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!

Workshop with contemporary witnesses and artists “Holding the strings”

with Bela Álvarez and Montserrat Butter

For everyone to try out: embroidering (archive) photos. Together with a contemporary witness who came to the GDR from Chile in the 1980s and an artist with Mexican roots, we want to artistically process photos and other “mementos”. The results can be presented in the epilogue room of the exhibition.

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).

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«.