Elke Pietsch

I have often shown works by photographers in my gallery exhibition programme. Photographs were viewed ambivalently in the GDR because they depicted realities and were not as easy to manipulate back then as they are now. And documentary realities were also dangerous – because of critical attitudes.

In the GDR, “the socialist person” was supposed to be educated, so “there were no obstacles” or anything like that. They were tucked away, not mentioned. The Leipzig photographer Karin Wieckhorst had taken a very close photographic look at people with disabilities – documenting their everyday lives over weeks and months. We showed the photos and of course invited the protagonists, who were then present. There was a lot of talk at the exhibition opening, including about the huge disadvantages faced by disabled people.

Or the photography exhibition by Christiane Eisler, who photographed “Punks in the GDR” very authentically and in different life situations. There was no such thing as punks in the GDR. They weren’t actually allowed to exist at all. Shortly after the exhibition opened, I was summoned to the district leadership of the party at seven in the morning – and I was told that the exhibition had to go immediately. The citizens had complained. Then there was some fake letter. I didn’t take the exhibition down, others were asked to do it. But that caused such an outcry … all the way to Berlin. It was a huge affront to everything. And the chairmen of the Association of Visual Artists and our head of the art trade objected. That was in 1986 and I think that was the last exhibition that was taken down by the state. […]

The entire interview plus photo collection will be available in the Open Feminist Democracy Archive | OfemDA, which is currently being created. See here