Conference: Made in the GDR - Visual Culture in the Other Germany
Date: 4 April 2008
Location: 65-68 Park Place
From 1949 until 1990, the eastern part of today’s Germany constituted a separate state from that in the West; it had its own vibrant culture with distinct conditions of artistic production and reception. Amongst several research strengths of the German Department at Cardiff University is a focus on that culture and its historical context.
On 4 April 2008, the department is hosting a one-day conference on GDR visual culture. We look forward to welcoming speakers examining instances of film, painting, sculpture, monuments and graphics, created in the GDR. The term ‘visual culture’ is meant in a wide sense and could embrace such fields as architecture and design.
The conference will be interested in encouraging interdisciplinary discussion about how and why certain images were created in GDR culture and how they came to bear upon that culture in turn. Aspects for discussion include, but are not confined to:
- appropriations of literary culture in GDR visual culture
- relationships between the state’s cultural policy and the visual arts
- comparisons between different generations of visual artists in the GDR
- dialogues with West German visual culture and/or a common heritage
- reception of GDR visual culture after 1990
