Place: Skulpturenmuseum Marl

           Georg-Herwegh-Str. 63-67

           45772 Marl

Time: February 13, 2025

           Start: 6:30 p.m.

           Duration: approx. 1.5 hours

According to East German author Jana Hensel, East Germany's post-reunification history can only be told as a story of adaptation. The 1990s were characterised by nothing more than the desire and willingness to finally arrive - in the West... in (all of) Germany. East German citizens tried to feel at home in the united country. Much, perhaps even everything, was subordinated to this endeavor.

Does this also apply to artists and cultural producers with an Eastern biography? Is this visible in the artistic works of the 1990s and early 2000s?

This lecture will examine three artistic East German positions to illustrate the art production of these years, and thus draw parallels to works shown in the exhibition. Freedom, dreams, but also a strong social responsibility are contents and motifs that repeatedly appear and are negotiated in the artistic works of the 90s and early 2000s, not only in Ukraine but also in East Germany.

For Via Lewandowsky, art is a visual instrument for asking questions, pointing out grievances and power structures, exploring boundaries, and provoking. Lewandowsky's own experiences in the GDR undoubtedly shaped his skeptical worldview and the development of his socially critical approach, which goes hand in hand with a deep mistrust of the (commercially) successful art object.

In the 1980s, artist and writer Gabriele Stötzer influenced the independent art scene of the late GDR as a central figure in Erfurt's subculture with her radical, ruthless openness. Imprisoned in the GDR for political reasons, director of a private gallery in Erfurt, nonconformist photographer, performance and video artist, Stötzer's work has recently received widespread international and national recognition.

The artist duo Wermke Leinkauf, which no longer exists in this constellation, has been realising joint projects since 2004 that often refer to the former border situation and question how history, memory and urban open space are dealt with. They produced their performative actions mostly in geographical and legal gray areas, documented by photo and video. The works are always subject to a critical distance from social reality and history, as well as celebrating and exploiting the possibilities of urban space.

Sandra Teitge organises exhibitions and programmes at the interface of contemporary art, music, architecture and design, often in public and commercial locations in urban space. She is particularly interested in solo and collective feminist, class-critical and other minority practices and approaches that rub up against and challenge the past, present and future status quo.

Together with A. Lückenkemper, Teitge curates the feminist platform gossip gossip gossip in the form of performances, readings, exhibitions and publications; and is one of four curators of the festival Kunst im Untergrund, which takes place every two years in Berlin's urban space. She is also part of the curatorial research group for the ZfK art archive of the GDR.

Note: The lecture will be held in German. A livestream will also be set up. You can find access on our website: http://www.skulpturenmuseum-glaskasten-marl.de/de/veranstaltungen

Photo: Wermke/Leinkauf, “Grenzgänger”