Unstoppable Self-Movements in the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus: GDR Photography as Space of Freedom
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Photography as Space of Freedom: Unstoppable Self-Movements in the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus
The exhibition Unstoppable Self-Movements. Art with Photography in the GDR is dedicated to an experimental image culture of the 1980s. At the Brandenburg State Museum of Modern Art, photography is not understood as neutral documentation but as material for liberation, self-expansion, and artistic transgression.
Another Photography of the GDR
In the tightly regulated society of the GDR, artists developed distinctive forms of another photography and a photography from below. The positions shown detach from journalistic-documentary understandings of images and make the conditions of the medium itself the subject of artwork reflection. Photography appears as an idea, gesture, and open space of thought.
Between Action, Performance, and Installation
The exhibition connects photographic processes with actions, performances, interventions, body art, and conceptual strategies. Staging, montage, estrangement, and serial orders expand the classic image space. Bodies, space, light, and materiality enter into a tension-filled dialogue and create an intense aesthetic experience.
Artistic Positions Beyond Official Conventions
Among others, works by Claus Bach, Tina Bara, Micha Brendel, Kurt Buchwald, Klaus Elle, Irene Fischer, Thomas Florschuetz, Else Gabriel, Wolf Kahlen, Matthias Leupold, Olaf Martens, Cornelia Schleime, Erasmus Schröter, and Gabriele Stötzer will be on display. Many of these works are connected to subcultural networks, privately produced photo portfolios, and semi-legal magazines.
Art Historical Classification and Curation
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 positions the experimental photography of the late GDR between conceptual art, performance, installation, and photographic avant-garde. The photographic collection of the BLMK forms an important institutional resonance space for this.
The Diesel Power Plant as Exhibition Space
The historical industrial architecture of the former diesel power plant enhances the exhibition atmosphere. Clear spatial axes, visible materials, and concentrated museum lighting make photographic series, cross-media installations, and performative image strategies appear particularly vivid. Thus, historical memory, societal constriction, and the desire for artistic autonomy meet.
Conclusion: An Intense Art Experience in Cottbus
Visitors can expect a professionally informed and sensually compelling exhibition about photography, memory, resistance, and artistic self-determination. Those interested in GDR art, experimental photography, performance, installation, and cultural education will experience an extraordinary artwork observation at the Diesel Power Plant. The on-site visit opens up photography as an open space of freedom and as a living aesthetic experience.
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- Website: https://www.blmk.de/programm/ungebremste-selbstbewegungen/
