Symposium on 8 and 9 November 2024 at Hamburger Bahnhof Examining the Consequences of 1989/1990 for Art

08.10.2024
Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart

The symposium at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart on 8 and 9 November 2024 entitled “The West did not have to arrive in the East!” is dedicated to examining the consequences of 1989/1990 for art.

Protagonists from various fields, such as art academies, the art market, funding structures, museums and artistic practice will present and discuss the consequences of these transformations for the art world in front of a broad audience on the 35th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall. Andrea Pichl’s solo exhibition Values of Economy, which opens on 7 November 2024, the day before the symposium, is also dedicated to exploring this topic from an artistic perspective.

During the two-day symposium, contemporary witnesses of the 1990s and cultural actors who are active today will come together to share their experiences and engage in a productive exchange about continuities and ruptures. The central questions are: How did the protagonist individually experience the transformation after 1989? What was lost? Where was the integration of two systems productive? How do artists relate to the history of the GDR and the period of transformation? What influence do economic structures have? Is there an East German art scene today? And if so, what characterizes it? How is the institutional art scene in the East organized? And how visible are curators and artists with an Eastern biography in institutions?

Building on these questions, the symposium at Hamburger Bahnhof, whose building was located directly next to the Berlin Wall during the division of Germany, aims to create networks and formulate concrete wishes and ideas for the future.

• Further information and programme