Voices | Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Using performative actions, various artists of the late GDR broke the tight boundaries of the official art scene. Their works were subversive, ephemeral, and radically carnal. Today, they are important attestations to artistic self-empowerment. The exhibition Stepping out of Line. Woman Action Artists in the GDR (Albertinum, 17 May – 31 August, extended until 23 November 2025) garnered more visibility for these positions. Here, we are presenting video interviews, which were created to be contemporary witness reports as part of the exhibition.

It is known that, for his paintings, Caspar David Friedrich made extensive use of sketches which he had created in nature and from works of other painters. But how did he manage to enlarge elements from these sketches and transfer them to canvas? Our conservators followed up on that question.

The "ostZONE" series, part of the special exhibition "Revolutionary Romances? Global Art Histories in the GDR", created a space within the Albertinum for anyone to share conversations, questions, and memories of life in the GDR and in modern-day eastern Germany. During the city walk through the Neustadt “The Neustadt between Hanoi and Havana”, Dr. Hussein Jinah invited participants into the Spätshop where he works and told them about his history and his goals: To promote peace, cohesion and non-violence in society.

Starting in the 1970s, a type of artistic dialogue developed in East Germany that took place not in museums and galleries but, instead far from the world of public exhibitions, via the postal service. Soon after, the Dresden artist Birger Jesch launched what he called the “first Mail-Art Project of Dresden”, posting 300 cards featuring shooting targets to recipients around the world, for them to design and return.