Subversive Practices of Alternative Art Galleries in East Germany and Poland of the 1970S
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Transgressing the Borders of Gallery Space: Subversive Practices of Alternative Art Galleries in East Germany and Poland of the 1970s A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2017 Aneta Jarzębska School of Arts, Languages and Cultures List of Contents List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................................. 5 List of Illustrations .................................................................................................................. 6 Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 7 Declaration and Copyright Statement ................................................................................... 8 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ 9 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 1 Space, power and artistic resistance - theoretical framework and methodology ........... 20 1.1. Foucault’s theory of heterotopias and their function in society .................................. 22 1.2. Gallery as a socially produced space ............................................................................. 27 1.3. Gallery’s social space - forms of sociality and social networks ..................................... 31 1.4. On using archival records to write the galleries’ histories ........................................... 35 1.5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 39 Chapter 2 The post-socialist condition and the emergence of alternative exhibition spaces in the GDR and the PRL of the 1970s ............................................................................................ 42 2.1. The GDR and the PRL as post-Stalinist system- a socio-political perspective .............. 43 2.2. Post-Stalinist artistic culture in the GDR and the PRL - ‘liberalisation’ under state surveillance .......................................................................................................................... 49 2.2.1. Socialist Realism and reception of modern art under the post-totalitarian rule ...... 49 2.2.2. New leadership and reorientation in cultural politics in the 1970s .......................... 52 2.2.3. Conceptual and performance art in the PRL and the GDR - subversive, conformist or derivative? ............................................................................................................................ 60 2.3. Alternative exhibition spaces in Poland and East Germany during the 1970s ............. 65 2.3.1. The 1970s phenomenon of galerie autorskie in Poland ............................................ 66 2.3.2. Official vs. unofficial art galleries in the GDR of the 1970s........................................ 71 2.4. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 74 2 Chapter 3 ‘Privately in a public space’ - appropriation of space on Krakowskie Przedmieście 24 as a subversive practice ..................................................................................................... 76 3.1. Discursive construction of the ‘other’ gallery space ..................................................... 78 3.2. Art exhibitions as means of alternating the conception of gallery space in state socialism ............................................................................................................................... 85 3.3. Gallery as a socially ‘lived’ space - strategies of resistance, and compliance to the socialist order ....................................................................................................................... 99 3.4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 108 Chapter 4 Galerie Arkade - a counter-space ‘between political obedience and artistic freedom’…110 4.1. Arkade’s facade as a site of artistic subversion .......................................................... 112 4.2. Discursively constructed gallery space in Arkade catalogues and opening speeches 115 4.2.1. Alternative spaces for ‘other’ art discourse ............................................................. 115 4.2.2. Postkarten & Künstlerkarten - discourse on East German mail-art ......................... 120 4.2.3. Schweinebraden’s attack on the official interpretation of Marxist theories of art 123 4.3. Arkade in the network of non-conformist artists and intellectuals in the GDR ......... 127 4.3.1. The triad Schweinebraden-Werner-Rehfeldt as a centre of cultural dissent .......... 136 4.3.2. Postkarten & Künstlerkarten and mail-art networks ............................................... 140 4.4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 144 Chapter 5 Group actions in Galeria/Repassage (1972-1975) - artistic interventions in the socialist public space .............................................................................................................. 146 5.1. Art Cleaning (1972) - the first attempt to extend the gallery’s space into the public space .................................................................................................................................. 149 5.2. Municipal Repassage - an attempt to produce 'new areas of artistic activity' and the confrontation with the power system ............................................................................... 153 5.3. Different practice of collectivity in the socialist public space - Repassage Wherever in Poland................................................................................................................................. 165 5.4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 170 3 Chapter 6 Arkade pleinairs: artistic ‘deviance’ under Stasi control ................................................. 172 6.1. The state-organised and alternative pleinairs in the GDR .......................................... 174 6.2. Leussow and Gallentin pleinairs: two study cases in spatial transgression................ 179 6.2.1. Arkade pleinairs as producing alternative spaces for performance art in the GDR.. ............................................................................................................................................ 182 6.2.2. Leussow pleinair - subverting the notion of a gallery and of an art object ............. 185 6.2.3. Arkade pleinairs and the production of ‘unregimented’ social space ..................... 191 6.2.4. Gallentin pleinair as a social space connecting non-conformist cultural networks..193 6.3. So far and yet so close - Arkade pleinairs through a Stasi lens .................................. 196 6.4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 201 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 203 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………………………........211 Wordcount 76,337 4 List of Abbreviations BStU Der Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR) BWA Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych (Art Exhibitions’ Bureau) GDR German Democratic Republic IPN Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (National Institute of Remembrance) IM Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter (Unofficial collaborator) MfS Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Ministry of State Security) OV Operativer Vorgang (Operative procedure) PRL Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa (People’s Republic of Poland) PSP Pracownie Sztuk Plastycznych (Fine Arts Studios) PZPR Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (Polish United Socialist Party) SB Służba Bezpieczeństwa (Security Service) SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Socialist Unity Party of Germany Stasi Staatssicherheit (State Security) SZSP Socjalistyczny Związek Studentów Polskich (Polish Socialist Students’ Union TW Tajny współpracownik (Secret collaborator) TVP Telewizja Polska (Polish Television) VBK Verband bildender Künstler (Fine Artists’ Union) ZPAP Związek Polskich Artystów Plastyków (Polish Fine Artists’ Union) 5 List of Illustrations Fig 1. The connection diagram 1 (Verbindungzskizze) attached to MfS 7030/82 Band 1, OV “Arkade”, p. 134 Source: BStU Berlin Fig. 2. The connection diagram 2 (Verbindungsskizze) attached to MfS 7030/82 Band 1, OV “Arkade”, p. 138 Source: BStU Berlin Fig. 3. Map of Arkade’s pleinairs within the GDR territory, p. 181 Souce: Aneta Jarzębska 6 Abstract This thesis constitutes the first comparative study of the phenomenon of alternative art galleries functioning during the 1970s in two neighbouring state socialist regimes, namely, the German Democratic Republic and the People’s Republic of Poland. Firmly contextualised in the cultural-political climate of Honecker’s and Gierek’s quasi- liberalisation, it examines the socio-cultural function of non-conformist exhibition spaces