Exhibition of Works from the Collection 2012, Part 1
At the interface between memory and fiction, documentation and narrative, this exhibition is concerned with shifts in the perception, representation and interpretation of the realities of life. Paintings, photographs, objects, audio and video installations form a walkway through the exhibition that gives rise to questions regarding individual and collective self-empowerment as well as social and political determination.
Collections produce various systems of order, and are themselves the subject of reflection (Carola Dertnig, Olaf Nicolai). For the most part, the works shown here are connected with the GfZK’s exhibitions, art prizes and artists’ scholarships. In this way the themes are often context-specific, focusing on the East German past, the division of Germany and the individual and general dimensions of the processes of transformation (Dorit Margreiter, Ilya Kabakov, Sven Johne, Peter Riedlinger). Frontier crossers (A. R. Penck, Blinky Palermo, Imi Knoebel, Erasmus Schröter), and also documentary approaches (Sibylle Bergemann, Thomas Struth, Bernd Cramer) clearly point towards this transition. Again and again, production conditions (Carlfriedrich Claus, Neo Rauch) as well as socially and ideologically determined images of humanity and gender stereotypes (Mandy Gehrt, Rosemarie Trockel) also play a significant role. Throughout the conscious development of the museum’s initial inventory, interest in the latter is reflected in the growing number of works by female artists in the collection.