The Global GDR - A Transcultural History of Art (1949-1990)

The international and interdisciplinary conference "The Global GDR - A Transcultural History of Art (1949-1990)" is dedicated to a chapter that has received little attention up until now: the manifold connections in the field of art between the GDR and the socialist countries beyond the Eastern Bloc in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These relations manifested themselves in artists' trips and reciprocated study visits, in exhibitions of East German art abroad as well as of non-European art in the GDR, or in artistic representations of the 'foreign' and in primitivisms, which the conference seeks to examine critically. For the first time, the conference systematically brings together existing research in the German-speaking world and expands it to include urgently needed perspectives from the associated countries of that time. The program is organized into the following three main sections:

• Foreign Cultural Policy and Intercultural Encounters
• Transcultural Aesthetics of Socialism
• Transnational networks and art institutions

In order to bridge the gap between scholarly discourse and tangible (but until now little known) artworks in this context, the conference is organized in cooperation with the Academic Heritage of TU Dresden and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD). It will take place simultaneously with the prologue exhibition to the project "Revolutionary Romances" at the Albertinum of the SKD and a workshop at the Art Collection of TU Dresden. The theme of the conference also has high political relevance for the self-understanding of a post-socialist society. This is especially true in Dresden, where the debate about art in the GDR is being conducted with particular vigor. "The Global GDR" aims to provide a critical platform with the goal of negotiating existing narratives concerning art history, society and politics from a transcultural perspective.