2023-07-01 06:25:31
HomeCultureSensational Party Photos from the GDR: “The Big Schwof. Celebrations in the East”
The GDR in the 1980s: the music is loud, the food is sumptuous, the alcohol is plentiful, the sex is carefree – according to the curator of the exhibition in Jena.
Suzanne Lenz
From the series “Chic, Charming, Durable” Berlin, 1983-1985: Frank Schäfer and Sven Marquardt (left) at a fashion show by Jürgen Hohmuth
“Let’s go back to a distant land, a bygone time.” The text that Petra Göllnitz wrote for the catalog that accompanies the exhibition she is curating begins with this sentence: “The big swine. Celebrations in the East” in Jena. The distant country is the GDR, the time is the 80s. “It’s a happy and carefree celebration. The music is loud, the food is sumptuous, the alcohol is plentiful, the sex is carefree.” And the country’s most renowned photographers took the pictures. These pictures are a sensation.
Petra Göllnitz worked in the photo department of the magazine, later she worked for Stern for many years. On the one hand, it is about showing and securing this part of the cultural heritage of the GDR. An aspect that has always been underestimated, as she says. She also says that in the West she has been told often enough how she lived in the East. This exhibition also provides an answer to this. It fits in well with the new East German debate that Dirk Oschmann started with his book “The East: A West German Invention”. Here memory is preserved, collective experience. And it is colourful, multi-layered. “The aim was to defend oneself against the overwhelming, expanding gray of every single day,” says photographer Barbara Metselaar Berthold.
image series
From the “Block Chocolate” series, Halle 1989Olaf Martens
In the cloakroom of the Stadthalle in Karl-Marx-Stadt, from the series “Striptease in the East”, 1988/89
Carnival at the Dresden University of Fine Arts, 1984/85/86Werner Lieberknecht
Carnival celebration, Husemannstrasse, Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, 1987Harald Hauswald
“Kabarettgruppe mit absurdem Spektakel”, Makranstädt, August 1989Bertram Kober
Shrove Monday at Café Resi in Weimar, 1980 Claus Bach
Pentecost meeting of the FDJ in the stadium of the Weltjugend, Berlin, 1990 Jens Rötzsch
From the series “Misswahl im Hotel Merkur”, Leipzig, February 1990Andreas Rost
From the series “Clärchens Ballhaus”, Berlin, 1976Sibylle Bergemann/OSTKREUZ
From the “Block Chocolate” series, Halle, 1989Olaf Martens
From the series “Dorfdisco in Beyern”, 1978/79Thomas Kläber
Carnival couple, Erfurt, 1987Bernd Hiepe
Pentecost meeting of the FDJ, show event in the stadium of the world youth in the capital of the GDR, Berlin, 1989Jens Rötzsch
From the series “Berka”, 1977/78Ute Mahler/OSTKREUZ
From the series “Bittersweet in the waiting room”, Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, 1980-1984Barbara Metselaar-Berthold
Pentecost celebration in Oberdorla near Mühlhausen, 1982Wolfgang Gregor
At a punk concert in the Christ Church in Halle in 1983Christiane Eisler
Ad | Scroll to read more
In the 1980s, not only did the facades crumble in the GDR, many people left the country. “During this time, festivals and celebrations played a major role, were essential – something that is very relevant in closed societies.” That’s how Erik Stephan, director of the Jena City Museums, puts it. Celebrations were an outlet, celebrations offered freedom, and some were also farewell parties. Or Saturnalia. With these pictures you penetrate into private areas that you have not seen before. To a booze in the Vogtland, an impromptu party in Weimar.
State and rebel festivals, city and village festivals
More than 300 photographs by 31 artists are on display. Six of them are self-taught, the others studied at the Academy of Visual Arts (HGB) in Leipzig. Seven left the GDR. An unbroken biography has no, no one has. After reunification, not everyone experienced the appreciation they deserved.
Back then they photographed the state festivals, the rebel festivals, the festivals in the city and in the village. “We didn’t rummage through the junk box of history, we found a treasure,” says Petra Göllnitz. But it’s not just about the East for her. It’s about giving each other a little lightness, as she says. “Anyone who goes to this exhibition will remember how they celebrated. We are time travelers together.”
Ten photographers are portrayed in interview films, in which they mainly tell about the time in which they took these photos. At first there was no money for more. Hopefully it doesn’t stop there. The exhibition moves from Jena to Cottbus and Rostock. And then? When will someone bring you west? Because isn’t it still about telling each other our stories?
The big swine. Celebrations in the east Jena Art Collection, Markt 7, until October 15. Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A 224-page catalog will accompany it
#big #swine #Celebrations #East