ostZONE – Workshops, talks with contemporary witnesses and city walks to accompany the exhibition Revolutionary Romances – Global Art Histories in the GDR at the Albertinum

What was everyday life like for contract workers or international students in the GDR? How do artists express themselves in repressive systems?

The contract workers, international trainees and students who arrived during the GDR era are living here in the second and third generation. Their history and present are not present. This is where ostZONE comes in: we offer space for questions and joint remembrance – different life paths in GDR history come into conversation. The Albertinum becomes a place of encounter!

City walk & workshop “Art for everyone in Altstadt – public artworks in the GDR”

with Janina Kracht & Montserrat Butter

Meeting point: Mural “The Path of the Red Flag” (Kuturpalast, west side)

The Chilean Montserrat Butter, who came to Dresden in the 1980s, and the Dresden artist Janina Kracht, who has expertise in the Kunst am Bau movement in the GDR, bring more than just their own stories with them. They met the Chilean artist Hernando Léon beforehand. Now 90 years old, he had to flee his home country after the military coup of 1973 and became a student and lecturer at the HfBK Dresden. After the city tour, you can try out the “Formstein System” art in architecture in a workshop and continue the dialogue with the two women.

Come by!

In the ostZONE we ask and remember together. In an exchange between generations and cultures about the past and present, we want to get to know and share experiences: intergenerational and intercultural, from former contract workers (e.g. from Vietnam or Mozambique), from people who have moved here since 1989 (e.g. from Libya or Mexico), from people from Dresden with and without a GDR background.

The project ostZONE is a cooperation with the ethnologist Dr. Verena Böll and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD).
(Foto: © SKD /  Nora Börding, 25.05.2024 – City walk & workshop “Art for everyone in Altstadt – public artworks in the GDR” with Janina Kracht)

Das Projekt wird gefördert durch das Staatsministerium für Soziales und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt. Diese Maßnahme wird mitfinanziert mit Steuermitteln auf Grundlage des vom Sächsischen Landtag beschlossenen Haushaltes im Rahmen des Förderprogramms »Wir für Sachsen«.