Image: Claus Bach, from the portfolio: Head Body, 1990/1991, C-Print © Claus Bach
The Brandenburgisches Landesmuseum für moderne Kunst (BLMK) will open ‘Ungebremste Selbstbewegungen. Kunst mit Fotografie in der DDR’ at the Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus on 28 August 2026, with the exhibition on view from 29 August to 15 November. The collection-based presentation examines experimental photographic practices developed in the German Democratic Republic during the 1980s, focusing on artists who moved beyond established documentary and photographic conventions.
The exhibition draws on the BLMK’s photographic collection as well as loans. The museum describes its photography holdings as the only museum collection for photography founded in the GDR. Developed through collection and acquisition strategies from the 1970s onward, the holdings include both the GDR’s so-called ‘author photography’ and a significant body of experimental work.
Rather than treating photography solely as a means of recording existing reality, the exhibition presents practices that altered, distorted, questioned or reimagined the medium’s relationship to reality. The BLMK’s description connects these works with actions, performances and interventions, as well as with exploratory and deliberately anti-aesthetic approaches. Some works emerged through unpredictable processes, while others used serial or systematic structures.
The exhibition places these practices within the cultural conditions of the 1980s GDR. The museum’s English-language presentation describes the period’s experimental work as an ‘alternative GDR photography’ and a ‘photography from below’, associated with subcultural developments in ‘art using photography’. Such work was frequently circulated through privately produced photographic portfolios and semi-legal magazines. The BLMK also notes that artists working within non-conformist art, particularly those using photography in expanded ways, remain comparatively underrepresented in public awareness.
Artists represented include Claus Bach, Tina Bara, Micha Brendel, Kurt Buchwald, Irene Fischer, Thomas Florschuetz, Else Gabriel, Rainer Görß, Klaus Hähner-Springmühl, Wolf Kahlen, Evelyn Krull, Matthias Leupold, Olaf Martens, Maix Mayer, Cornelia Schleime, Erasmus Schröter, Heike Stephan and Gabriele Stötzer, among others. A work highlighted by the museum is Claus Bach’s ‘Kopfkörper’ portfolio from 1990–91, presented as C-prints. The full list also includes Lieberknecht/Stoy, York der Knoefel, Erhard Monden and Andreas Seeliger.
The exhibition concept is being developed by external curator Christoph Tannert. In Cottbus, it is curated with Carmen Schliebe, the BLMK’s curator for the photography collection. The BLMK is producing both the exhibition and an accompanying catalogue. Following its presentation at the Dieselkraftwerk, the exhibition is planned to travel to Stadtgalerie Kiel, where it is scheduled to run from 12 December 2026 to 20 February 2027.
The opening at the Dieselkraftwerk, Uferstraße/Am Amtsteich 15, Cottbus, begins at 7pm on 28 August, with free admission, a welcome and introduction scheduled for 7:30pm. During the exhibition’s Cottbus presentation, the museum lists opening hours as Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 7pm.
