EUROPE WITHOUT WALLS
Art, Posters and Revolution 1989—93
Curators: James Aulich and Tim Wilcox
MANCHESTER CITY ART GALLERIES | Mosley Street | Manchester M2 3JL | 13. Nov. - 16. Jan. 1994
Catalog: 210 pages, 49 color and 174 b/w images, text, 23,8 x 17 cm
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: CZECH REPUBLIC: Anonym + Students of the Academy of Applied Arts and Science, Prague + David Cerny + Michal Cihlar + Jiri David + Svatopluk Klimes + Milan Knizak + Jiri Kovanda + Ales Lamr + Jiri Latal + Antonin Strizek + Jakub Valenlik + Jitka Valova + Kveta Valova — GERMANY: Werner Brunner + Feliks Büttner + Manfred Butzmann + Lex Drewinski + Rainer Fetting + Holger Fickelscherer + Thomas Gubig + Sebastian Köpcke + Hans Haacke + K. H. Hödicke + Josef W. Huber + Achim Jordan + Hartmut Klopsch + York der Knöfel + Dietmar Kirves + Gerhard Lüer + Nel + Karla Sachse + Borislav Sajtinac + Rainer G. Schumacher + Gerhard Seyfried + Margund Smolka + Beate Spalthoff + Michael Sowa + Klaus Staeck + Wolf Vostell + Gerd Wulff + Hanefi Yeter — HUNGARY: Bela Aba + Krystof Ducki + Istvan Orosz + Peter Pocs + Laszlo Haris — LATVIA: Peteris Chivlis — LITHUNIA: Elena & Sigitas Snirai + Gintaras Gesevicus — POLAND: Stasys Eidrigevicius + Eugeniusz Get_stankiewicz + P. Gumper + Piotr Mlodozeniec + Tomasz Sarnecki | ROMANIA: Timotei Nadasan + Students of the School of Fine Arts, Bucharest | RUSSIA: Rashit Akmanow + Yuri Boxer + Alexander Faldin + Sveeytlana Faldina + Konstantin Geraymovich + Grisha Kamenskich + Vilen Karakasev + Andrei Kolosov + L. Kowshansky & M. Sidorowa + Y. Leonow + Igor Maystrovsky + Dimitri Surski & Tatyana Gardashnikova + V. Zavyalov + N. Zhuravleva.
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CATALOG
FRONT | BACK
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CONTRIBUTION
DIETMAR KIRVES | ASSEMBLAGES:
MAIN KEYBOARD | November 9th, 1989:
The 1st Brigade dispensed their keys!
Hohnecker, Eisenhauer, Tarzan, Marx, Tisch, Eichmann, Hegel, Woitila, Kohl, Gromüko,
Kaufmich, Marylin, Highness,Reflexion, Gandhi, Schweinkram, Thatcher, Senfgas,
Mielke, Elvis, Ajatolla, Alles-Spaß, Bush, Batman, Nixon, Wagner und Sysiphos.
Keys from garbage and mixed media, 62 x 52 x 5 cm
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FOREWORD BY RICHARD GRAY | Director, Manchester City Art Galleries
Since the optimistic, even euphoric days of November 1989 when those in the West watched the momentous events in Central and Eastern Europe unfolding on their television screens much has changed in the physical,, economic and psychological map of the continent. This exhibition brings together a wide range of work by artists and graphic artists from Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, Hungary, Romania and elsewhere and it reflects many different viewpoints on the changes - from the optimistic posters which heralded the overthrow of the old regimes and the rise of the new political forces to views which are more sceptical, even cynical. The physical presence of the Berlin Wall itself may have gone but as Marta Sylvestrova puts it in the title of her contribution to this book, there are still 'invisible walls' across central Europe: walls which separate peoples on economic, cultural or religious grounds and which the West does not really see from its perspective of unification and security.
An exhibition of this nature involves a long period of preparation and it has presented special problems because of the rapidity of the continuing changes and the difficulty of keeping up to date with them and of making the exhibition an accurate reflection of history in the making. We have also had to restrict the number of artists represented for reasons of time, money and space and so it leans towards those artists who are or were working in those two cities most associated in the public mind with November 1989 - Berlin and Prague.
Dr. James Aulich of Manchester Metropolitan University has done an excellent job in bringing together all these fascinating works ably assisted by my colleague, Tim Wilcox who has co-selected and organised the exhibition. I would particularly like to thank Professor Diana Donald of the Department of Art and Design at the University for allowing James Aulich the research time, for part-funding that research and for contributing in many other ways. I would also like to thank my colleagues, particularly Howard Smith, Keeper of Art (Exhibitions).
Without the help of three major funders of the exhibition it is doubtful if it would have been possible and I would particularly like to thank the Goethe-Institut Manchester and its director, Dr Gerhard Murjahn who responded so enthusiastically to the proposal when it was presented to him last year. Both he and his staff have been extremely supportive and I would also like to give particular mention to Heidy Kempe-Bottcher and Marcia Rhodes. Visiting Arts have for many years done a very special service in helping to fund exhibitions and other events which bring artists from abroad to this country and we are indebted to them for their support and to Malcolm Hardy who has been so generously committed to the project since its early stages of development. The Soros Center for Contemporary Arts-Prague confirmed an important additional contribution towards the production of this book and I would like to thank Ludvik Hlavacek and Jim McLain for making this possible. Many other individuals and institutions have been generous with their time or their works and I would like to thank all the artists, private lenders and galleries who have made this important and timely exhibition possible.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Page 9 Through the Looking Glass: Visual Expression in Central Europe 1989-93
by James Aulich
Page 73 Signs of the Times - some views on East German art and the artist Manfred Butzmann
by Matthias Flügge
Page 87 Report from Bohemia
by Dr. Marcela Pankova
Page 109 Invisible Walls
by Marta Sylvestrova
Page 129 The Illusion of Art in the GDR
by Christoph Tannert
Page 143 Hungary, Romania., Yugoslavia: The Fine Arts and the Boundaries of Change
by Tom Mulligan
Page 159 The Stunners and After
by Tomas Pospiszyl
Page 173 Russia's Early Nineties: The Graphics of the Street
by Serge Serov
Page 179 The Lenin Statue in Berlin
by Dr. Maria Riiger
Page 189 Coming in From the Cold:
Images of the East European revolutions in the British news media
by Gregory McLaughlin
Page 201 Timetable of Events
Page 206 Selected Bibliography
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