Image description: The painting depicts a girl with long brown hair wearing a red and yellow headscarf, facing left. The expression on the girl's face is neutral, while she wears traditional blue, orange, and beige clothing. Circular patterns are visible in the background.
Rıza Topal, Untitled, 1964, photo: Axel Schneider
THERE IS NO THERE THERE
In the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, numerous artists from abroad were working in both the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany. Within the framework of grants and bilateral cultural agreements, and alongside migrant workers, exiles, and refugees, they came to a divided Germany during the Cold War to continue working on their art and to collaborate and exchange with other artists. Some were themselves migrant workers who only later became artists.
Memories of people and landscapes, colors, forms, and visual traditions found their way into their works. Fleeing their native countries and living in exile in their new homeland, political conditions as well as daily work and life became their new pictorial themes.
Marginalized within the institutionalized art world due to structural exclusions, the artists nevertheless decisively expanded the discourses on art in both post-National-Socialist Germanys. In doing so, they opened up the possibility of seeing different things and, hence, seeing differently.
The exhibition There is no there there testifies to the richness of their artistic work and the transformative power that works of art can unleash. While what they left behind inevitably changes, the artists directly change the present.
Curated by Gürsoy Doğtaş and Susanne Pfeffer
Informationen in DGS
The exhibition is called: There is no there there.
It is about the places we have to leave.
And the places we go to.
These places can change or disappear.
In the 1960’s, 1970’s and the 1980’s
artists from other countries came to Germany.
In those days Germany was split into two countries:
—The German Democratic Republic
This was called East Germany
—The Federal Republic of Germany
This was called West Germany
Germany was split for more than 40 years.
This was the time of the Cold War in Germany.
This was not a war on the battlefields.
But both sides had weapons and were ready to fight.
It was a war between 2 political directions.
And two models of society.
The countries in the West believed in Capitalism.
The owners of companies and businesses are private people.
And so the owners of the companies earn a lot of money.
They can then invent new machines and try out new ideas.
The workers in the companies do not earn a lot of money.
They have less opportunities in life.
The countries in the East believed in Socialism.
Here the state owns the companies and businesses.
The workers do not need to earn a lot of money.
Because money is not so important.
This is how two different societies developed.
Under Capitalism only a few people have a lot of money
and a lot of power.
People in this society are not equal.
Under Socialism the community is more important.
People in this society should all be the same.
During the Cold War many countries had
cultural programs with East and West Germany.
This is how artists from different countries
first came to East or West Germany.
They were given a grant to study art.
They worked with other artists and exchanged ideas.
This is also how they met people from other countries.
Some people came to East or West Germany to work.
They were looking for work and for a better life.
They planned to stay for a few years.
And then return to their own countries.
The foreign workers in West Germany were called Gast-Arbeiter.
This means they were „Guest“ workers.
Foreign workers also came to East Germany.
They were called Vertrags-Arbeiter.
This means „Contract“ workers.
People in East and West Germany only saw these people as workers.
They were allowed to bring their families with them.
But nobody took care of them.
The government also did nothing.
They did not see these people as a part of society.
Everyone thought the workers are only
in Germany for a few years.
But many of them stayed all their lives.
Some people came to East or West Germany
Because they had to leave their countries.
These people are called exiles.
Exiles have to leave their country
and go to live in another country.
Other people left their countries because of war.
Or because of violence in the country.
These people are called refugees.
Today people who come to work in Germany
are called migrant workers.
People from all different countries lived in East and West Germany:
—Artists from other countries
—Guest workers
—Contract workers
Some came as artists and continued to create art.
Some came to work and started to create art later.
In these works of art there are memories of people and landscapes.
There are memories of colours and shapes that the artists grew up with.
Many used their knowledge and experience about making works of art.
They combined this knowledge with their experiences in East or West Germany.
Their works of art are about fleeing and being driven away from their country.
They are about arriving in a new country.
They are about:
—How to make the new country your home.
—Everyday life
—Politics
—Working lives.
The artists were excluded from society.
Just like the people who came to work in East or West Germany.
Many of these people had the same problems:
They could not find a place to live.
They were paid less.
They did not have access to schools.
They did not belong to society.
The artists were not part of the art world in East or West Germany.
The works of art show us this very clearly.
They give us a different view of Germany
after the Second World War.
We see different things.
And then we start to see things differently.
That is an important part of art in East and West Germany.
The works of art are very powerful.
They show us:
Art can change the world.
Art can give us courage.
Art can give us strength and energy.
Sometimes we have to leave a place:
Because something has changed in that place.
And there is nothing we can do about it.
Then we have to leave.
But we go to a new place.
And that we can change.
The power of art helps us.
That is the message of this exhibition.
