25 Years Gallery for Contemporary Art in Leipzig: Interview with Director Franciska Zólyom | free press

2023-05-19 16:37:00

A talk about East-West debates, young visitors and trying to design climate-friendly exhibitions

Art.

The East German art historian Klaus Werner had already formulated the utopia of founding a “founder museum for international and contemporary art” in the GDR. Today, the Gallery for Contemporary Art (GfZK) in Leipzig is a museum with its own collection, two exhibition spaces, a curated café and two hotel rooms designed by artists. Sarah Alberti spoke to director Franciska Zólyom, who was also curator of the German Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, one of the most important international art exhibitions.

Freie Presse: Ms. Zólyom, what is the idea behind the Contemporary Art Gallery?

Zólyom Franciska: The East German art historian Klaus Werner recognized the scope of the changes after 1990 and wanted to play an active role in shaping the transformation with this house for contemporary art. He has invited local and international artists and curators and confronted their work with the local situation. At the same time, he maintained contact with artists who were young at the time, such as Neo Rauch, and bought their works.

Freie Presse: Where is the house positioned in the East-West discourse today?

Zólyom Franciska: We cannot do comprehensive research on art in the GDR, for example. We don’t have the resources for that. But we can work on specific topics and set impulses. I’m thinking of the work “Covergirl: Waspen-Akte” by Tina Bara and Alba d’Urbano, an artistic reaction to the surveillance in the GDR. With art we can follow individual narratives. That’s very important because the image of life in the GDR is often still stereotyped.

Freie Presse: Where does the GfZK stand today?

Zólyom Franciska: In recent years, our audience has steadily gotten younger. Many use the GfZK as a place to do things and write history. You can do research in our library, and discussions and readings take place in the auditorium. Art education is an essential part of our work. From the questions of the visitors, we also develop new work priorities. Many initiatives from Leipzig use the rooms of the GfZK for work meetings. In workshops, connections are made between people who would otherwise not meet.

Free Press: The GfZK currently has 1,500 objects in its collection. Is there a fixed purchase budget?

Zólyom Franciska: No, the purchases depend on donations from the Förderkreis and additional funding. A sign that the Förderkreis has done a great job is that our art depot is full.

Freie Presse: For the anniversary, the GfZK is attempting to create a climate-neutral collection exhibition for the first time with the current show entitled “Things That Were Are Things Again”. Looking ahead and not looking back?

Zólyom Franciska: Klaus Werner also saw the end of lignite mining as an important moment of transformation and raised the question of how GfZK can accompany this process. Now we are showing works by local and international artists who deal with climate in the broadest sense. For example, photos by Inga Kerber on the consequences of the chemicals used in the Vietnam War for natural habitats.

Freie Presse: What restrictions does implementing a climate-neutral exhibition entail?

Zólyom Franciska: There are hardly any restrictions. We have made a selection of works that allows us to turn off the air conditioning completely during the exhibition. We ventilate the rooms mechanically. We built solar panels on the roof that generate electricity for video work. We explain what we do on signs in the exhibition.

Freie Presse: Do you cooperate with climate activists?

Zólyom Franciska: We are part of the “Artist for Future” group and have been working together with “Fridays for Future” for years. The ecological approach has gradually developed from our team. We have largely avoided air travel for several years, which is understood by most artists. Corona has shown that you can do a lot digitally. But you can also save energy by avoiding large amounts of data.

Freie Presse: Since March 2022, the GfZK has made its workshop room available as a meeting place for refugees. How is this “space for you” accepted?

Zólyom Franciska: It is mainly Ukrainian women who use the space. In the beginning, everyday practical information was important. In the meantime, they are shaping the program more. There are artistic and sporting activities, and there are many children involved. Sometimes there are also language courses. The space is designed to be there as long as it is needed.

Freie Presse: The German Pavilion in Venice, which you curated, opened four years ago. What has changed in the course of this for you personally, but also for the GfZK?

Zólyom Franciska: This had an enormous impact on the visibility of the GfZK. It has become permanently inscribed in people’s consciousness as a place where a socially critical concept of art is lived. Projects such as the cooperation with the ASA-FF eV Chemnitz for “Open Process. NSU processing in Saxony” testify to this. Personally, it encouraged me to focus on collaboration – also in contrast to an individual curatorial signature.

Freie Presse: You have been at the GfZK for eleven years. How long do you want to stay?

Zólyom Franciska: Ideally, for as long as is conducive to the home. I still enjoy working at the GfZK very much. The team and the topics we work on motivate me a lot.

The current exhibition “Things That Were Are Things Again” in the gallery for contemporary art in Leipzig, K.-Tauchnitz-Str. 9-11, runs until 2024. » gfzk.de

Zólyom Franciska

The art historian and curator Franciska Zólyom has been director of the Gallery for Contemporary Art (GfZK) Leipzig since 2012. In 2019 she was curator of the German Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. After studying art history, history and Italian language and literature in Cologne and Paris, she was curator at the Museum Ludwig Budapest from 1997 to 1999. After a scholarship at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin (2001 and 2003/4) she headed the Institute of Contemporary Art in Dunaújváros, Hungary. In addition to various honorary posts, she is involved in the development of educational and cultural policy guidelines.