GDR: Ostalgia & Paranoia
‘As far as I know it comes into force now... with immediate effect (...) permanent emigration can take place via all GDR border crossings to the FRG and West Berlin.’
These words by Politburo member Schabowski led, probably unintentionally, to one of the most seminal moments in recent history: the fall of the Berlin Wall, twenty years ago. It was the deathblow that ended a long process of decline. It marked the downfall of a bankrupt system that was founded on fear, telephone tapping and mass surveillance, but which had become customary to the inhabitants of this bizarre social Utopia. Gemak looks at life before and after the Wende, through an exhibition with work by Dora García and Maix Mayer, and a programme of activities featuring lectures and debate.
The project Zimmer, Gespräche by Dora García (b. in Valladolid, Spain, 1965) and part of the work of Maix Mayer (b. in Leipzig, former GDR, 1960) focuses on life in East Germany before and after the Wende. A recurring theme of Maix Mayer’s oeuvre is architecture as the symbol of an idealistic Weltanschauung. A touch of melancholy intermingled with humour predominates in his photos of Utopian DGR-era buildings, which he contrasts with photos of Asian architecture. The photographs of Maix Mayer take a melancholy yet humorous look at Utopian GDR and other architecture, while García takes as her theme the blackest and also the most absurd aspect of life in the GDR: the continual surveillance of everything and everybody.
Dora García was given special access to the image archive of the Stasi, East Germany’s Staatssicherheitsdienst (State Security Service). Using photos and films from the archive, García created her own personal reconstruction of the past. By means of six photo series featuring, amongst others, punk rockers and naturists, ten films from the archive, including footage of Alexanderplatz a few days before the fall of the Wall, and one entirely fictional film, Zimmer, Gespräche, Dora García constantly wrong-foots the viewer. Thus she brings the paranoia of that society uncomfortably close to home, while at the same time revealing the stupidity of the system.
Grey, monolithic and boring are among the more positive descriptions of GDR architecture; as far as buildings are concerned, our picture of East Germany is still very much intact. The artist Maix Mayer, himself born in East Germany, takes a more nuanced approach, however. His wide-ranging work entails a search for the original Communist ideals inspiring such architecture and the message that the authorities sought to convey through it. In his portrayal of these buildings, he reveals an unexpected beauty. He reconstructs a high-tech, futuristic garden shed intended to enhance the lives of ordinary people. He films and photographs avant-garde buildings by 1960s architect Ulrich Müther, now falling into decay, and contrasts them with images of a modern – but equally desolate – holiday camp in Thailand; the resemblance is striking.
The exhibition will feature an extensive programme of activities with lectures and debate. The focus will be on the GDR and the fall of the Wall, events that will be viewed by means of various themes and from different perspectives.
Maix Mayer, Haneu 2, 2004, Lamdaprint, 149 x 204 cm, courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin.
Dora Garcìa, Alexanderplatz, 2006, ed.video BstU Archief