Unstoppable Self-Movements at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus: Experience GDR Photography Anew
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Photography as a Space of Freedom: Unstoppable Self-Movements in Cottbus
The exhibition Unstoppable Self-Movements. Art with Photography in the GDR at the Brandenburg State Museum of Modern Art – Diesel Power Plant Cottbus focuses on an experimental image culture of the 1980s. It highlights artists who did not understand photography as a neutral documentation, but as material for self-expansion, boundary crossing, and artistic liberation.
A Different Photography of the GDR
In the tightly regulated society of the GDR, independent forms of a different photography and photography from below developed. Artistic positions from various disciplines connected photography with action, performance, installation, body art, and conceptual procedures. The works reflect their own medial conditions and distance themselves from the journalistic-documentary understanding of images.
Serial orders, unusual image ideas, and consciously anti-aesthetic impulses make visible how new image spaces emerged from societal limitations. Photography appears not only as a depiction but as a thought movement, action, and design of a changed reality.
Artistic Positions between Action and Image
The exhibition brings together works by Claus Bach, Tina Bara, Micha Brendel, Kurt Buchwald, Klaus Elle, Irene Fischer, Thomas Florschuetz, Else Gabriel, Rainer Görß, Klaus Hähner-Springmühl, Erich-Wolfgang Hartzsch, Frank Herrmann, Bernd Hiepe, Wolf Kahlen, Stefan Kayser, York der Knoefel, Matthias Leupold, Lieberknecht and Stoy, Olaf Martens, Maix Mayer, Florian Merkel, Erhard Monden, Christoph Sandig, Cornelia Schleime, Erasmus Schröter, Andreas Seeliger, Heike Stephan, and Gabriele Stötzer as well as other artists.
In the exploration of the works, photographic image surfaces, performative gestures, and cross-media procedures meet. The aesthetic experience arises from the tension between documentary trace and artistic invention, between body, space, and public.
Christoph Tannert as External Curator
The exhibition concept was developed by Christoph Tannert as an external curator. His curatorial perspective situates a historically relevant chapter of the late GDR and draws attention to non-state-supporting artistic attitudes that have been less present in public consciousness. The exhibition thus makes an important contribution to cultural education and the reassessment of East German art history.
The Diesel Power Plant as a Resonance Space
The industrial architecture of the Diesel Power Plant enhances the exhibition atmosphere. Clear spatial axes, visible materials, and focused museum lighting create an exciting relationship between photographic works, serial structures, and cross-media art. The historical site creates a concentrated framework for questions of freedom, control, body, perception, and media truth.
Conclusion: An Art Experience about Freedom and Image Power
Visitors can expect a visually powerful approach to an important chapter of the art history of the GDR. Unstoppable Self-Movements presents photography as a resistant, open, and still relevant form of expression. Anyone seeking a demanding art experience between photographic art, performance, installation, and cultural memory should definitely visit this exhibition live at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus.
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- Website: https://www.blmk.de/programm/ungebremste-selbstbewegungen/
