Art as promise and fulfilment

1st lecture
Dr Christine Onnen, Head of Inventory and Documentation, Brandenburg State Office for Architectural Conservation and Archaeological State Museum (BLDAM)

Since 2021, the Brandenburg State Office for Architectural Conservation and Archaeological State Museum (BLDAM) has been carrying out recording projects of building-related art from the GDR era. In addition to the industrial locations and socialist planned towns of Schwedt/Oder and Eisenhüttenstadt, the focus is initially on the former district capitals of the GDR. The examination of this extremely rich and diverse stock of state-controlled art is carried out simultaneously from an art historical perspective, focussing on visual language and content, and from a restoration perspective, which focuses on the work techniques and materiality.

2nd lecture
Axel Drieschner, Museum Utopia and Everyday Life, Eisenhüttenstadt

The SED regarded art as a moving force for social development. Building-related art should help shape social spaces and have an impact on people's everyday lives and consciousness. The process of realisation is accompanied by changing models and material and political conditions. In Eisenhüttenstadt, founded almost simultaneously with the GDR, this can be seen in exemplary fashion, although in part a special path was taken. In the 1970s/80s, the efforts to "culturally design" the planned city were greatly intensified by the "patronage" of the municipality. Around one hundred works were brought together in the centre: in addition to monumental wall paintings, mosaics and stained glass windows, now particularly figurative sculptures made of concrete or bronze. The lecture presents important works (such as those by Walter Womacka, Kurt Robbel, Herbert Burschik and Peter Makolies), looks at decision-making processes and asks about the social impact of art in urban space: what does it mean for those who live with it?

Moderation
Prof. Dr Sylvia Claus, BTU, Chair of History of Art
Sophie Thorak, BTU, Chair of History of Art

The lectures are part of the travelling exhibition 70 Years of Art in Architecture in Germany. They are organised by the ZWW in cooperation with the Chair of History of Art and the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning BBR.