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 “Jeans after work”

with Hung Cao The and Pham Van Ngoc

Jeans are in great demand. That was true even in GDR times. Those who couldn’t get a pair of the rare studded trousers found help from their colleagues from Vietnam. After work, many of the Vietnamese contract workers sat down at their sewing machines in their dormitories and sewed and sewed. Detailed “Levi’s” or “Wrangler” were created according to the customer’s wishes, including stone-washed colouring.

The former Vietnamese contract workers Hung Cao The and Vuong Tuan Hai share their memories with us and demonstrate sewing, riveting and “stone washed”. 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).
(Photo © SKD / Fotos: Iona Dutz, 11.11.2023 – Zeitzeug:innengespräch “Jeans nach Dienstschluss” mit Hung Cao The und Pham Van Ngoc)