Symposium: The West did not have to arrive in the East! | Artistic Positions

Film

During this symposium, contemporary witnesses of the 1990s and cultural actors who are active today came together to share their experiences and engage in a mediated exchange about continuities and ruptures. Commemorating the 35th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall, it reflected on how the post 1989/1990 transformations were experienced both individually and collectively.

What was lost? Where was the integration of two systems productive? What influence do the persisting 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? Departing from these questions, the symposium at Hamburger Bahnhof, whose building was located directly next to the Berlin Wall during the division of Germany, created networks and formulated concrete wishes and ideas for the future.