Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank
25 August ‒ 11 December 2022
Museum Nikolaikirche and Museum Ephraim-Palais
16 September ‒ 11 December 2022
From late summer 2022, the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank, together with the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, is showed the exhibition Aufbrüche. Abbrüche. Umbrüche. Kunst in Ost-Berlin 1985‒1995. Both institutions are featuring not only an exciting decade in art but two important art collections in Berlin at the same time. Using examples by 57 artists from the extensive Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank and the inventory of the Stadtmuseum Berlin’s (Berlin City Museum) art collections, the presentation looks back at the lively and diverse art scene in East Berlin before and after the changes brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall. The exhibition can be viewed at three locations: at the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank in Charlottenburg and at two venues of the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin in Mitte, the Museum Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas’ Church Museum) and the Museum Ephraim-Palais.
Paintings, graphics, sculptures and photographs by some 25 artists will be exhibited at the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank. The current art collection (Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank), which comprised works by both West and East Berlin artists and contemporary art from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) even before the Wall came down, started in the mid-1980s. Art of the 1980s and 1990s provides a special focus in this context.
The exhibition on Kaiserdamm traces the origins of this one-of-a-kind collection of figurative art, combining exhibits from past and current acquisitions and loans from the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin. Showcasing nearly 50 works, the exhibition evocatively documents artists’ reflections on a contradictory and eventful decade, new beginnings as well as innovative approaches by women artists.
An extensive catalogue and filmed interviews accompany the exhibition project. In talks, painters Sabine Herrmann, Klaus Killisch and Sabine Peuckert, sculptor Berndt Wilde, photographer Maria Sewcz, draftswoman Uta Hünniger, and graphic artist Manfred Butzmann, recall their experiences before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Artists exhibited at the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank include:
Tina Bara, Annemirl Bauer, Rolf Händler, Sylvia Hagen, Angela Hampel, Sabine Herrmann, Uta Hünniger, Ingeborg Hunzinger, Konrad Knebel, Walter Libuda, Werner Liebmann, Harald Metzkes, Helga Paris, Wolfgang Peuker, Cornelia Schleime, Baldur Schönfelder, Anna Franziska Schwarzbach, Heinrich Tessmer, Hans Ticha, Ulla Walter, Berndt Wilde.
01:05:40 minutes © Stiftung KUNSTFORUM der Berliner Volksbank gGmbH and Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin.
Interview with Sabine Peuckert
00:00:00 till 00:08:18 Minute
Interview with Manfred Butzmann
00:08:19 till 00:19:20 Minute
Interview with Sabine Herrmann and Klaus Killisch
00:19:21 till 00:30:26 Minute
Interview with Berndt Wilde
00:30:27 till 00:42:08 Minute
Interview with Uta Hünniger
00:42:09 till 00:54:05 Minute
Interview with Maria Sewcz
00:54:06 till 01:05:40 Minute
A film to the exhibition Aufbrüche. Abbrüche. Umbrüche. Kunst in Ost-Berlin 1985 — 1995 made by Stiftung KUNTFORUM der Berliner Volksbank gGmbH and the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin with interviews of various artists (with English subtitles)
Production: art/beats, 2022
Duration: 01:05:40 minutes