The ‘Revolutionary Romances?’ exhibition, which runs from 4 November 2023 – 2 June 2024 in the Albertinum, looks at relationships between the GDR and the countries of the Global South from the 1950s to the 1980s. Its aims to give a clear overview of the ‘global art history/histories of the GDR’. This map is intended as a digital contribution to this clear overview. However, it can only show selected relationships and makes no claim to be exhaustive. On the contrary, further academic, historical and artistic research is needed, above all making the perspective and expertise of people from the Global South visible and audible to facilitate a discussion of the art history of the GDR in a global context. After all, there is very little reliable information on many of the persons listed here. If you can provide any details or have other information, suggestions or criticism, feel free to send an e-mail to voices[at]skd.museum to help improve the map and its contents.

Editors: Jacob Franke, Lisa-Marie Gutte, Leonhard Wolf

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We would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to two related projects focusing on the international relations of the GDR cultural establishment.

‘Art in Networks’, a TU Dresden research project (under Prof. Kerstin Schankweiler), includes a rich collection of academic articles on international exchanges between the GDR and the Global South:

artinnetworks.webspace.tu-dresden.de/en

The GDR Construction and Planning History portal (Prof. Dr. Christoph Bernhardt, Dr. Andreas Butter, Dr. Monika Motylinska) of the Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS) in Erkner features a similar map format showing international construction projects of the GDR:

ddr-planungsgeschichte.de/auslandsprojekte/

For further material on the ‘Counterpoints’ project, of which the ‘Revolutionary Romances?’ exhibition forms the core, visit the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden digital platform:

voices.skd.museum/voices-mag/