Vernissagen | Wartist

Opening: Simon Menner – Images from the Secret STASI Archives (Berlin)

From 17 January to 3 March 2011, Simon Menner presents “Images from the Secret STASI Archives”¹ within the framework of “Rendezvous mit Kunst” (meeting with art) at Berlin’s restaurant Diekmann. Also in this country, surveillance by images and video is increasingly becoming ubiquitous. But what does “Big Brother” really see? How banal is the “gaze of evil” of an oppressive regime, and how obvious is its terror?

MfS-HA-VIII-Fo-0525-Bild-0002 Giving Secret Signs

Stasi is the short form of “(Ministerium für) Staatssicherheit” ((Ministry for) State Security), the East-German state security service. ↩

“Historical Picture” at Kunstraum t27 (Berlin)

From 11 December 2010, Berlin-based gallery Kunstraum t27 is presenting the group exhibition “Historienbild” (historical painting) within the six-part exhibition series about the various genres of (not just) painting. “Historienbild” has the subject of dealing with history, and interestingly all the works directly or indirectly address war.

Wartist presents: “Memories” by Jürgen Graetz

Berlin, Treptow, Soviet War Memorial, February 1993 (© Jürgen Graetz)

From 29 October 2010, Jürgen Graetz – who grew up in East Germany – will show a selection of his photos in the premises of the Berlin-based political consultancy republik movida GmbH. The exhibition “Erinnerungen” (Memories) is curated by Martin Bayer (Wartist.org), with a welcome address by Lars Lindemann MdB (FDP).

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Opening: “End Time Europe” (Osnabrück)

The Erich Maria Remarque Friedenszentrum (Erich Maria Remarque Peace Centre) in Osnabrück shows from 20 August 2010 onwards the travelling exhibition “Endzeit Europa” (End Time Europe – A Collective Diary of French and German Authors 1914-1918) by the Brandenburgisches Literaturbüro in Potsdam. Private texts by French and German authors will be shown, together with impressive colour photos by the photographers Jules Gervais-Courtellemont and Hans Hildenbrand.

Opening: Extraschrot @ “A Fistfull of Life” (Berlin)

The artist group Extraschrot of Katharina Arndt and Gero Neumeister shows some of their works in another exhibition, this time e.g. the light installation “Vorsprung durch Technik I” (2009; click on the image for an animation).

Opening: The 3rd World in World War II (Osnabrück)

The ambitious exhibition “The Third World in World War II” travels to Osnabrück to the Erich Maria Remarque-Friedenszentrum. A “forgotten chapter in history” is to be illuminated, according to the curators.

African Colonial Soldiers in Boucle du Doubs

Borrowed Plumes: Kunduz, 4 September 2009

Einzelplan 14¹, a well-written German-language blog on defence and security matters, published today about the opening of the exhibition “Kunduz, 4 September 2009” at Kunstraum Potsdam. Unfortunately, we could not attend by ourselves, but the “deputyship” through this article could not have been better.

Kunduz 4 September 2009 © Marcel Mettelsiefen

The name refers to the defence part of the Federal Budget ↩

Opening: Don McCullin – The Impossible Peace (C/O Berlin)

During five decades, photo journalist Don McCullin documented environmental and man-made disasters such as urban unrests, social ills, wars and epidemics. C/O Berlin presents some 150 black-and-white and colour photos from the complete works of McCullin for the first time in Berlin. The retrospective with its sanguine title “The Impossible Peace” looks back to an impressive half-centennial lifework.

Martin Roemers: “Relics of the Cold War” (Berlin)

The exhibit “Relics of the Cold War” of works by the Dutch documentary photographer Martin Roemers will be presented in the Willy-Brandt-Haus in Berlin from 10 November 2009 onwards.

Latvia, former Soviet naval base; © Martin Roemers

Opening: “Manifest Destiny” at Moeller Fine Art (Berlin)

Moeller Fine Art shows in its Berlin gallery the multifaceted group exhibition “Manifest Destiny” with photographs, installations, sculptures, collages and drawings by Mildred Howard (USA), Tom Molloy (Ireland) and Simon Norfolk (Nigeria/UK). The title refers to the homonymous 19th-century-doctrine that was also used to legitimate the territorial expansion of the USA as God’s will.

The North Gate of Baghdad, the scene of fierce fighting, Baghdad 19-27 April 2003 (© Simon Norfolk)