetic experience newly tangible.
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