The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) is once again giving a stage to action art from the GDR era. The focus is on the Erfurt artists' group founded in 1984 and the Autoperforationsartisten group founded in Dresden in 1982 with four students from the local art academy, the SKD announced.
"With their actions, costumes and physical productions, non-conformist female artists in Erfurt and Dresden set themselves apart from the state-sponsored art scene in the GDR in the 1980s, found new forms of expression and created spaces of resistance and self-determination," it said.
The collaboration between the painter Christine Schlegel and the dancer Fine Kwiatkowski will also be explored. Costumes by the Erfurt group, which were staged as part of fashion object shows, performances and Super 8 films, form the starting point of the show. In filmed interviews, some of the artists talk about their thoughts and memories of the action art with which they dealt with socially critical issues.
The exhibition entitled "Out of line. Women Action Artists in the GDR" runs from May 17 to August 31 at the Albertinum in Dresden.
